01/22/07 Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 22, 2007 hearing, the staff recommends that the petition be sent to the Common Council with a favorable recommendation subject to written commitments that prohibit restaurant and retail uses and to prohibit access t Burdette Street from the hoteUcondo project. The MF1 Urban Corridor Multifamily District is compatible with the existing multifamily zoning and land use located on the south side of Vaness Street, and to the north between Burdette Street and Willis Avenue, and east of Willis Avenue. The MF1 district is consistent with recent Common and County Council rezoning decisions establishing multifamily in this area. The property on the north side of Vaness Street is located in a transitional area between the commercial corridor of South Bend Avenue to the south and east, the university use to the west of Twyckenham Drive, and multifamily zoning and land use north of the site and to the south of Vaness Street. Vanes Street is only a few blocks long, and it is an active pedestrian link between the University of Notre Dame campus and South Bend Avenue. The proposed condominium hotel is residential in character, and will remain so with the recommended commitments. The site plan meets all residential landscape buffering requirements. The rezoning allow the use of mostly undeveloped property (there are only two existing houses covering 2.69 acres). It is unlikely that owners in this transitional area will invest in constructing single family houses as it is currently zoned. The South Bend City Plan recommends mixed use for the area. Mr. Mike Danch, Danch, Harner & Associates, 1643 Commerce Drive, South Bend, Indiana, representing the property owners, Carmine & Maria Martino, Silvio Martino, and John Roy, made the presentation for this bill. Mr. Danch advised that this rezoning request is for a piece of property located at the Northwest Corner of Vaness Street and Willis Avenue and a parcel on the West side of Burdette Street approximately 83 feet North of Vaness Street. The property is 3.10 +/- acres in size and currently has one single-family home. The petitioners desire and request that the petition site be rezoned from "R" Residential (County Zoning) to "MU" Mixed Use District (Parcel I) and "MF1"Urban Corridor Multifamily District (Parcel II) to allow for amulti-story Condominium Hotel facility and in the "MF1" Urban Corridor Multifamily District and for Single-Family attached Condominiums. The reason for the MLT category is due to the design of the building, that is going to be placed on that property. This will be a condominium hotel, it will be residential in nature. There will be full time staff for management. Residents can buy the condominium units, there will be approximately 60. There will be parking on the north side of the building, they will also be doing some additional improvements to Vaness Street. Additional landscaping, along the enlarged sidewalk area. There will be street trees put in, they will be planters, street furniture, which will include benches and also planters as well. The building will be three stories high, with an approximate height limit of forty (40) feet. Access will be off of Willis Street as per the staff of the Area Plan Commission. They will be working with the South Bend Fire Department for the secondary access point. The estimated cost of the project is 10-14 million dollars. They believe that this upscale condominium project will be a fit for this area. There is a mixture of uses, commercial, apartment complex on the south side of Vaness Street. On the east side there is Zolman Tire, to the north there are a couple of single family homes, a little farther to the north are multi-family condominiums. The Council approved a couple of months ago Rexford Place which is on the east side of Willis, just northeast of this site. Rexford Place is a condominium project that is being developed and under construction as we speak. The second portion of the site is the multi-family or the MF1 District. Those will have fourteen (14) town homes on them. There will be perimeter landscaping, there will be an interior portion with the access coming off of Burdette Street. Each unit will have atwo-stall garage on them. It will be hooked up to Water and Sewer and drainage per City requirements. On the condominium side they will also have an extensive buffer that is basically along the entire north boundary and the piece on the northeast corner of Burdette and Vaness that is owned by the University of Notre Dame. There will be an evergreen buffer zone along that entire boundary. There is a single family home off of Willis Street and they will be buffering the development from that single family home. They are making this project as much residential as possible. When this project was first thought of, it had commercial and retail portions to it, tonight, the petitioners are asking the Council to consider this only a residential project. They will be going back to the Area Plan Commission, and asking for written commitments to be approved and recorded as a part of this project to 17