06-22-07 Redevelopment Commission Minutes

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South Bend Redevelopment Commissioll Re cbeduled Regular Me ti – June 22, 2007 4. COMMUNICATIONS (CONY.) A. continued.., development off s - stony apartments and a six- or nine -story note fit in The pan presented by the Kite Realty Group might be appropriatefor New York or Chicago but not a city like Sout h en(L In fact, they have admitted t hey've never clone something like this in a town. like South Bend before. We don't need to be the ,steep part of their learning curve. The Commons should he a gentle transition./rom residential to the campus, not a piece of r {o e an landscape in the middle of r charming residential neighborhood. It should look more like south Bend's Munn street business district, than Hyde Park in Chicago. The loss of h Notre Dame Woods is of concern to us also. The sinall planne park- setting that the University isplanning isfine but a landscaped park won't take the place o f acres o f woods wi th the underbrush that provides some to hundreds, r f' not thousands, of small animals. r ima s that will roam our neighborhoods orhoocs nc }e t he woods are destroyed. Th .e University s park won't be la age enough to provide the natural pollution filters tart th e woods pro vide, yet in t rein place will he even more pollution creators of buildings, blacktop an parking garages, We've recrcl that the city is excited about the tax prospects of such an area as more people live and spend in the city. Well, take it from oozes who live in the neighborhood— many of the people interested in the area will be football weekend alumni. They will come for a half dozen weekends a year ancl the rest of the time the property will lie vacant and, other than the property taxes paid, nothing is added to the local economy. We have four such houses on our block alone (out of twelve homes), and they coo not add to a neighborhood. 4