Merrillville residents are voicing concern about single-family homes being divided into apartments.
Bryon Mesarch worries that a three-unit home in his neighborhood will lead to traffic problems. "At what point in time are we going to get a code enforcement officer to come out and say, 'Hey, this is not right'?" Mesarch asked the town council last week.
He said if people are going to rent out their homes, the landlords need to be held accountable.
Clerk-Treasurer Eric January agreed, saying multi-family homes in single-family zones drive down property values and pose safety hazards. "The moment that there is a fire, it's a potential fatality," January said. "Somebody is going to die because they have drywall versus bricks, it wasn't coded properly. This is something that's going on throughout the town of Merrillville, and we've got to crack down on this type of crap."
But Police Chief Kosta Nuses said code enforcement officers are limited by federal and local laws. "As far as shutting it down, that's not an option that we do have via code enforcement," Nuses explained.
He said town officials could discuss the issue further and come up with a plan.