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Committee Chair Broden responded that's great. <br />Councilmember Karen White thanked Mr. Cain for his presentation and stated it was very <br />informative. The South Bend Tribune had a recent article about the downtown public library and <br />the impact of Smart Streets. She asked Mr. Cain to outline how the City plans to work with the <br />library as they move forward with their overall planning. <br />Mr. Kain responded that he can give a little bit of information that he knows but it is not <br />something he is fully versed in. It is his understanding that the library had a large master plan to <br />construct a new library and utilize some open lots facing Michigan Street. The City entered into <br />a first right of refusal with the library so that they could use those lots to complete their plan. It is <br />his understanding from recent events that they have changed their mind regarding the new <br />building and are looking to change the entrance of the existing building from Main to Michigan, <br />utilizing the parking lots as their entrance. Certainly the City's goal in Smart Streets is to create <br />more urban environments and people will have a greater ability to walk and bike to their <br />destinations. The library will have a much grander entrance with the new Main Street narrowed <br />down with wider sidewalks, bike lanes and landscaping. Certainly Community Investment is <br />working with them to convince them to keep their Main Street entrance. An entrance through a <br />parking lot is never an urban idea it is a suburban way of planning. You will not find many <br />buildings downtown with entrances through a parking lot because downtown zoning ordinance <br />does not allow parking lots in front of buildings. That is to have buildings right on the street so it <br />is easy to walk. <br />Councilmember White thanked Mr. Kain for his answer. <br />Councilmember Scott stated the City still has to work on timing the lights on Lafayette because <br />traffic gets backed up pretty heavily. <br />Mr. Kain responded we are looking at the timing of the lights on Lafayette and other streets as <br />well with this program. <br />Committee Chair Broden asked how we are tracking the businesses downtown and the impact on <br />them from the construction. <br />Mr. Kain responded they have monthly meetings with the entire downtown business community <br />and every business is invited. We also make special note to update businesses near construction <br />so they have full knowledge of when closures are happening. Certainly when construction <br />happens directly in front of a business there will be some sort of impact but we have tried very <br />hard to make sure access is always maintained to a business. The bulk of our retail activity still <br />exists on Michigan Street and based on what we have heard from those businesses they seem to <br />be doing well. Art Beat was a great example of how despite the construction activity downtown <br />they were able to have the largest crowd in the history of the event this year. People are not <br />afraid to brave the construction activity because all the construction and projects signal great <br />progress in downtown and have generated excitement. Anyone who has been in contact who <br />have been negatively affected we certainly work with them to try to mitigate their issues. <br />