07-22-13 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING JULY 22, 2013 BILL NO. 16-13 PUBLIC HEARING ON A BILL AMENDING THE ZONING ORDINANCE AND REQUESTING A SPECIAL EXCEPTION FOR PROPERTY LOCATED AT 3529 AND 3527 WESTERN AVENUE, SOUTH BEND, INDIANA 46619, COUNCILMANIC DISTRICT NO. 2 IN THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA Councilmember Ferlic, Chairperson, Zoning & Annexation Committee reported that this committee held a meeting this afternoon and it was the consensus of the committee to send this bill to the full Council with no recommendation. Council Attorney Kathleen Cekanski-Farrand stated that immediately after the formal presentation any member of the public may speak at the podium and we asked that you give you name and residential address and you are allowed to speak for the maximum of five minutes per person. Comments in favor of the matter before the Council are taken first; they are immediately followed by comments from the public that are in opposition to that. Immediately after the close of the remonstrators the petitioner who has given the formal presentation has the opportunity for a five (5) minutes rebuttal and in this period of time if there were any questions that were asked the presenter will address those during the rebuttal period. At that point, Councilmember White will close the public portion and it will move to the Council. During this period of time the Council has the opportunity to ask questions and make formal motions for the disposition of the bill before them. th Christa Nayder, Staff Member, Area Plan Commission, 11 Floor County-City Building, 227 W. Jefferson Blvd., South Bend, Indiana, presented the report from the Area Plan Commission. Ms. Nayder advised that the petitioner is requesting first a zone change from the MU Mixed Use District to the LB Local Business District and a Special Exception to allow a gasoline service station. Ms. Nayder used a power point presentation to identify the location. She showed the convenience store and home to the right will be where the proposed gas pumps will be located. There is an existing 1700 square foot convenience store. The petitioner is proposing an addition of two gas pumps and nine (9) parking spaces. To the north, across the alley, are single family homes and a church zoned SF2 Single Family and Two Family District. To the east is a vacant house with a business front zoned MU Mixed Use District. To the south, across Western Avenue is a parking lot zoned MU Mixed Use District. To the south, across Western Avenue is a parking lot zoned LB Local Business District. To the southwest is a vacant commercial business zoned MU Mixed Use District. To the west is a convenience store zoned LB Local Business District. This comes to the Council with a favorable recommendation from the Area Plan Commission. Western Avenue is a major east/west traffic corridor, with a wide variety of well-established business and commercial uses. Mike Danch, Danch, Harner & Associates, 1643 Commerce Drive, South Bend, Indiana, representing the petitioners. Mr. Danch advised that mainly what he is doing before Council this evening about two weeks ago we were asked to continue this particular petition to give us time to make some changes. A couple of Councilmembers, Councilmember Dieter, and Councilmember Scott had made a request for some changes in the written commitments. What I gave to Council this afternoon was that revised set of written commitments they total eight (8) commitments now, we had a few less. The main changes in the commitments for Council one were that there would be no single cigarette sales; we actually added that specifically into the written commitments. The second one from Councilmember Dieter was anything concerning drug paraphernalia and what we actually listed on their was the I.C. Code, which was the State requirements for drug paraphernalia that was also put in as part of the commitments. This last week at the request of one of the Councilmembers I attended a neighborhood meeting with the LaSalle Park Association. What I would tell Council is that we met for approximately 45 minutes and I did 2