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REGULAR MEETING JULY 9, 2007
<br />however, it does not deal with the sociological aspect of parking. People park where they
<br />want to park and if there is a lot of stress on the areas where they are supposed to park
<br />then they will park some place else. In this case, this means in the surrounding
<br />neighborhood. It will be much easier to park in the neighborhood than having to pull into
<br />a pay parking garage. With regard to traffic, the traffic will be at its highest volume at
<br />8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Mr. Berry offered two recommendations; the first is that the
<br />parking garage should have an Edison/Angela exit. The second, is to obtain a better
<br />sociological study on the traffic.
<br />Ms. Ann Kolaczyk, 111 E. Pokagon, South Bend, Indiana, stated that she was glad to
<br />hear that Kite wanted to put some more green space into the development. Ms. Kolaczyk
<br />advised that one little park is not enough. She stated that when you walk through the
<br />campus of Notre Dame and walk through the neighborhoods, what you see is green, there
<br />are lawns, trees, and lots and lots of green space. There needs to be several of these parks
<br />scattered through the development, not just one off to the east side. Regardless of Kite's
<br />intentions, she can almost guarantee that it is going to be students and football alumni
<br />that live in these houses. She knows that there are an awful lot of students on campus
<br />who have daddies that have really deep pockets. She stated that the only people buying
<br />homes in their neighborhood are the daddy's with deep pockets, so their sons or
<br />daughters don't have to live in dorms and they have alumni, so they can have a place to
<br />stay for the seven or eight home football game weekends. She stated that on her block
<br />alone there are twelve houses and four of them are football alumni, they get broken into
<br />all the time, because there's nobody living there on a daily basis. There maybe some
<br />people who are actually going to live there year round, but the percentage is going to be
<br />very high that students and alumni are going to buy them. She is concerned that the
<br />project is being rushed into and has to be passed right now. She urged the Council to
<br />wait, look at the project, study the commitments that need to be a part of the PUD, scale
<br />back the size of the development, and not rush into a project that does not fit the
<br />neighborhood.
<br />Mr. Alan Seabaugh, 1324 N. St. Joseph, South Bend, Indiana, questioned the continued
<br />changes on the size of the project. He noted that the height of the parking garage has
<br />been represented as being 4-stories by Kite in public meetings. The PUD says that the
<br />"intent' is not to exceed 4-stories. If you count up the number of spaces on their
<br />drawing, there are about 200 spaces per floor. Kite originally stated that they needed
<br />1,000 spaces, now it's 1281 that would make the parking garage over six floor. The
<br />density needs to be scaled back, this project is too large for the neighborhood and the
<br />woods should be incorporated into the plan. The proposed plan is supposed to support
<br />green space, however, there are no plans for a supermarket The developer wants
<br />everyone to believe that this is a walkable community, however, without a supermarket
<br />people will still need to drive their cars to get groceries. The woods need to be a part of
<br />the development. Mr. Seabaugh urged the Council to continue to ask the hard questions,
<br />scale back the project, save the woods, and work together to make this project successful
<br />for everyone in the community.
<br />Mr. Richard Lamanna, 315 W. Angela, South Bend, Indiana, stated that he is no stranger
<br />to the community and has lived here for 40 years. Mr. Lamanna stated that he has a PhD
<br />in sociology and has taught urban sociology for some 40 years at Notre Dame, and
<br />minored in City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina. He is very
<br />much in favor of the development. However, he has some reservations about the
<br />proposal. He was impressed with the very attractive drawing in the South Bend Tribune
<br />until he looked at it again and it occurred to him that it looked like the street he used to
<br />live on the Bronx! This is not the Bronx! He wonders what in heaven's name are they
<br />doing here. Building five story buildings in the City of this size, this kind of density is
<br />unheard of in northern Indiana, St Joseph County. It seems very peculiar to him that
<br />after many years of resisting commercial development on the fringes of campus, Notre
<br />Dame suddenly wants to put the whole commercial world in one little plot of land. He
<br />hasn't heard a coherent explanation of why this concentration and this density was
<br />necessary at this location. Why did the project slowly escalate and increase. Why the
<br />project can't be scaled back or go back to its original design. Mr. Lamanna stated that it
<br />seems that this project has been set with one goal in mind maximizing the economic
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