08-22-11 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 22, 2011 Councilmember Oliver Davis made a motion to accept the changes as read by the Council Attorney, seconded by Councilmember Kirsits. The motion carried by a voice vote of nine (9) ayes. Marco Mariani, Executive Director, South Bend Heritage Foundation, 803 Lincolnway West, South Bend, Indiana. Mr. Mariani advised that South Bend Heritage serves as staff to the Northeast Neighborhood Revitalization Organization. Mr. Mariani thanked everyone involved for their patience. He thanked Mr. Byorni for providing technical assistance, as well as Chuck Bulot, for his assistance on how the overlay will be enforced to protect the quality of the area. Mr. Mariani thanked Councilmember’s Puzzello and Rouse on their leadership on bringing this forward. Mr. Mariani stated that the Northeast Neighborhood, all of the residents and business owners, stakeholders in the Northeast Neighborhood are whole-heartedly behind this effort. They have been working on this for sometime. He stated that Mr. Gene Valanzano, from Baker and Daniels, a zoning expert is here tonight and will comment on his part in helping with the language for this bill. Mr. Mariani stated that they also got rid of the “should” language, that ambiguous language that they heard some concerns about. They also eliminated any confusion about the ordinance addressing the existing residential buildings in the neighborhood and excluded that. He also noted that they reduced the size of the area, taking out the former Madison Center area. It just made some sense to take that out and look at existing development there. Mr. Mariani stated that they believe this is a great step for the neighborhood, and we think the new and improved overlay is a high quality document. It is much clearer and more enforceable. Mr. Gene Valanzano, Land Use Consultant with Baker and Daniels, 200 S. Michigan Street, South Bend, Indiana, advised that when he first saw this document, it was around fifty some pages. He stated there was a lot of ambiguous language, hard to deal with, and hard to enforce. He stated that the main revision is that they took out subjective type of comments. He reiterated that if someone is doing a renovation or expansion to an existing building, this ordinance doesn’t deal with them. This ordinance deals with new construction from the ground up. This being the time heretofore set for the Public Hearing on the above, bill, proponents and opponents were given an opportunity to be heard. Mr. Greg Hakanen, Director Asset Management, Office of Business Operations, University of Notre Dame, 910 Flanner Hall, Notre Dame, Indiana, and Vice-President Northeast Neighborhood Revitalization Organization (NNRO). Mr. Hakanen advised that the University and the NNRO have been very involved in this process and supports it. They are pleased that they took the extra time to gather additional information and significantly streamlined the guidelines. He stated that they reflect the interest of the residents and developers. Councilmember Oliver Davis questioned whether other areas of the city are going to have something like this. Mr. Mariani advised that he has not heard of any other areas of the city that are interested in anything like this. Councilmember Henry Davis stated that he has concerns about how they are going about doing business in the city as a whole. He questioned why are they doing this? Mr. Bill Stenz, 1020 E. Colfax, South Bend, Indiana, President, Northeast Neighborhood Council, stated that there are a number of northeast neighborhood residents present tonight who have followed this process for a very long time. The Northeast Neighborhood Council is grateful to the NNRO and to Councilmember’s Rouse and Puzzello in particular for following this process for over 20 years. John Phair, Hollday Corporation started this process ten years ago and the NNRO was formed and has 5