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REGULAR MEETING
<br />JULY 9, 2007
<br />an Eastern Bluebird; they are in the woods along with Cedar Waxwings, Boreal
<br />Mushrooms, Giant beautiful trees, oaks, sycamores, cottonwoods and maples. Let's give
<br />the Touchdown Jesus something beautiful to look back at.
<br />Ms. Jessica Payne, 1119 N. Francis, South Bend, Indiana, stated that she lives there with
<br />her husband and her three children. She wished that after Mr. Compton's presentation
<br />and impressive videos that she would feel better. She stated that she actually feels worse
<br />by seeing those towering buildings and all their massive glory just reinforces exactly
<br />what she is going to be looking at, a seventy-five foot brick fagade in her front yard. She
<br />has the news people over to her home this afternoon and they commented on how
<br />beautiful their area was. They stood in the front and looked at where the development is
<br />going to be, very little traffic, the birds were chirping, the kids were playing. That is
<br />what she bought into, that is the neighborhood she wanted to live in and raise her children
<br />in. A quite neighborhood where her children can play, they can ride their bikes to their
<br />grandparents and their cousins, and walk over to Notre Dame to play basketball if they
<br />want to. She did not move into a neighborhood where she had to watch their every move.
<br />She stated that it didn't even occur to her until tonight that they are going to be charging
<br />to park in the parking garage. You have pretty much just guaranteed that everyone is
<br />going to park in her neighborhood. If she had a choice between paying and parking on
<br />somebody street, which will actually be closer to the shopping, she is probably going to
<br />do the later. She respects the people who spoke about the children making choices to
<br />leave the area to attend college. They made the best decision that they could make, they
<br />investigated what type of environment they wanted to be in for their college careers. This
<br />is exactly what her son did, an she actually had to force him to explore other colleges
<br />such as Purdue, go to IU Bloomington, and Wisconsin and he came back every time
<br />saying that Notre Dame is where he wanted to be. He would say that he didn't like how
<br />busy it was, how many people were walking around, didn't like that there were stores and
<br />shops everywhere. She stated that she didn't chose to live on Grape Road or a
<br />neighborhood with traffic problems and retail. She is fascinated with the expression live,
<br />work, play. She is pretty sure that is must be live, work, shop! Because there is no play
<br />in this development, it is a shopping center, its nothing more. They keep talking about
<br />the parking numbers; she would like very much to see the parking study, because she
<br />comes up with totally different numbers. There are contradictions if people are going to
<br />live there, they are going to work in these offices and retail spots and live close. Maybe
<br />there are not going to be using their cars as often, but it also means that there are cars
<br />there more often, at the peak hours. So this idea of an ebon flow of traffic, she doesn't
<br />buy that concept at all. The peak hours will be when her children are going to the bus
<br />stop, when her other child rides his bike to St. Joseph High School, when the children
<br />come home from school, after track and basketball practice. It is recombinant on the
<br />Council to consider everyone views. It is not us and them; it is not that it is that there are
<br />more of them than there are of us. It is the fact that her value of her life and home is as
<br />important as everyone else's and you have to look at all the possibilities and see if there
<br />isn't some middle ground. She pointed out the fact that the buildings on the corners that
<br />can now are five stories on both corners is 87 '/z percent above what the current building
<br />code is for a mixed use district. For some reason it seems that no one has a problem with
<br />that except her. She would like to see screening, mature trees, and yes a wall. She
<br />doesn't want people walking through the shrubs to cut through. She doesn't want to look
<br />at the trash or look at the cars. She wants to keep her neighborhood as peaceful as
<br />possible. She hopes that she can continue to live there, but unfortunately begins to
<br />seriously doubt it. She thanked the Council for their time and urged them to give this
<br />proposal the due consideration that it needs for everyone concerned.
<br />Mr. Bill Berry, 402 E. Pokagon, South Bend, Indiana, stated that he lives on the corner of
<br />Pokagon and Stanfield, it is a bit far from this development but he has some issues that he
<br />would like addressed tonight. This is a project in progress. He has been to a number of
<br />meetings with Kite and each time the numbers are different, the designs are different and
<br />they have a document that was said to have been finalized on Apri130, 2007, but the date
<br />on it is May 30, 2007. In each of these presentations by Kite there are some things that
<br />don't agree with what is in this document. This is why the neighbors have come to the
<br />Council to have some conditions put on the development, which will perhaps modify
<br />some of things in the document. The parking study that was done was a good study;
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