Neighbors complain about business in residential neighborhood
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- South Bend Code Enforcement officers are looking into a house on North Edison that is in an area zoned as residential, but is being used for a business.
Residents on North Edison say the house is becoming a real nuisance.
Residents were afraid to go on camera but said they are pretty sure someone is running a business out of the home because there are always cars parked all over the property.
"They are parked everywhere, wherever they can squeeze in. Usually there's cars out in the street too," said one neighbor.
They said it appears someone is running a used car lot.
South Bend inspector Jim Wood says code enforcement was recently notified of the issue.
"It sounds like it's going to be a scrapping issue and perhaps an automotive repair issue," said Wood.
Both of those uses are illegal in a residential neighborhood.
"You can't work on a vehicle for profit or have people come into a neighborhood delivering their cars or tow trucks showing up dropping off cars. You can't do that in a residential area," said Wood.
Wood says code enforcement in the process of warning the people running this operation.
If the violations are not fixed within 10 days, they will be fined $50.
"Then after a ten day period if it still has not been corrected it will bump up to $100. And in ten days $200. From there it bumps up in $300 increments so they do add up and it could eventually end up in court," said Wood.
Wood says it's a fairly common problem in South Bend, but it can be hard to track.
"Sometimes they will fly by night or on the weekends trying to avoid us, but we can still rely on other departments to have evening eyes out there," said Wood.
Woods says the bottom line is simple-you cannot generate business traffic in a residential neighborhood.
Wood says someone called a tip in about the property to 3-1-1. He says you can do the same thing if you know of someone running a business in a residential area without the proper permits.