04-09-10 Redevelopment Commission Minutes

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South Bend Redevelopment Commission Regular Meeting –April 9, 2010 up all the trash and it is going to look like a dump rather quickly. Would you want to live next to some like what you see? Did you see my pictures? That is a lot of trash that collects and we have that same type of thing on Hawbaker because there are residences there right now we are all in our yards picking the stuff up. I know there is a lot of talk about different design options for aesthetic purposes with the pond, but once again we feel like it is a lose-lose for us. If there is a big fence or trees lining the perimeter, trash is going to collect similar to the fence that I have provided the pictures of. On the other hand, if it is made more like a pond with no fence, every day I am going to live in fear of my toddler who has no fear of water, wandering over there and possibly something terrible happening. As you can see from the pictures, our property is not far off from where this is going in. I did take a couple of pictures from our front porch so you can see it is really close proximity to us. We would have never chosen to live next to or in close proximity to water. We also know the City fully intends to keep up the appearance of the pond, but let’s face it, times are tight and if things down the road have to get cut, maintenance on a pond is going to be cut over police or fire or schools. And then, what would we be left to look at or deal with? I know Bill had stated what those ponds were for, the maintenance has been let go, and that’s why part of the reason why they are in the situation that they’re in now, so yeah, maybe one or two years they’re going to be up kept, but I am thinking three or four years down the road, are they going to then look like what the ponds look like now. The fifth and final concern I have regarding 15