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REGULAR MEETING JULY 9, 2007 <br />questions that the Council has been asking are the very same questions that the neighbors <br />have been asking about the future in terms of this project. Traffic flow, tax influences, <br />and the influence that it will have on the economy of the businesses, the environment, <br />how it is going to look. He stated that some of these things are hard to predict, the <br />burden is on Kite Realty to predict the future for us, they have done a fine job, but you <br />cannot totally predict the entire future. So it is a good thing to ask the probing questions, <br />but as you ask those questions, please ask one more question, what the future of the <br />neighborhood would be like if we don't do this development. <br />Mr. Gary King, 730 Hill, South Bend, Indiana, stated that he has been there for 20 <br />something years. He is very happy to see the neighborhood improving and encourages <br />the Council to support this project. He hopes that the developer does core samples and <br />makes sure that they have proper drainage. Notre Dame homes games need to be <br />included in the traffic studies. He stated that he heard the representative from the <br />University say that the reason that the University chose not to build the hotel on campus <br />was because of the cost of the infrastructure. Who is going to pay for the infrastructure <br />now? Who's going to pay the money the city, the developer or the taxpayers? This <br />project needs to be residentially friendly not only to Notre Dame students, but to <br />everyone. Mr. King encourages the Council to vote in favor of this good project. <br />Ms. Molly Whelan, 925 N. Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana stated that her first <br />experience of living in the neighborhood was in 1994. She was the wife of a grad student <br />at the University of Notre Dame. It was her fast introduction to living in a City. In the <br />three years that she lived across the street from Kelly Park, which is just a few blocks <br />from the proposed development, her car windows were shot out three times, her <br />apartment was broken into twice. If you would have asked her then, if she were to raise <br />her three kids in that part of the northeast neighborhood, she would have told you, that <br />you were crazy. She found herself moving back to South Bend after having been away <br />for 10 years. She stated that she was surprised that this was one of the places that they <br />were considering to live. They chose to build a new home on Notre Dame Avenue, <br />significant financial investment personally because of development like this. They <br />wanted to be in an urban center, they wanted to be somewhere where their kids could <br />walk to have ice cream, or go as a family to a bookstore, a restaurant. She did not want <br />to have to pile the kids into a car and drive out to Grape Road to these activities. A <br />significant amount of personal investment from home owners has been made to see a <br />development like this go in. As a mother of five, some of the safety concerns she has <br />living just blocks away from this development, it is going to help the safety of this <br />neighborhood. You are going to have more eyes and ears on the street, people that <br />belong, live and are invested in the neighborhood who is watching out. Parking on the <br />street is great, it slows down traffic, and it makes people at intersections slow down. She <br />stated that she lives now at the corner of Notre Dame and Howard and the only answer <br />seems to be a traffic light, which nobody wants. People go through that four stop <br />intersection without stopping at all time of the day and night. It is dangerous to have <br />residential homes with that amount of traffic. She stated that when they moved in they <br />became neighbors with a family that had seven children that lived in a very small <br />rundown rental house behind us. The parents both had jobs on and off. They had no <br />washer and dryer. The kids ranged from three up to a sophomore in high school. The <br />mother would walk to Ryan's Steakhouse on Grape Road. She had so much trouble <br />keeping a job that she tried places downtown and tried places close to the neighborhood <br />and ended up out there. She had trouble getting childcare. She couldn't afford the best <br />because it meant taking the bus or taking a taxi when the busses didn't run and that took <br />everything so she was denying her kids so she would walk on the off times out to Grape <br />Road and back I think creating jobs in this walkable area is great. She would have been <br />better off being able to walk two, three or even four blocks from her home. Perhaps they <br />would have been able to stay and maybe even buy their own house in the neighborhood. <br />She stated that there has been talk of gentrification and this project would help keep that <br />neighborhood together. She is really excited to see this project go through and they know <br />that there is going to be some troubles with change, but they are willing to work with the <br />City and the Northeast Neighborhood Council to address those concerns. She asked the <br />Council to vote in favor of this bill. <br />23 <br />