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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-21-18 Residential Neighborhoods (1st District Bus Tour) o4�uTx 80 w a X K 1865 OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREENIAH FOWLER, Ci-n, CLERK RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS MAY 21, 2018 4:00 P.M. Committee Members Present: Karen White, Jo M. Broden, Regina Williams-Preston Committee Members Absent: John Voorde Other Council Present: Sharon McBride, Tim Scott Other Council Absent: Oliver Davis, Gavin Ferlic Others Present: Kareemah Fowler(Introduction), Graham Sparks Agenda: First(I") District Bus Tour Committee Chairperson Karen White called to order the Residential Neighborhoods Committee meeting at 4:00 p.m. Committee Chair White stated, About four (4) years ago the Residential Neighborhoods Committee began walking and taking bus tours through the six (6) districts in the City. The Council feels it is important to engage with the residents and see all the unique areas of the City. City Clerk Kareemah Fowler welcomed the attendants and thanked them for participating in the tour. Clerk Fowler stated, These tours are a wonderful opportunity for our elected officials to see and understand the concerns that constituents have and be sure to act upon them. Graham Sparks, Executive Assistant to the City Clerk, will be staffing the bus tour and taking minutes. Clerk Fowler told the residents if they have any questions or concerns during the tour they can ask Mr. Sparks. First (11) District Bus Tour Councilmember Tim Scott stated, We will get going shortly. We will be looking at a bunch of different things such as traffic calming, projects and parks. He then asked everyone present to introduce themselves. The tour consisted of the bus traveling through the First(1'�District to ten(10)separate locations. Below are comments made and discussed during the tour, broken down by location. California and Woodward/ Shetterly Park-new housing/Portage - There is a building that was used for Ford Distributing that has been vacant and abandoned for approximately eight (8) years. The plan is to revision the use of the INTEGRITY1 SERVICES ACCESSIBILITY JENNIFER M.COFFMAN BIANCA L.TIRADO JosEm R MOLNAR CHIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS DEFuzv/DIRMTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Blvd.I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.92211 f 574.235.9173 1 www.southbendin.gov CITY OF SOUTH BEND ( OFFICE OF THE CLERK building. There is a meeting Wednesday, May 23`d at 6:00 p.m. at the NNN to discuss possible ideas for that reuse. - There is also development being done by one Mike Keen of Thrive Michiana. - The sidewalks worked on by the Thrive Michiana Development were part of the sidewalk program done by the City. - The Thrive Michiana Development has partnered with Habitat for Humanity to pilot a low energy housing project including solar energy. - The building used by Ford Distribution owes St. Joseph County $250,000 in back taxes. For the last five (5)years,the NNN has been bidding on the property to then use the building for low-income housing. It is a$12 million project. They would be subsidized by tax credits awarded by the State. Keller Park- Roosevelt and Sherman- streets, curbs and sidewalks A lot of houses on Culver were flooded during the recent big flood. When the water gets high, many people in this neighborhood are worried about that. As of now, there are no City plans to have any changes to the neighborhood. The river does not have any natural bank system anymore. The neighborhood should technically all be swamp land. It was filled in and built up many years ago. - This area is a priority for curbs, sidewalks and the drainage issues. The neighborhood is unique as it has three (3) unique areas. The trees in the areas are weak and are easily destroyed during storms, falling on houses and having no one to repair them. - The way the storm water system works is that it is really just a subset of the CSO. When it is a combined system, that means that all the storm water is running into the same system that the sewer is running into. On an average day of rain, it can fill up and when it gets at capacity it overflows into the St. Joseph River. What South Bend doesn't have that many other communities do is what is called a Storm Water Utility. That specifically would handle storm water issues and would help address drainage problems. There are many small residential projects that are on a list to be done through TIF and other funds. The crowns of the street are sometimes paved way too high and then the curb is lost. There is standing water that also needs to be looked at and addressed. Riverside Manor Park- Glenview Dr. - This is a little part of the 1St District that many people don't know about. It will be great to see it before it receives the improvements of the My SB Parks &Trails initiative. Pinhook Park-revisioning - This is one (1) of the largest parks in the system being approximately twenty (20) acres. There was an opportunity to do a project with students from Rose-Hulman as part of their senior design project. They came up with designs of what could come of this park. They looked at using the water way in different ways. - Part of the project was to have a trail connect to the other side of the park through an easement. There might even be an observation deck. There are some plans with the Parks Bond with this. - The transmission line is part of AEP's Rebuild Plan. The structure currently will be going away and will be replaced with a more monolithic pole. Many years ago the City negotiated with AEP to grant them blanket easements in order to have transmission lines across the community. The City is in the