05-22-00 Community & Economic Development

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Y ' Council Member Kelly stated he would follow-up with letters to address these issues. Following discussion,Dr. Varner made a motion, seconded by Council Member Kirsits,that Bill No. 00-52 be recommended favorably to Council. The motion passed. The Committee then reviewed Bill No. 00-53 which is a request for a ten(10)year real property tax abatement request for Cleveland Road Partners L.P. for the property located at 4647 Cleveland Road. Cassandra Moran reviewed her May 16, 2000 report(copy attached). She noted that the petitioner is proposing to construct a speculative tilt wall multi-purpose multi-tenant industrial building in two(2)phases. The 1st phase would be to construct a 100,000 square foot structure at a cost of$4,400,000; and that the 2nd phase would be to add 56,000 square feet. The report concluded that the petitioner does not meet the qualifications for an abatement due to the inability of the developer to identify the end users of the buildings. The petitioner is seeking a special exception due to the enormous risk to be taken with regard to mortgages with no guarantees of lease revenues and the overall costs of the development. Mr. Michael Beitzinger of Community&Economic Development noted that in 1998 the Council began reviewing speculative building requests. Action on the confirmatory resolution is typically withheld until the end users were identified. In this case however, in light of the square footage,the petitioner would exceed the local requirements. He further noted that the Council approved a confirmatory resolution two(2)weeks later on a similar project for the Olive South Bend,LLC where the square footage exceeded local requirements. In this manner,the provisions for a special exception under section 2-84 of the South Bend Municipal Code would be met. Mr. Frank A. Perri,a partner, made the presentation. He showed a conceptual site plan for the project(copy attached). He noted in response to a question raised by Dr. Varner that no construction can take place within the 50 foot easement which is flown weekly by the oil companies. Mr. Perri also noted that the typical lease is 3-5 years which raises the risk factor. The Council Attorney noted that if the Council would take favorably action this evening and would plan to act upon the Confirmatory Resolution in two(2)weeks,that an amendment to section 6 of the Resolution would be necessary. The last line of that section would need to be deleted. Following discussion, Council Member Kirsits made a motion, seconded by Dr. Varner that Bill No. 00-53 as to be amended be recommended favorably by Council. The motion passed. In response to a question from Dr. Varner,Mr. Perri noted that the construction would be similar to that recently seen along I-465 which is cement pre-wall construction. Under miscellaneous business,Richard Snyder requested that he would like Bill No. 00-49 addressing the Confirmatory Resolution for Playing Mantis be continued for two(2)weeks. There being no further business to come before the Committee,the meeting was adjourned at 5:55 p.m. by Chairperson Roland Kelly. -Community&Ecnomic Development Committee Meeting Minutes of May 22,2000