11-10-14 Redevelopment Commission Minutes

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South Bend Redevelopment Commission Regular Meeting — November 10, 2014 6. NEW BUSINESS (CONT.) A. Public Hearings (5) continued... City of South Bend. That is unacceptable. When are we going to start the renovation of those areas? Mr. Ford: Well, I don't disagree that this is an area that's been underserved. And I'm excited for work to get underway. I know the work will begin on Western this coming year. So, we hope for the improvements to start this spring and summer. Mr. Buggs: OK. Thank you. Mr. Jose Vargas: I've got a small business on Western Avenue. My question to you is where do you apply for these grants? I've gone to the SBA a while ago. One of the things, being a business owner, is sometimes you don't get the funding because of the way you do your cash and stuff like that. Not that we're cheating, but that's the legal, right way to do it. I do have a crappy little building in there because I tried to fix it up, but there's only so much that you can put into the building. You've got to put money into ... I just want to know who do we see, who do you apply to get these loans, so I can start improving my building. Mr. Ford: Thank you. The Urban Enterprise Association is the entity that will be handling the loans and grants. We'll make sure to reach out to you with contact information. Councilman Henry Davis: Good morning Commission. Henry Davis, Jr., Councilman 2nd District, South Bend. Two or three years ago here I offered a resolution to help start this conversation. At the time the conversation was geared towards Western Avenue and Lincolnway. Obviously those streets are part of the 2nd District, and getting more dollars to help fund a corridor program that would help out the businesses in that area. As a matter of fact, it was a way to change the landscape in such a way that business owners would be able to invest more money and pull in new investors. As time has gone forward to the current day, the conversation has shifted quite drastically. It has gone into some sort of phase of planning, which means the residents here are talking about not having been able to take part in those meetings, those neighborhood organization meetings Scott was referring to. The other two meetings that I am aware of were held at the same time, and I was, consequently, only able to make one of those meetings. But the meeting I did make, residents were very clear about what they wanted to see in that area, which was at Western Avenue. The problem, that came out of that whole issue, the residents were saying, "we don't want that. We didn't ask for that." But this is what came out of the consultant's plan. And so obviously there are inconsistencies in how this works out. Obviously, I'm here for the people that elected me to office. This is not my own opinion. Moving closer to current day, there was a news report maybe a couple of days ago, but we were reading the newspaper and seeing some things happen throughout the other areas, Douglas Road appears to be getting 26