No. 1222 modifying/confirming Res. No. 1207, designating SEDA, declaring SEDA to be blighted, approving a development plan & conditions under which relocation payments will be made, & establishing an allocation area for purposes for TIF

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� 3 preparing these sites for disposition, significant investment has been made by the Commission in this area through acquisition costs, relocation payments, environmental remediation activities, and demolition. Presently, five sites have been sold. Capital improvements such as sidewalks, curbs and streetlights are needed in the area in order to improve circulation and upgrade existing inadequate infrastructure. Due to the cost, the provision of such public improvements will not occur solely through the ordinary operations of private enterprise. C. In the portion of the Area designated as Expansion Area No. 1, and described at the fourth Whereas clause of Resolution No. 1207: In the period 1980 -1990 the United States Bureau of Census data shows that Expansion Area No. 1 (including Census tracts 28, 29, 30, and most of 34), lost more than 292 housing units, or 7.1 % of the 1980 total. 2. Notwithstanding the scale of the loss of housing units between 1980 and 1990, residential vacancies increased from 275 to 384, an increase of more than 39 % in the census tracts comprising Expansion Area No. 1. 3. In the period 1980 -1990, the population in the census tracts comprising Expansion Area No. 1 declined 11 %, or more than one thousand persons. In 1980 the population was over 10,400; by 1990 the population had declined to under 9,300. 4. In 1980 the median value of owner occupied housing units within Expansion Area No. 1 was $16,500, or only 63.4% of the City -wide median of $26,000. In 1990 the City median value increased to $40,000, while the median value in Expansion Area No. 1 only increased to $26,000. 5. In 1991 a survey of the exterior condition of all housing in the City of South Bend was conducted. The survey classified housing on a four segment scale which ranged from "sound" (no apparent deficiencies or needing only minor repairs) to "substandard" (deteriorating or dilapidated). For the city as a whole, only about 1.5 % of all units were classified as substandard. In the census tracts comprising Expansion Area No. 1, however, 4.6% of the housing units were considered substandard, more than three times greater than the city- wide percentage. With only 8.3 % of the City's housing supply, the census tracts comprising Expansion Area No. 1 contain about one -third of the City's substandard structures. 6. Unstable soil conditions found in some portions of the Expansion Area No. 1 are a deterrent to private business development. D. In the entire Area: 1. Of the approximately 2,400 acres included in the Area, 592.8 acres, or 24.7% of the total land area is vacant. 2. Collectively, the Area shares several negative physical factors that hinder private redevelopment. These factors include: unsuitable soil for development in the Rum Village Industrial Park and portions of Expansion Area No. 1; obsolete industrial facilities in the Studebaker Corridor and Expansion Area No. 1; poor internal circulation in portions of Rum Village, Studebaker Corridor, and Expansion Area No. 1; potential environmental contamination in the Studebaker Corridor and portions of Expansion Area No. 1. 3. The majority of the area is within South Bend's Urban Enterprise Zone. A requirement of distressed conditions must be met for designation as an Urban Enterprise Zone.