10-23-06 Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING OCTOBER 23, 2006 have proposed, the retail space, the hotel, and how they will impact the quality of her life, in a residence that she bought specifically to be close to the University, which her husband works at, and her son goes to school at. But, to still enjoy the quite serenity, of a neighborhood, a residential neighborhood. Throughout the planning period, for several years, she has asked the question on numerous occasions unfortunately the University has changed people who have been in charge of this so, she has gotten several different responses depending on who she has talked to as to what safeguards are going to be in place for the residential area that is planned there. Predominately, condominiums and townhouses, what mechanisms is going to help prevent that area from becoming non- primary residential homes. What is going to help prevent it from becoming student housing. Unfortunately, she said the only response she ever got was that this were going to be very high end town homes. Her response to that was do you know who the student body is? She stated that there are at least five homes in the immediate area that have currently sold to non-primary residence. They had no problem in paying upwards to $200,000 to $300,000 for a house, to stay in it seven weekends a year. So it is a very real possibility. She also stated that she has concerns as to obviously the noise factor and the traffic flow. With the new medical building being built, which is just approximately two houses from her, the difference in traffic parked on the street is quite noticeable. She stated that her parents live at the far end of Napoleon Blvd, and for the past thirteen years that she has lived in her house she drives down Napoleon Blvd. almost every day. She now goes down St. Vincent, because getting to the intersection of Notre Dame and Napoleon, cars are parked basically all the way from the corner to Angela Blvd. It is hard to encroach on that intersection safely. Now, with the addition of these proposed businesses, she asked how that was going to affect her neighborhood. The vision seems to be stated as they want to create this pedestrian area. Again, she cautioned that the area is not that much of a pedestrian area. This is the Midwest, we don’t like to walk in the cold, wet, rain, snow and if these businesses are going to viable, she doesn’t find that the volume of people who live in that neighborhood are going to support those businesses. So for them to be viable, that means that they are going to drawing people from far outside the northeast neighborhood. With those people come more cars. She stated that her children and many of the children in the neighborhood very much enjoy playing on the new grassy area by the medical arts building, she stated she is not sure if that is something that she would continue to let her children do. Because they would have to walk down the street and cross over Napoleon Blvd. and that street is going to become much more congested with this new development. She stated that it has been reported that there hasn’t been a lot of outcry by the neighborhood. She stated that she has talked to a lot of people in the neighborhood, and they are very disheartened at the idea of the beautiful greenbelt when Edison Rd. was realigned. She stated that they enjoy the little rolling hills the grass, the trees, it’s a nice break from the commercial area on the other side of the neighborhood. Unfortunately, a lot of the residents that live in the neighborhood have children, who have homework, practice, games, and all sorts of things that keep them too busy to come to meetings like this. She stated that she has encouraged them to write letters and e-mail the Council if they are unable to attend the Council meetings. But to say that everybody in the neighborhood is for this, she stated that she would not go that far, she has talked to a lot of people who have a lot of concerns about this proposed development. She also noted that the City Plan is not in place just yet, but she does find some contradictions in wording that is stated in the City Plan and how it relates to this and how it states that mixed use, but they are talk about catering to the needs of a diverse community. Unfortunately the plans that Notre Dame is creating in the northeast neighborhood are not fostering the diverse neighborhood that used to be there. It is becoming an upper middle class neighborhood that will primarily be occupied by employees of the University. Page 27 of the City Plan that talks about compatible uses, it talks about maintaining the quality life in a community, since the land use decision will effect surrounding parcels of land, sound decisions will have be made to ensure that the different land uses complement each other to create the best urban form. She further read from the proposed City Plan that City Government Land Use Experts and the general public recognize that new developments need to integrate well with their surroundings. This is achieved by following a plan incorporating characteristics to the surrounding area and into the development and establish appropriate buffers for example green spaces unless intensive use and reduce land use conflicts. She stated that she finds several conflicts between the proposed development by the University and City Plan. She stated that she sees very little green space, very little buffer between the residential 8