Courts uphold housing limits

The Indiana Supreme Court upheld a Bloomington city ordinance Tuesday that limits the number of people living in the same house.\nThe ordinance prohibits more than three unrelated residents from living together in parts of the city designated as single-family areas. \nThe Bloomington Planning Department classifies neighborhoods in Bloomington as single-family or multi-family. In multi-family areas, up to five unrelated residents can live together.\nThe ordinance has the biggest effect on students living in the area south of Second Street and east of Walnut Street. The zoning for that area is nearly 90 percent single-family. \nThe district encompassed by Indiana Ave., College Ave., 10th Street and Second Street is zoned mainly as multi-family. \nJunior Brian Gessler lives in a house with three others near Swain Avenue. Gessler said the law is unfair because it takes away students' rights. He and his roommates save money by living together, he said.\n"It splits up utilities and keeps rent down quite a bit," Gessler said.\nTuesday's unanimous ruling ends a seven year legal battle between the City of Bloomington and a local landlord, Peter Dvorak, who was sued by the city in 1996 for over-occupancy on his property. Dvorak claimed the ordinance, enacted in 1986, violated the privileges and immunities clause of the Indiana constitution.\nIn siding with the city, the Supreme Court justices said Dvorak and his attorneys did not convincingly prove that the ordinance was unconstitutional. \nDvorak could not be reached for comment.\nAccording to the Bloomington Department of Housing and Neighborhood Development, over 30 complaints of over-occupancy have been reported in each of the last two years. \nPhil Worthington, a resident of the Garden Hills Neighborhood, said he is relieved the case has been resolved.\nWorthington said he supports the ordinance because it helps reduce noise, trash, traffic and keeps density levels down. \nWorthington said the ordinance is not anti-student. Students dominate the single-family areas anyway, he said.\n"This is a garden variety zoning ordinance," Worthington said. "It exists in thousands of communities across the country that aren't college towns." \nThe Indiana Court of Appeals had ruled in favor of Dvorak in February of 2000.\n-- Contact senior writer Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.