07/09/07 Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING JULY 9, 2007 square feet in size, these would be rear load, kind of like row homes in either Philadelphia or Chicago, and people are familiar with that concept. Each unit does include an attached two car garage and in addition to that there is guest parking along Duey Street as well as to a private street that will go through the development. Area 6 is the Courtyard Townhomes. The Courtyard Townhomes are located to South of the proposed Napoleon extension. There will be approximately 20-26 units, 1600 - 2400 square feet, 2'/z stories. So there is a theme going on here, where the largest building is away from the residential, close to Angela/Edison where there is a lot of traffic, a lot of intensity next to the University, then when you go down in all directions, the development steps down in mass. Area 7 is designed to be open space and buffer. There is a bike trail going through it, which will connect between Napoleon and Edison, and provide connectivity and open space. This is a transitional area between the development and the proposed tech park as to the south there is opportunity to work with the South Bend Heritage Corporation to provide for a couple of additional lots for the Triangle redevelopment. That is why the SF2 would be right here south of the proposed Napoleon Street extension. In regard to community open space like with any new urbanism development it is very important theme. There has been a lot of input from the public in regard to this issue. The University of Notre Dame is proposing a town commons. It is twelve acres in proposed size and they plan an investment of 2.5 million dollars in that area. It will be open to the public and the public will be encouraged to come. It is adjacent from the Eddy Street Commons Development. Other parks and open space in the area include Kelly Park, Coquillard Park, Frederickson Park, and they are proposing as part of this development to save approximately 6.5 acres of trees located in the drainage retention area. They are working with the University of Notre and the City of South Bend to meet the drainage needs for the development and preserve the trees. Other open space is including in the proposed triangle development. The triangle is proposed to be 61 homes and has three individual pocket parks located within it. As a follow up to public comment, they have also identified three areas for possibly another park in addition to the open space that has been previously mentioned. There has been a lot of public feedback as to where is the open space within the actual development. They are looking at three possible locations and prior to the July 16, 2007 Special Meeting of the Council, will come back with written commitments to some type of park in one of these three areas. Mr. Compton stated that they are looking at doing some buffering behind the building on the west side of Eddy Street, in addition to the 6.5 acres that they are working with the University of Notre Dame to save as woods. In regard to the 13 letters that were written to the Area Plan Commission referencing bike paths, they have met with the various biking associations to discuss bike lanes within the development. There will be dual bike lanes along Napoleon, that will be marked and on both sides of the street. Additionally, there will be a bike connection that will provide a natural connection up to Angela and Edison from Napoleon. It is there very firm intention that this project be a very walkable, connected community and encourage people to use bikes and walk, not only within the community, but to the surrounding communities. They have areas designated for bike racks; if the demand for more racks is determined they will add the additional needed racks. Architecture and massing is an important question that has come up with regard to the zoning. The full service hotel is the tallest structure on the site. The whole hotel is not actually nine stories, the ballroom and the meeting room is only one story. The only nine story part of the hotel is actually and "L" shaped structure. The limited service hotel is six stories in height and steps down massing wise from the nine stories. The corners of the Eddy/Angela area is proposed to have five stories. As you come south on Eddy, you get into a four story height restriction in that area. The parking garage and the stack flats are at four stories. As you transition to the east, they go down to three and half stories on the townhomes and then two and half stories on the area south that is Napoleon. They have spent some time with regard to traffic within the development. They have engaged the Troyer Group Engineers, Mishawaka, Indiana. They have been involved in doing traffic studies for over 20 years. They asked Troyer to look at how the traffic would flow after this development is built out. They have also taken into consideration the build out of the triangle as well as the build out of the Tech Park, so is just wasn't the proposed Eddy Street Commons. Specifically, they looked at peak service periods, when did they think that most stress would be put on traffic. Generally, that is the morning commute and the evening commute. They looked at the service levels, and those levels go from A to F. A being the best and F being the worst, 12