Not everyone who lives in the TCU area is a TCU student. Many families and other homeowners also call the area home, and unlike students, tend to stay longer than two to three years.

So it’s understandable the Paschal Neighborhood Association wants to put a cap on the number of student-friendly duplexes in the area by new zoning ordinances.

Encouraging more families to move in the area by providing more single-family homes will encourage people who move into the neighborhood with the intention of staying, consequently building a more stable community. In return, a more stable community will make a more stable neighboring environment for TCU students.

But is now really the right time to make an already difficult house-hunting process for off-campus students even more so? Right now, there may be plenty of duplexes in the Paschal area to go around, but with the demand for off-campus housing increasing and likely to continue increasing for the next few years, this may soon not be the case.

Many TCU students who did not want to or did not have the chance to live on campus this year already remember the headaches that come with trying to find good, affordable, off-campus housing, and this may only serve to make that headache a migraine.

The Paschal area is a strategic location for many TCU students because it offers reasonably-priced homes close to school. By limiting the number of duplexes available, the Paschal Neighborhood Association may be losing out on a potentially large group of residents.

The neighborhood association and the city of Fort Worth should have taken the needs of students into account while making this decision and made a choice that gave more housing opportunities to students.

Features editor Valerie Hannon for the editorial board.