11-1041 Harvey v. Town of Merrillville

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Civil Rights
Equal protection

Summary judgment was properly granted to a town on claims that it treated homeowners in a subdivision were discriminated against because of their race.

“[S]everal portions of the record to which they point seemingly undermine their contentions. Madison Meadows, the subdivision the Southmoor residents were contesting, was slated to consist of mostly duplexes and was zoned R2 and R3, see R.528-6, while the contested Innsbrook expansion comprised exclusively single-family homes in an R2 zone, see R.541-8. The record does support the contention that both sets of residents objected during the preliminary approval process, but the residents neglect to mention that the Town deferred its approval of the Innsbrook expansion and granted them a private meeting to address their concerns about the development before taking up the issue at a subsequent zoning meeting. See R.541-8; 542-1; 542-4. No residents raised objections to the development at that subsequent meeting, see R.542-1, or at the meeting during which the Innsbrook expansion was given the final go-ahead, see R.528-2. The Southmoor residents, over whose objections the Town granted conditional preliminary approval without any such deferral or private meeting, seem to have been treated less favorably than the Innsbrook residents in this regard. Moreover, the record reveals that Southmoor does not even contain a retention pond, the ostensible font of all the Innsbrook residents’ troubles.”

Affirmed as modified.

11-1041 Harvey v. Town of Merrillville

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Van Bokkelen, J., Tinder, J.

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