SOUTH PORTLAND — The Affordable Housing Committee has issued a report urging the city to take steps that would promote rental housing development, but it stopped short of recommending rent control or eviction restrictions intended to protect apartment dwellers in a tight rental market.

The committee voted overwhelmingly against both rent control and eviction restrictions because of concerns about their legality, feasibility and whether they would improve or worsen housing affordability, according to the report posted last week on the city’s website.

The committee did recommend implementing aspects of the city’s master plan that would increase allowed housing units and decrease required parking spaces. It also recommended amending zoning regulations that would allow homeowners to add attached or detached “accessory dwelling units” in residential and multi-family neighborhoods.

During a workshop Monday, some city councilors questioned the committee’s recommendations, focusing on those that would encourage construction of market-rate apartments. Assistant City Manger Josh Reny explained that the committee’s goal was to increase the overall rental housing supply in the face of widespread demand at every income level.

“We really need to look at the housing market as a whole,” said Reny, who is a committee member. “This isn’t simply a low-income issue. There are people that are at 100 percent of median income making more than $50,000 a year who are also insecure with respect to housing.”

Mike Hulsey, a committee member who is executive director of the South Portland Housing Authority, supported the recommendations as a way to address waiting lists for subsidized housing, especially those that would allow greater density in housing projects and let developers know their efforts are welcome in the city.

“Creating more units, whether they’re market or whether they’re affordable, will help,” Hulsey said.

The council appointed the committee in March to review the quantity, accessibility and affordability of rental housing in the city.

Councilors asked the committee to flesh out its recommendations and provide a formal legal opinion on rent control and an extended eviction notice period. It also asked for an update on the work of Portland’s Housing Committee, which is reviewing a variety of issues related to the area’s tight rental market, including rent control.

Portland’s city attorney issued a memo in July warning that adopting ordinances to protect renters – whether through rent control or restricting mass evictions – could be fraught with legal and logistical challenges. Portland’s Housing Committee is scheduled to revisit the matter on Wednesday.