10-08-18 Zoning and Annexation - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Mayflower Road east and draw a line across the bypass there too. They contacted us and I had no interest in doing it. I asked what is coming. What do you have in mind? What do you want to attract? They couldn't tell me anything. But, they wanted to discuss it in one (1) or two (2) days and told me about how they have to get it done by the end of this year. Nothing good has ever come by rushing anything. Like I said earlier, the Synders, Blads and us have all been there for a hell of a long time. Ceres just bought the ground two (2) or three (3) years ago. They are new to the neighborhood. And this is a neighborhood. This takes into consideration all of South Bend because when the Ethanol Plant came, yeah it was a west side thing but it stunk up everything all the way to Granger. So I would agree to this if they can change to Light Industrial or Commercial. If something big came,we would have adequate time to get all neighbors involved in that meeting to voice their concerns. As it stands, again, I would like you to oppose this if it stays GI because it is way too vague. I understand there is railroad spur and all that but zone it light and if something comes that wants to use the railroad spur that is heavy industrial, have them come back and have them tell us and the neighbors what that plan is. Mr. Matthys continued, And I don't think the City is being very transparent on what they may have in mind or what somebody has inquired. They are wanting to do this voluntary annexation but why they are all calling all the neighborhood farmers to see if we would voluntarily annex in, I don't know. Progress is great but rushing is not. I hope both petitioners can get it changed to Light Industrial or Commercial for tonight's meeting. I think that would appease a lot of the area. One (1)thing I did notice is the man in the blue shirt talked about drainage and that we can't just dump drainage down ditches anymore. The Ethanol Plant did that in 1985 and I know that was a long time ago. But I also own land out on the west side of St. Joseph County where we just got the Gasification Plant and that dumps 13 million gallons per day down a ditch that the County Drainage Board has not done a darn thing about to improve.And I'll tell you one(1)thing,Portage Prairie is high ground. That is sand. They don't have a drainage issue. We are mud. The ground out there is on mud. When you talk about dumping water, we are thinking this is our livelihood. This is how I go and make money. I where this blue shirt to work every day and I bust my butt out there farming and I don't need to take care of somebody else's darn water that is going to flood my ground. So, again, GI, we have no control over it. Light Industrial, we will have a say in the future and hopefully there won't be a water issue because we sit at the lowest and best ground in St. Joseph County. Committee Chair Davis gave the floor to the petitioners for rebuttal. Mr. Corcoran replied, I just want to say to the drainage issue, again, it is part of the engineering. Every project we go through, all the storm water and all of that must be retained on site. You can't compact other sites. There is an EPA mandate that doesn't allow us to put storm water into the sewer and so it has to be taken care of on site in that regard. So, whatever happens in the future must take care of storm water on site. It is the way it is. Every Light Industrial, General Industrial, Commercial or any other site that comes in must take care of that. And in terms of putting water into the Kankakee River, I think that is not a zoning issue. That is an EPA issue. Committee Chair Davis stated, I would say, in closing and before we go to a vote, I agree that while there are different issues you just shared regarding the drainage,those of us that live out that way, after experiencing, and some of you were on the board, some of you weren't,but everybody heard it in the news, but when you come down to flooding and muck issues, we all who live out there,we went through it just recently.Then you have the potential of,you never know,the Ethanol EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011p 574.235.92211f 574.235.91731TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 19