Villanova University Is Growing. Radnor's Rental Rules Decide What That Means Next Door.

In Radnor Township, a single-family house rented to students near Villanova's campus has an expiration date that won't show up on the listing. If the house is a legal nonconforming student rental, a use that predates the current rules, the owner can keep renewing its license only until the property goes more than one year without student tenants. Separately, the same section bars any new license that would put more than two student tenants within 1,000 feet of another student rental.

This matters more this fall than it has in years. Villanova opened its 112-acre Cabrini Campus in Radnor in August 2026, and it plans to keep growing. For anyone comparing streets near campus, the question is whether that growth brings more student renters onto residential blocks. In Radnor, the answer depends less on demand than on a 2011 zoning section and a rental-licensing chapter that together keep the student-rental map largely where it already is.

The one-year clock in Radnor's rental code

Radnor's rental-licensing chapter requires an owner to get a township license before signing or extending any lease. For a single-family house, the owner has to disclose how many student tenants will live there and tell the township right away if that number changes. The code also directs the township's department to keep records of where student tenants live. Then comes the provision that shapes a sale. Here is Radnor Code § 226-7E in full:

"Upon the effective date of this article, no license or renewal of a license shall be granted, nor shall any change in occupancy within a rental unit be permitted, if such license, renewal of license, or change in occupancy shall cause the number of student tenants residing within a one-thousand-foot radius of another student tenant rental unit to exceed two students; provided, however, that where such rental unit exists as legal nonconforming use, the owner of that property shall be entitled to apply for renewal of a license until such time as the property is not occupied by student tenants for a period in excess of one year."

The next subsection, § 226-7F, does the same for two-family dwellings. It bars licensing a two-family unit for student tenants, with a similar one-year renewal provision for legal nonconforming units. The whole provision exempts multifamily dwellings, apartment houses, dormitories and on-campus housing.

The code ties the renewal right to continuous student occupancy. It doesn't tie it to who owns the house. That puts three situations in play when one of these houses changes hands:

1. A buyer plans to live in the house. The renewal right in § 226-7E lasts only until the property goes more than a year without student tenants.
2. A buyer plans to keep renting to students. The same one-year language applies to any gap in student occupancy, including one that falls during a sale or a renovation.
3. A neighbor lives near a grandfathered rental. The spacing rule governs any new license sought near another student rental.

How those provisions apply to a particular address is a question for Radnor Township and a land-use attorney. The pattern built into the text is clear, though: the code allows legacy student rentals to lapse and limits new ones from replacing them.

Why new student homes are rare in Radnor

The other half of the system is zoning. Radnor added § 280-115.2 on March 14, 2011, through Ord. No. 2011-10. It allows a "student home" only by special exception, in the R-1 through R-6 and PA districts, and only in a lawful single-family dwelling. The conditions stack up quickly:

• No student home within 1,000 feet of another student home's property line
• No more than two people living in the house
• At least 1,500 square feet of living area, not counting basement, garage or accessory buildings
• Two paved off-street parking spaces at the side or rear, on top of the parking normally required
• A 10-foot buffer along the rear and side lot lines, plus landscaping and noise abatement the township accepts
• Conduct rules at least as strict as the university's on-campus dormitory rules
• An annual township license, and the special exception expires unless the house is licensed and occupied as a student home within six months

The code explains the two-person cap directly, stating that more occupants "would tend to create an institutional atmosphere that would threaten the residential character of the subject zoning district." A two-tenant house with extra parking and buffering requirements is a hard rental to make pay. Add the 1,000-foot radius, and the code leaves little room for new student homes on Radnor's single-family streets, however much demand there is.

More students, more campus beds

Demand is rising. The Inquirer reported on Aug. 10, 2026 that Villanova plans to grow its undergraduate enrollment from about 7,000 to 8,000 over four years, a process that started this fall with about 250 additional freshmen. The same article reported that about 900 sophomores, roughly half the class, now live at Cabrini, which raises the share of undergraduates living on Villanova's campuses above 80%.

Villanova's opening announcement describes six residence halls and one apartment-style building at Cabrini, with Wildcat Shuttle routes connecting the two campuses. The Inquirer put the distance at 1.9 miles, served by 13 shuttle buses, with about half of Cabrini residents allowed to have cars.

