More than 1,000 new beds will be added at Colorado State University over the next 18 months or so and plans are in the works for even more.

That is roughly a 20 percent increase in the number of on-campus beds that will be available for students. New off-campus apartments also are now under construction.

Keeping up with CSU housing needs has proven to be a challenge – and opportunity. Enrollment at the university was approximately 27,000 during the fall semester, up from 24,500 in the preceding semester. Projections show enrollment rising to as much as 35,000 over the next 10 years.

It doesn't help that multi-family housing is scarce in Fort Collins.

In the fourth quarter, the city's vacancy rate for multi-family residences was just 3 percent, the lowest in the state, according to the Colorado Division of Housing. The rate was even lower in the northwest portion of town surrounding the CSU campus, at 1.2 percent.

Student housing is further complicated by the fact that not all multi-family complexes allow students. Fort Collins' "3-unrelated" law, which restricts the number of unrelated people living together to three, also creates difficulties.

In the interest of finding