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South Bend Redevelopment Commission <br />Regular Meeting - February 7, 1997 <br />7. PROGRESS REPORTS (Cont.) <br />Redevelopment staff and Commission, the <br />Area Plan Commission, the BZA and the <br />CCA Board. Studying successes and trends <br />in urban planning is part of lifetime <br />education necessary for quality community <br />change. <br />Moving the Vision 2010 Plan to an adopted <br />land use plan with a new acquisition list <br />would clarify the vision to developers and <br />provide a better guide. This should also <br />require a "senior" planner to oversee this <br />and all department projects. <br />Support of new residential development and <br />preservation of existing residential areas is <br />the top priority for downtown's future. This <br />is a real niche that will drive future <br />development of both office and retail. The <br />focus must be on bringing back the middle <br />class. Suburban retail and office <br />development followed residential growth. <br />Downtown can not survive as the area for <br />low income or elderly alone. However, we <br />have proven that we can be the best area for <br />real diversity of both race and income. We <br />should be proud of that, but if we can not <br />bring back the middle class, we will fail. The <br />new expanding niche is the childless group: <br />empty nesters, young professionals, divorced, <br />never married, gay and young retireds. <br />Adaptive reuse of older factory and office <br />buildings will create that opportunity but it <br />will need public assistance. <br />I would suggest that the word <br />"redevelopment" as applied to older, hard - <br />to- develop areas, take a higher priority for <br />this commission now that Blackthorn has <br />H:\ HOME \CPHIPPS \WPDATA \COMMSN\020797.MIN -16- <br />