GREENVILLE — With nearly half of all residences in Greenville being listed as rental units, the City Council is again considering the implementation of a rental inspection program.

Assistant City Manager John Adel proposed the plan during Thursday’s all day workshop session of the Council. Although similar attempts have met opposition in the past, Adel said the idea was to make the current approach less of a burden on those landlords who are doing what they are supposed to do, by maintaining their properties.

“While we will get some pushback from some of our landlords, I think we are hearing some support from our citizens,” Adel said.

As of the end of 2007, Adel said 4,235 of the 9.208 total residences in Greenville, 45.9 percent, were listed as rental units, Adel said the numbers have increased since then and are believed to be getting closer to 50 percent.

Adel said there is a problem with some rental properties — single family homes, apartments, condos and duplexes — not being kept up to code, while still being leased out to tenants. He proposed three levels of certification.

— Exempt properties would be those 10 years old or newer, with no reported code violations and which may already be inspected to qualify for state or federal subsidies. Those properties would only be required to register with the city, would not have to pay a fee and would only be subject to fees or regulations if they are reported for certain code violations.

— Self-certification properties would be older residences which do not have a history of outstanding code violations, where the applicants would complete and fill out a worksheet affirming they had completed their own inspections. Registration would be required, a minimal fee would be involved and the property would be subject to regular inspections only if code violations were reported by the residents.

— Program certification properties were those found to be ineligible for, or which had been removed from, the other classifications. The properties would be required to register, be subject to escalating fees based on the number of violations found and would be under annual inspections by city staff.

Adel said the idea was to make the program self-funding.

“We hope to be able to do this without new staff, at least initially,” Adel said. “We really want to utilize technology.”

Council member Dan Perkins noted how the majority of the rental properties in Greenville are likely older than those in other communities, such as McKinney or Frisco.

“And the older they are, the more they need to be maintained,” Perkins said.

Mayor Tom Oliver asked whether those conducting the inspections could work with the police department in battling crime in some locations, an idea which concerned Council member Doug Roszhart.

“I don’t want the rental inspection program to do illegal searches and seizures,” Roszhart said. “I want to make sure this is just a rental inspection program.”

But Oliver said other cities have rental inspectors who work alongside law enforcement in addressing issues in high crime areas.

“It is incumbent on the City Council to use every tool possible to reduce the level of crime in the north part of town and all over town,” Oliver said.

City Manager Steven Alexander said the proposal might not sit well with some owners of rental property.

“I expect this to be controversial again,” Alexander said.

But Perkins believes the plan is fair to all concerned.

“This is so much less burdensome and so much more landlord friendly, it is incredible,” Perkins said.