The arithmetic runs against the obvious story. Our estimate from the Inquirer's rounded figures: if the on-campus share holds at 80% when enrollment reaches 8,000, about 1,600 undergraduates would live off campus. In 2012, the Inquirer reported that Villanova guaranteed housing to 4,400 freshmen, sophomores and juniors while about 2,000 students lived elsewhere. At the time, the university proposed housing about 85% of undergraduates to reduce traffic and student cars in Radnor neighborhoods. A bigger university doesn't automatically mean more students living on nearby streets.

Radnor has seen this before. In 2014, the township approved Villanova's Lancaster Avenue housing project, described as housing nearly 1,200 students who then lived off campus and drove to school. The Inquirer's report on that approval listed conditions including no amplified music or excessive noise from dorm windows facing homes, Villanova paying part of the cost of new traffic signals, a fence along Lancaster Avenue and a landscaping buffer plan.

The Lower Merion side has a different rulebook

Villanova straddles two townships, and a house on the Lower Merion side falls under a different system. Lower Merion rewrote its Chapter 75 rental-licensing rules in full on Oct. 16, 2024, through Ord. No. 4297.

Sources: Radnor § 226-7, Radnor § 280-115.2, Lower Merion Chapter 75, Lower Merion § 155-2.1.

Lower Merion also requires written leases that list every authorized tenant and the total permitted occupancy, plus a current tenant affidavit with each application. An owner-occupied house doesn't need a student-rental license as long as no more than two unrelated people, besides the owner's immediate family, live there. Radnor controls where student rentals can exist. Lower Merion controls how many people live in each one. Two houses with the same Villanova address can carry very different rental rules depending on which side of the township line they sit.

What happened in Tredyffrin

Neighboring Tredyffrin Township has had more trouble with student rentals this year. In May 2026, 6abc reported that residents near Mt. Pleasant Avenue blamed student-rented homes for noise, late-night activity, rideshare traffic and speeding. Villanova told the station that off-campus students remain subject to its student conduct code and that it follows up on reports from municipalities. By September, the Inquirer reported that Tredyffrin had adopted an ordinance aimed at landlords. It allows inspections where over-occupancy is suspected and discipline for landlords after three violations.

Tredyffrin isn't a township without rules. The Inquirer reported that its first student housing ordinance, adopted more than a decade ago, capped households at three students and kept student houses from being too close together, but the properties along Mount Pleasant were grandfathered. In other words, the trouble spot was a cluster of grandfathered houses, the same category of property that Radnor's one-year provision allows to lapse over time.

Rosemont is next

The next change to Villanova's footprint is already scheduled. Villanova and Rosemont College announced their merger agreement on March 31, 2025. According to Villanova's transition FAQ, Villanova takes over Rosemont's administrative operations on May 31, 2027. Rosemont will award its own degrees through spring 2028, with final approvals expected by mid-2028, and the campus will be known as Villanova University, Rosemont Campus. The Inquirer reported that the 58 acres will bring Villanova to 430 acres in total. Whatever Villanova builds there, nearby houses in Radnor will face the same spacing rules and the same one-year lapse provision.

FAQ

Does a house's current student-rental status carry over to the next owner? In Radnor, a legal nonconforming student rental can keep renewing its license until the property goes more than a year without student tenants, under § 226-7E. What that means for a specific property is a question for the township and your attorney.

Can I rent a room in my Lower Merion home to a student? Lower Merion's Chapter 75 exempts an owner-occupied unit from student-rental licensing when no more than two unrelated people, besides the owner's immediate family, live there.

Did the Cabrini Campus add student rentals to the area? Cabrini added campus beds for about 900 sophomores, and the Inquirer reported that it raised the share of undergraduates living on Villanova's campuses above 80%.

This post is general information about township rules, not legal or financial advice. Before acting on any of it, confirm how the rules apply to a particular property with the township and the right professional.

If you're weighing a house near campus, or selling one with a student-rental history, the license record matters as much as the floor plan. Jordan Arnold can help you work out what a property's history means for your sale or purchase. Request a free home valuation or schedule a confidential consultation.