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REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 27, 2007 <br />Mr. Dressel advised that over the past several years the Department of Community and <br />Economic Development has partnered with the River Park Neighborhood Association <br />and others to bring an increased quality of life to neighborhood residents through both <br />physical improvements and other capacity building. He stated that the department feels <br />that this project would be beneficial to the River Park Neighborhood through the <br />following: Infill development of an underutilized river front property. Substantial <br />investment and continued revitalization of this older and established neighborhood and <br />the opportunity to bring additional residents to lend increase support to area businesses <br />particularly on Mishawaka Avenue. In addition, City Plan a long range comprehensive <br />planning document that was approved by Council in 2006 includes a number of priority <br />policies that are consistent with this project. These include but are not limited to the <br />encouragement of residential developments to contain a mix of housing types, densities, <br />price ranges and amenities and a support of housing opportunities for medium to high <br />income household throughout the city. The proposed project would also provide the <br />additional benefit of increasing home ownership percentage and then help offset the <br />recent trend of increased rental properties which is a shared concerned amongst <br />neighborhood leaders in River Park. Over the past few months there have been improved <br />and increased communication amongst the developer and the neighborhood association <br />and friends of River Park and other residents that have expressed concerns about the <br />project. He thanked everyone involved and commended them for their efforts and he <br />remains hopeful and optimistic that this project will come to an agreed upon or shared <br />consensus regarding this project. The Department of Community and Economic <br />Development believes that given the reason stated earlier the opportunity to attract owner <br />occupied infill housing in the River Park Neighborhood does lend credence to the <br />partnerships and the improved efforts that have taken place over the last decade. He <br />urged the Council favorable approval. <br />Mr. Larry Steele, President, River Park Neighborhood Association, spoke in favor of this <br />bill. He advised that over the past couple of years they have had many meetings with <br />Tibi and there has been a lot of thought and changes have gone into the project. As a <br />result of that most of those that attended the meetings not all at this point are in favor of <br />this project. On a personal standpoint, Mr. Steele stated that he has been in most of <br />Tibi's buildings and homes and they are of very high quality. Several are already <br />individual homes on Northside Boulevard are extremely nice. This project will benefit <br />the neighborhood. This project is very similar to some of the housing developments in <br />Mishawaka, up and down the St. Joseph River and should make the whole area very nice. <br />There was no one else present wishing to speak in favor of this bill. <br />The following individuals spoke in opposition to this bill. <br />Mr. Gary King 730 N. Hill, South Bend, Indiana, spoke in opposition of this bill. Mr. <br />King stated that he did not think he was going to speak opposed to this bill until he hears <br />the words flood plain. He stated that part of this property is in a flood plain and why <br />would the Council allow construction of homes in a flood plain. It might be a perfectly <br />good thing, and it might not be flooded very often but he has heard a lot about the <br />setbacks and landscaping and the parking and all that, but nobody said anything about if <br />the St. Joseph River rises 5' what part of the property would be impacted are those people <br />likely to be flooded out or will there be enough height to the foundations to where it <br />would not cause a big problem. <br />Mr. Bernie Accoe, 3310 Northside Blvd., South Bend, Indiana stated that he lives directly <br />adjacent to this property that is up for rezoning to the west of the property. He stated that <br />he is in opposition to this proposal. Mr. Accoe passed out a handout and is on file with <br />the Office of the City Clerk. He questioned where the 50' front setback starts from. He <br />stated that he has been looking at this proposal for a long time now. The property line on <br />the west side of the development is 190' long and if there is 50' from the center of the <br />road to the lgt building, that first building if he recalled correctly is 40' so that is 90' and <br />there is a little bit of an angle there. You have then about a 30' foot driveway which is <br />120' and then you have 54' second set of buildings down towards the river so that is 184' <br />and then you have a 40' to 50' buffer zone between the river and the back of those <br />