07/16/07 Council Special Meeting Minutes

Home Browse Search

SPECIAL MEETING JULY 16, 2007 and John Leszczynski and Chris Walden from the Troyer Group, Civil Engineers, based out of Mishawaka, Indiana, will address issues specifically to the traffic study and to issues to the east side engineering that has been done to date. Mr. John Afleck-Graves, Executive Vice-President of the University of Notre Dame, Room 400 Main Building, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, stated that he is pleased to be here tonight to offer Notre Dame's support of the Eddy Street Commons Project. This project is the culmination of many years of work by many people, but especially the dedicated members of the Northeast Neighborhood Council. For over 20 years they have labored to provide opportunities for this area and restore it's vibrancy that it possessed when South Bend was at its peak as a manufacturing center. This is not a new project, for the last seven years at the University of Notre Dame and their institutional partners in the northeast neighborhood revitalization organizations has assisted in this effort. They are delighted with the proposal that they have come up with and whole-heartedly support it. Speaking on behalf of Notre Dame, and being very frank that Notre Dame has not always appreciated how intimately that their fate is tied up with that of South Bend. He stated for the record, if South Bend does not thrive, Notre Dame cannot achieve the ambitions that they have to remain one of the leading American Institutions of Higher Education. This project is all about both thriving. Over the last three decades the campus Notre Dame has grown enormously in physical size. Notre Dame has grown and will continue to grow; they have now placed a limit on that growth. This development will be a wonderful example of the new cooperation between the community and the university that allows each to grow and to fulfill their missions. There is growth for future buildings on campus. But as they grow and deepen their research activities in selected fields of study they will be bringing more and more young faculty members, technical research staff and more graduate students to the campus. These young professionals will need housing; they will need retail outlets and other amenities. That is what this project is about. Eddy Street Commons with its urban atmosphere, its mix of housing types, its shops and places of gathering and entertainment is essential for the University to attract those faculty and graduate students in the first place and equally important in retaining them in the future. Even if Notre Dame wanted to be an island, they couldn't be because the people that they need to attract want to be part of a City. This new development is not intended for undergraduate students. They are currently building a new 230 bed residence hall on campus that will open in the fall of 2008. They will open another residence hall with 250 by the fall of 2009 and have plans for two more halls by 2012. These new residence halls will provide additional housing for undergraduate students which will relieve some of the overcrowding on campus as well as accommodating new students. As part of their commitment on building stronger ties between the University and the Community they are constructing a new town commons south of the DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts and just across Edison Rd. from the Eddy Street Commons Project. This new park will serve as a welcome place for both the University and the South Bend Community. This Park will be open to everyone whether connected to the University or not. It will replace an unused open piece of land that was divided by a road and was no use to anybody. They believe that this park will be a great community feature. It will replace the woods that unfortunately have to go if this project is going to move forward. Dr. Affleck-Graves stated that they truly regret that, but are replacing them almost acre for acre with the Town Commons. The woods occupy almost thirteen acres and the commons will occupy twelve acres. The commons will have more than 200 trees and the entire 12 acres will be open and accessible to the public. The woods which over the years became the site for illegal dumping and other even more unsavory activities has not been available to the public for decades. Eddy Street Commons is an expensive undertaking, but he wanted to make one thing clear, it is not a money making venture for Notre Dame. Quite the contrary, the University has already spent almost 10 million dollars on the project and 4 million dollars to straighten Angela Blvd and Edison Rd. By the time the New Town Commons is ready to be dedicated by this time next year, the University will have spent another 3 million dollars. They do not expect to recoup these costs. Making money is not the point of this project for the University. What is the point, it to create a place and an atmosphere that will be attractive for people to live, shop and recreate, a place that will catalyze growth beyond its own boundaries that will re-invigorate the Northeast Neighborhood and so benefit all of us in the Community. Their goal for this project is not to for this project