17-75 Special Exception 806 Howard Street

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Carolyn Henry From: Elizabeth Burman 4eburrnan.rnail @,n ail.co n> Sent: Sunday, December 03,2017 4:11 PM To: Carolyn Henry Subject: Opposition to Rezoning 806 Howard Street Dear Carolyn, Please convey this letter to the South Bend Area Board of Zoning Appeals. Our names are Thomas and Elizabeth Burman, and we joint own and live in a home that is within 300 feet of the property at 806 Howard Street,which is currently appealing for several zoning variances that you will be considering at this month's hearing. We OPPOSE these variances. The reasons for our opposition, in terms of the ABZA's four legal standards: 1) "The proposed use will not be iniurious to the public health,safetv, comfort, community moral standards, convenience or general welfare." A. The planned expansion and use of the property at 806 Howard Street is completely out of character with its immediate neighbors, and violates the standards that have been carefully agreed upon by the Northeast Neighborhood Community and already accepted as an overlay by the ABZA. B. Our traffic and parking patterns are already being affected, and our street parking for our own and our guests' cars by the Eddy Street Commons development, the addition of bike lanes,and the expansion of Keller park,all adjacent to 806 Howard Street. There is insufficient margin for the additional street parking being requested in this appeal. C. The safety of neighborhood children coming and going to Keller park would also be endangered by the requested increase in street parking that the children would now have to traverse. D. There is already a very carefully planned mixed-use area under development on Eddy Street. By contrast, there has been NO neighborhood discussion or approval for a single,massively over-built, mixed-use building at 806 Howard Street,which is in the middle of a single home residential area. 2) "The proposed use will not injure or adversely affect the use of the adjacent area or propert- values therein." A. Our property value will definitely be affected if the property at 806 Howard Street is made even taller than it already is(which is at least no taller than the two-story houses around it.) With the requested changes, it would loom above everything else around it and be in view directly across the street from the main living area of our house. B. The value of our home is very much based on its location in a lap Zned, mixed-use community. That community does not allow for haphazard one-offs like the one the owners of 806 would like to develop. Our own recent(2016)purchase of this home was based on our agreement with the vision laid out and already i