After learning a man seeking approval to operate a used car lot in the 7500 block of U.S. 30 pitched the plan to other elected officials, members of the Merrillville Town Council denied his request and reprimanded him.
“I have a problem. You went to two other people to try to get the planning department to change its rules. One is an elected official in Hobart and the other a Lake County official. That’s totally disrespectful to us,” Council President Richard Hardaway, D-2nd, told petitioner Tom Dres. Hardaway did not name the other two officials.
Dres sought a special exception to operate the used car lot in the location previously housing a dealership. The lot is now vacant.
The proposal was recommended by the Board of Zoning Appeals with the stipulation that there be no additional paving on the property.
Hardaway and council members Roxanne LaMarca, D-7th, Jeffrey Minchuk, D-3rd and Donald Spann, D-1st, voted no. Councilwomen Chrissy Barron, D-5th, and Margaret Uzelac, D-4th, voted in favor and Councilman Shawn Pettit, D-6th, was absent.
Barron said she voted yes because she acted to bring it to a vote before Hardaway spoke. Uzelac said she was supporting a new business.
“I expect you to work with the town council,” she told Dres.
But Hardaway told Dres he tried to undermine the council, which he believed was disrespectful.
“If you do that to get in the door, what else would you do,” Hardaway asked.
Dres said he didn’t mean to be disrespectful.
In other matters, the council approved a new sign for The Chateau banquet facility in the 500 block of West 61st Avenue, and a request by Fabian Diaz Reyna to open a Tae Kwon Do training center in the 2400 block of U.S. 30.
The council also allowed John Borucki and John “Skip” Bosak additional residential lots in their Heritage North subdivision, located behind Bosak Motors on U.S. 30 and Taney Place. The developers want to convert 10 duplex lots into single-family residential lots.
Karen Caffarini is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
