07/16/07 Council Special Meeting Minutes

Home Browse Search

SPECIAL MEETING JULY 16, 2007 parking garages. The parking garage is located in the center of the project and serves the mixed use area, the apartment homes located on the top of the parking garage, the full service Marriot as well as the condominiums homes that wrap around it. There were some questions regarding the height of the parking garage. It is proposed because they are still finalizing it to be one story below ground; one story at grade and three stories to be above ground. They are committed to the zoning commitments that are on record with the City of South Bend, that it does not exceed 65' in height. It is currently three stories above ground. Walker Parking performed an analysis to determine appropriate garage size. They sized the garage based on it being shared by the retail, restaurant, office, hotel, apartments and condominiums that wrap the garage as well as the condominiums that are on top of the hotel. The study showed that with shared parking the City of South Bend Code would require 1311 spaces. They have 1,325 spaces that are planned within the parking garage and west surface lot. The limited service hotel parks in the surface lot south of the hotel and the balance self park with guest parking being located on the street within Eddy Street Commons or in the surface lot south of the limited service hotel. The City of South Bend has an ordinance in place that states that should parking become a problem in residential neighborhoods next door, there is a petition process that exists, where permit parking can be developed. Mr. Compton stated that they will work with Gary Gilot, Director, Public Works, should this be necessary. But at this time they are evaluating and Kite is in a unique position here, they are not like a typical developer that maybe developing some condo's around the City of South Bend. They will be the owners and be involved in this retail after the development. How quickly parking turns over, how easy it is to park is very important for the long term viability of this development. In commitment # 10 a commitment to 19 green principals have been included in the amended PITD. The site & building principals include creating a new vegetated infiltration basin (.5 acre) adjacent to exiting ravine located in Area 7. Utilize native Plant materials around basin. Incorporate infiltration planters alongside buildings and as sidewalk furniture. Provide three green roof gardens as part of the mixed use buildings and one green roof garden on the full service hotel Incorporate native prairie plants and drip irrigation to reduce maintenance and water usage. Mr. Compton stated that a recapitulation of commitments # 11, 12 and 13 were added as a part of the development. Eddy Street Commons specifically the two hotel concepts will collaborate and cross-sect with the existing hotels in both downtown and other parts of South Bend, in an effort to expand the existing hospitality market. They believe that it is important to discuss this as they begin to increase the size of the pie. It means not only working with the Marriott but working with the Holiday Inn Downtown and other stakeholders that are apart of the City of South Bend to bring more business into the City. Additionally all components of the project will work to create an environment to benefit businesses within the City of South Bend as a whole and continue economic development throughout the community. They want to take an active role in supporting downtown business for South Bend. Downtown business in South Bend in important to this development and they believe that they are important to it. Prior to this meeting they reached out and had their first preliminary MBE meeting prior to tonight. They reached out to the community in apro-active manner to involve local contractors, minority contractors within the development. There has been discussion on guaranteeing what is being shown to the Council is what is going to be built. The architecture of the project will maintain its general style, quality and integrity of design from the information that has been provided to the Council to date. Those would not only include the renderings that have been presented in the past, but also the proposed drive-through of the development, for 50 seconds, a virtual walk of Eddy Street and what the project would look like. Provide clarification that any use that serves alcoholic beverages would be prohibited from Area 1 of the proposed development. Kite has agreed to subject to the approval of the IU Med Center, a buffer of mature trees, 10' minimum height of planning will be installed at the West property line between the Eddy Street Commons and the IU Med Center. There was a considerable amount of discussion concerning sprinklers within the development. The commitment as is reads to today before modified indicates that the hotels, garage, the garage wrapped condo's and the stacked flats will be sprinkled. After consideration and discussion between meetings, Kite Realty Group would proposed to formally amend commitment #9 to include Area 5, which is the City homes. It is easier to say that the entire project will be sprinkled except for the 2 '/z story Courtyard Town homes that are South of Napoleon Street. Phase I of the overall