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TEMPLE BETH -EL 305 W. Madison Street South Bend, IN 46601 October 13, 2004 Catherine Hostetler Secretary Historic Preservation Commission 708 N. St. Joseph St. South Bend, IN 46601 RE: Chapin Park Historic District Dear Ms. Hostetler: I write to you as a past president of Temple Beth -El Congregation. Our temple, located at 305 W. Madison St. is directly affected by the proposal before you to create an historic district to be known as the Chapin Park Local Historic District. The district, as proposed, includes the half block to the west of our main property, an area bounded by Madison Street on the south, Williams Street on the west, Marion Street on the north and the north -south alley running between Madison and Marion streets on the east. We urge you to exclude this area from the proposed historic designation so as to not adversely affect our congregation and its future. Temple Beth -El already owns some of the property in this half block area. The lots we own are used for parking for our members when attending services and other functions at the Temple. At least one other piece of property in this half block was purchased by one of the benevolent members of our congregation with intent to donate the property to the Temple sometime in the future as our need for additional land materializes. Back in the 1980's, during my term as Temple president, the congregation embarked upon a long-term plan to grow our congregation and expand our physical facilities in concert with this growth. This effort began with an addition and renovation that was completed in 1985. The plan continued with the addition of a very large classroom building in the 19901s. Future plans for our congregation are such that we would be desirous of acquiring additional pieces of property in the half block west of our building as they may become available for sale. We expect our future needs to require additional property acquisitions. Here to fore, the city has been very supportive of our desire tcf remain at our Madison street site and grow our facilities and our investment in the neighborhood at the pace of our own needs, even when our growth required alterations to or demolition of existing buildings. We hope that this support will continue.