05-03-17 Community Relations - Laserfiche WebLink

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Myles Robertson, 620 Clint Street, stated, I own a house and moved in a couple years ago. I was out of town last week and I saw this and was excited. It's so early on in this process that right now we have to be optimistic. Housing is definitely an issue in the community but I continue to see the City and private investors invest in the wealthiest people in our community. I understand the reasons behind that, a lot of it is just strict economics. I like that this is a more community driven thing. I just want to say that as a home owner with abandoned lots around their house, from the City's perspective I think that an investment in this way is actually a really good investment for other homeowners living in these neighborhoods. If there is a vacant lot and a new house is built there, the property value of the home will probably go up. I think that is a good thing. This is a sound investment in retaining certain people in this community. I also am wondering if there are opportunities of buying existing houses. Or, is this just building new ones on vacant lots? Miran McKinu, 23528 Breadwood Drive, Elkhart, stated, I'm more concerned with the contractors of these projects. I'm a small minority contractor out of Elkhart. I'm in the process of trying to transfer my license to up here in South Bend. How much of the money from these houses will stay in the community? How many minority workers will have the opportunity to work on some of these projects? Marguerite Taylor, 714 E. Corby Boulevard, stated, I've come here to ask you to look at the Northeast Neighborhood. We don't have many houses. The house across the street from me is on the market for $799,000. It was built by Clay High School. The house on the other side is selling for $900,000. We don't have any real income houses to live in today. Please think about our neighborhood. Kelly Hoggard, 735 Huey Street, stated, I would like to remind everybody that about two (2) months ago we had that person from Cleveland here for the Democracy Coalition who gave a presentation about developing depressed neighborhoods in town. At that time, we kicked around the idea of creating these urban farms. This plan is still in the works. There will have to be real estate acquisition. I've taken quite the time to examine these vacant lots. We all know the Near Northwest Neighborhood organization is a very organized neighborhood association. They are able to secure funding,rehabilitate homes, they have a minimal amount of vacant lots. Those vacant lots would be prime to build these homes because they would be in areas where the real estate value would be similar. However on the west part of town, there are a ton of vacant lots that are contiguous to each other. There are other vacant lots in between homes. I would suggest that if you do identify lots,that you try and find lots in-between homes. If you see massive areas that are open areas, don't go create a home on that area because that would take away the land from the potential urban farmers that we want to develop. I see more of a need for economic development than I do this housing plan. There are homes for sale and places to rent already. They are here. We still want to keep some land available for these urban farms. Barbara Turner, 908 N. Elmer Street, stated, My concern is for the houses that would be next to the houses being built. My recommendation is to provide asset comfort and support to the houses that will be next to the houses being built. I have a passion for renovating houses. I have a passion for helping the low-income live in better situations. Paint is not too expensive and 4