Resolution 2021-01 Regarding the Replacement of Lights and other Amenities of Historic Districts within the City of South Bend

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RESOLUTION NO. 01-2021 A RESOLUTION OF THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION OF SOUTH BEND AND ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, INDIANA REGARDING THE REPLACEMENT OF LIGHTS AND OTHER AMENITIES OF HISTORIC DISTRICTS WITHIN THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA WHEREAS, the Historic Preservation Commission of South Bend and St. Joseph County, Indiana (the "Commission") operates pursuant to Article 13 of Chapter 21 of the South Bend Municipal Code, as may be amended from time to time, Title XV, Chapter 154, §§ 154.245- 154.263 of the St. Joseph County Code of Ordinances, as may be amended from time to time (together, the "Ordinances"), and the terms of the Interlocal Agreement between the City of South Bend and St. Joseph County dated December 12, 2017, as the same may be amended from time to time; and WHEREAS, per the Ordinances, the Commission's purpose is to preserve buildings, other structures, and sites of historical, architectural, engineering, and cultural significance within the City of South Bend, Indiana (the "City") and St. Joseph County (the "County"); and WHEREAS, the Commission fulfills its purpose, in part, by reviewing proposed changes to historic structures with careful consideration to the historic appropriateness of the proposed change; and WHEREAS, the River Bend neighborhood was designated an historic area in November 1992 by Common Council Ordinance No. 8308-92, the map of which historic area indicates the boundary of it extends to the center of the St. Joseph River (the "River Bend Historic District"); and WHEREAS, certain historically appropriate light poles were removed from within the River Bend Historic District in or around July of 1995, without receiving a Certificate of Appropriateness ("COA") from the Commission as required by the Ordinances, and replaced with light poles that are not historically appropriate to the district; and WHEREAS, members of the River Bend Historic District investigated the removal of the historically appropriate lights and have, since 1995, consistently petitioned the City for the return of the historically appropriate lights without satisfaction; and WHEREAS, in November 2020, the Commission asked its Historic Districts Committee (the "Committee") to determine a potential path forward for the return of the historically appropriate lights to the River Bend Historic District; and WHEREAS, the Committee reviewed Ordinance No. 8308-92, as well as historic plat maps for the River Bend Historic District, and determined that the plat maps and the map included with Ordinance No. 8308-92 indicated that the boundary of the River Bend Historic District extended into the St. Joseph River and, therefore, included the land from which the historically appropriate lights were removed; and