Limited occupancy law vetoed

Parked cars clogging the streets. Loud parties until early in the morning. Irresponsible tenants.\nThese are the concerns of some Bloomington homeowners due to an ordinance being overturned by the Indiana Court of Appeals on how many people can live under the same roof.\nA lawsuit was filed against Peter Dvorak who let five unrelated students live in his rental property, violating a Bloomington zoning ordinance that stated no more than three unrelated people may live together.\nThe court ruled the ordinance violated Indiana's Constitution, concerning some Bloomington residents that this will entice more IU students to live outside of campus rather than in the University's dormitories or apartments.\n"I really think that the ordinance that the judge struck down was really a beneficial ordinance," said President of the Bryan Park neighborhood association Bill Hayden. Hayden is concerned with masses of students coming into Bloomington's residential areas and disturbing the peace.\n"There's the issue of somewhat drunk undergraduate students, standing on their porches, shouting at the top of their voices and there's people that have to get up at six in the morning to drive to Indianapolis," Hayden said. "Another issue is the parking issue."\nHayden believes if landlords can let as many people live on their properties as possible, the streets could become clogged with cars.\n"If you've got five cars for every house, it's going to be a mess," Hayden said.\nPhil Worthington, president of Garden Hills neighborhood association, agrees with Hayden.\n"We were just beginning to address these problems effectively, and we had a long way to go and this is all we needed," Worthington said.\nWorthington, who currently has college students living in his neighborhood, believes trash and noise, along with parking, could become problems if landlords pack as many tenants as possible into their properties.\n"There's very little accountability," Worthington said. "There's no one around to help with the situation. Over-occupancy is very, very difficult to enforce."\nAlong with immediate repercussions with students moving away from campus comes future problems with potential homeowners coming to the area, Worthington believes.\n"Our ability to retain homeowners and attract new homeowners has been further damaged," Worthington said.\nTim Mayer, a city council member at-large, believes the lack of the ordinance will negatively affect Bloomington's communities around campus.\n"It is generally students who move into campus neighborhoods," Mayer said. "It's just a fact of life.\n"If people live responsibly, then nobody cares. If the landlord doesn't communicate directly with the tenant, that's where the problem starts."\nBut Peter Dvorak, one of the landlords taken to court by the city for over-occupancy is not too worried about Bloomington communities.\n"I do not think that the sky is falling," Dvorak said. \nDvorak wants the city to do more in the future to avoid legal issues such as this. \n"I would hope that the city would be a little more wise in passing laws of dubious legality and constitutionality on the assumption that no one is going to have the resources to challenge it."\nHeidi Smith, manager of the new Sterling University Glen apartment complex on the east side of Bloomington, said plans to build the complex would not have been affected by the repeal of the ordinance. \nSmith said Sterling University conducts market research in the areas they plan to build to get an understanding of the residents likes and dislikes. This causes some Sterling University apartments in other towns to be built differently than others.\n"There are some properties that do have four bedrooms, but we do not have any, and I'm glad we don't," Smith said.\nWorthington would like to see the University step up to help control what is happening within the community.\n"The perfect compromise would be freshman and sophomore mandatory residency," Hayden said. "The problem with addressing these issues is that you're labeled anti-student"