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Area Board of Zoning Appeals -September 2, 2009 <br />Enforcement was unable to get them to fix up the place for almost two years even though they put fines and <br />penalties and many other things were levied against the property. In all those conversations they were never <br />able to get them to fix this up. So how can you be sure or how can anyone be sure that they won't continue to <br />break all the rules when they open up a business here and come down from Chicago occasionally to see what's <br />going on. We just heard from the councilman from the second district and the number downtown, I thought <br />he was saying there were four downtown group homes. Let me tell you about our neighborhood. We've done <br />our part on group homes. We have group homes as follows. Of course Hope Home is up for approval. Right <br />now and for many years 2816 York Road there is the Dungarvin House. This home is .2 not 2 miles, .2 of a <br />mile from Hope House. Tiger Wood could hit a ball that far. This home is causing a lot of traffic congestion <br />and a lot of problems on York Road because the people who come to the home and work in the home line up <br />the one side of the street and the neighbors across the street line up the other side of the street and one of our <br />resident on Garland Road had a really bad car accident right at that spot because of that. Second group home, <br />1703 Woodmont is Bethpage House, that is .6 a mile away from Hope House. Chiara House on Clayton <br />Street, is under one mile away. If you did it as the crow flies I think it would be a half mile. Ironwood Health <br />and Rehab Center is .6 a mile away. They have 198 beds, patient beds and a staff of 50. They block both <br />sides of Ridgedale Road with staff and visitor parking. When we want to go east to Ironwood it's a problem, <br />when we want to go north to downtown, we got to go by York Road and that's a problem. We are not against <br />group homes but just have too many in our neighborhood. We must have more than they have in the <br />downtown. I can't believe what they're saying about the parking situation. And probably other people will <br />talk about the congestion and our tight little circle there and I have a picture, I didn't get any awards for this <br />one because it's out of focus, but I'll give it to you later, it is a small circle. This one here while we're talking <br />about pictures, is the way it looks on Ridgedale everyday when we go over toward Ironwood. So we have <br />congestion in our neighborhood and we haven't been complaining about it but we don't need anymore. <br />Something just doesn't add up on the sheet. A number of us, eight or nine of us went to the open house that <br />they have, I think you all have a copy of this Hope House overall program view and they list all these people. <br />Now of course we were just told that the president won't be involved in this house and the two advisors won't <br />be coming and the quality assurance guy won't be there and probably the treasurer. How are they going to run <br />this thing with all the people in Chicago and running a home in South Bend? I don't quite get it. If they are <br />coming once in awhile, which I think they would all agree, you're going to have from 9 to 11 cars coming and <br />going to take care of just what you see on this sheet that you have, the Hope House Organization review. So I <br />think we've got a problem here and I think these girls can served and should be served and there are other <br />places where it can be and I think it would completely wipe out our neighborhood and our circle. Our circle <br />has approximately 5 or 6 parking places and if all these people would ever show up at once we'd be parking <br />over on York Road someplace. So I that you see fit to reject this application and hope you see fit to support <br />the local people who support this community year after year. <br />MRS. KATHLEEN DILTZ: I live at 1454 Garland Circle and talked to one of our neighbors whc also <br />happens to be a real estate broker with Century 21. And he sent me the following letter. Dear Mrs. Diltz, <br />pursuant to your request I have made a thorough study of available market data and find that there exists only <br />anecdotal evidence of a decrease in value for homes in the immediate vicinity of group a/or half-way houses. <br />I have consulted several brokers in three municipalities and two real estate appraisers. All agree that while the <br />market data suggests that selling times for homes proximate to a group home are demonstrably longer and that <br />prices suffer a discount, the amount of data is indeterminate as no regression analysis or other such means can <br />corroborate the presumption. The data points are too few. It is, however, my opinion that an immediate <br />24 <br />