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the north of the house would provide spaces both for the proposed residential spaces and the <br />proposed office uses. The existing home is undergoing current renovation. The petitioner has <br />mentioned ideas such as a gallery space in the main building. This bill comes to the Council with <br />a favorable recommendation. <br />Council Attorney Kathleen Cekanski - Farrand stated this is a substitute bill and a motion would <br />be needed to accept it. So moved by Committeemember Gavin Ferlic and seconded by <br />Committeemember Jo M. Broden. The motion carried by a unanimous voice vote of four (4) <br />ayes. <br />Committeemember Gavin Ferlic stated he received a couple of concerns around the project and <br />wanted to see if the petitioner had intentions to address those neighborhood concerns. <br />Mr. Chappuies responded there were a total of three (3) people who spoke at the public hearing, <br />two (2) of them spoke in favor and one (1) was there to ask questions. The biggest concerns were <br />illuminating the number of residential units and the fear that this was going to be used just as a <br />large mutli- family unit like in the past. The petitioner has made the comment that they are <br />willing to limit the number of residential units to two (2) to three (3) units. Other concerns were <br />traffic, lighting and parking issues. As far as traffic, the petitioner will be working with the <br />City's Engineering Department to perform a traffic study to make sure a new curb cut will not <br />affect line of sight at the corner. Lighting will be restricted to what is allowed by the zoning, in a <br />commercial property light must be cut off at the property line. <br />Gregory A. Kil, Kil Architectural Planning, spoke as the petitioner for this bill. A curb cut on the <br />MLK Drive side is something that they are aware of due to Engineering being worried about <br />sight lines. The height of the screen on the site plan will be controlled so visuals will not be <br />impaired coming out of the parking lot. They desire to set parking on the north side of the plot <br />and green space on the south. The number of parking spaces they are proposing is determined by <br />how many they can reasonably fit into the area between the carriage house and the mansion. The <br />spaces will be just slightly smaller than normal parking spaces and will still fit normal vehicle <br />sizes. The parking should accommodate day to day parking with no problems but if there are any <br />special events at the building there will be some overflow traffic. <br />Committee Chair Oliver Davis asked if the parking coming off of Washington Street would be a <br />bit safer because if it comes off Chapin people really pick up speed and having a curb cut there is <br />challenging because of the light. <br />Mr. Kil responded the practical difficulty is the geometry of the south lot line and that there is an <br />existing portico that is too narrow for modern traffic. This is the most practical approach in <br />developing this building in an effective way. <br />Todd Zeiger, Director of the Northern Regional Office of Indiana Landmarks Foundation with <br />addresses at 402 West Washington South Bend, also spoke as a petitioner for this bill. Their <br />concern with having the parking entrance on Washington is if you are on that corner it is <br />dangerous because the cars at the light do not know which way the person leaving the parking lot <br />is going. We want to work with Engineering to make the exit onto Chapin a safer option. We <br />2 <br />