9665-06 Rezoning 1045 West Washington St - District 2

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1045 West Washington Street South Bend, Indiana STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND INTENT South Bend Heritage Foundation requests this rezoning of 1045 West Washington Street, known as the Hansel Neighborhood Center, from MF to O (Office). When the most recent revision of the zoning ordinance was enacted, Hansel Center was still in business at 1045 West Washington Street and no need was seen to rezone the property as their use of the property as their office was grandfathered in under the ordinance and MF was the zoning category that allowed office functions. Unfortunately, Hansel Center went out of business approximately 2 years ago and South Bend Heritage Foundation purchased the property from the Trustee for the Bankruptcy Court. Hansel Center was first built as the Children's Dispensary, where free and reduced medical care was available to the City's children who had no financial resources for medical care. Therefore, the historic use of the building has always been that of an office space function. After study and analysis, the highest and best use of the property is O (Office) as the building is not easily convertible to a multifamily use due to the small size of the building's structural bays. And, O (Office) is the traditional use of the property. The property is surrounded by a 6 foot high solid brick wall and so on-site parking and other ancillary exterior office uses will not be an intrusion into the surrounding neighborhood, which is zoned primarily SF 2. South Bend Heritage Foundation has been discussing the potential sale of the building to Wightman Petrie Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors for use as their offices. Wightman Petrie has outgrown their present space and would like to remain in the Near West Side downtown area. Without this rezoning, Wightman Petrie will not be able to purchase the property and make improvements to this building. _~--- ~P,'~,1; VG~R,~E °'~ ~,.,, cp. BEND, IN.