process of renegotiation of that blanket easement into specific easements. There are eight (8) or nine (9)being negotiated. They are allowed to continue working while they have the blanket EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.91731 TTD 574.235.5567 I www.southbendin.gov 2 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK easement. They are hefty poles and the foundations are twenty (20)to thirty (30) feet deep. - Across the park is the Boland Trail project. That is an LPA project partnering with MACOG. Construction is beginning on that soon. - One (1)thing brought up in Council is the need to mow grass and the possibility of leaving it natural. Tomahawk and Corpus Christi intersection- speed and new power lines - There has been a lot of people speeding through the neighborhood. Also, the power lines that went up were put up without prior notification to the neighbors. There will be a meeting with neighbors before they continue. There are opportunities for traffic calming devices around this area. There is a school in the area and there aren't any signs that remind traffic. There was an instance when there were people actually driving a car through the park. Fremont Park- Fremont and W. Hamilton- improvements - The Far North West Neighborhood Association usually has their meetings at this park. A few years ago the park was in bad shape. There were neighbors that took it back and wanted to make it something positive. The dragon represents the Marquette Dragons. The City asked what the neighbors want to see. The park is far from finished. - The park will be in construction clear into next spring. There was $147,000 given to spend. There will be a curb put in. If there is a grant approved there will be a new sidewalk. The kids helped build some of it and the kids put their handprints on the basketball backboards. There will be many other things coming to the park. The pavilion will be named the Peace Shelter. - A lot of north/south streets become almost highways so there may be a possibility to insert traffic calming devices. - There is electricity in the park. There was also an event called Shakespeare in the Streets, now called Shakespeare in Fremont Park. Last year, Romeo and Juliet was put on by the neighbors. This y they are doing A Midsummer Night's Dream. Also this year is going to be our fifth (5th) annual Stop the Violence Block Party. That will be on August 19th, 2018. There is free food, haircuts,backpacks, games and everything else. There is also going to be a neighborhood clean-up on June 16th, 2018. 1800 block of College Street- speed humps - The speed humps are not temporary and are different from speed bumps. People have figured out that if their car is tall enough they can still go over the speed humps fast. The conversation has been about how high or low they need to be for these to be effective. It worked more noticeably when they first went in. These are a part of the traffic calming program. The idea is to make people feel uncomfortable and we have looked at the data. It usually slows traffic by four(4) or seven(7) miles per hour. Behavior is challenging to change. Portage and Elwood -revisioning this commercial node - The owner of Drewery's Brewery and the City are working to get the site cleaned up. AEP is hoping to move in across the street. The NNN and the City had a good look at what could become of this portion of town. The whole area is no longer being thought of as the outskirts and is now trying to be revisioned as an area of destination. - When Martin's decided to change to Portage Meat Market, it was realized there are about nine (9)neighborhood areas that are serviced by the market. There are a lot of thoughts of how to connect the different spaces. EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 IT M574.235.5567 iwww.southbendin.gov 3 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Harrison and California- lead issue - There has been some disinvestment in this area. There has been a lot of work with Census Tract Six (6). There are also a lot of vacant lots in this area. There is a high amount of lead because there are houses that have lead paint. This area also had been mulched which helps with the dust kicking up and increasing lead levels. There is one (1)person in the County working on lead. It can't be acceptable to say we don't have the funding. There is a large capacity issue in our community. It can't be acceptable for our children to be raised with lead poisoning. Laws exist but the question comes to who enforces those laws. Lindsey to Harrison- housing and traffic calming - Traffic calming projects came into being because of a collaboration with the Safe Streets Academy. South Bend is one (1) of three (3) communities to participate in the demonstration project. As a result of the collaboration, some funding was made available to pilot a few demonstrations. Some intersections are odd and outdated so there are demonstrations to square up those intersections. Many neighborhood feedback sessions were had to discuss the areas of need. Traffic circles were another demonstration and they are different from roundabouts. Any permanent changes to traffic must go through the Board of Public Works. Most of the temporary installations will be coming out except the traffic circle. The City is collecting data on the first trial demonstration. - Road chicanes are another traffic calming device that are being used and analyzed. - The Washington Colfax Apartments have been in the news for having roaches. The Health Department won't even go in and inspect it. There are only eight(8) people living in the apartment. They have a$5,500 fine. The hot water heater only heated the water to eighty-nine (89) degrees. During the winter they didn't have heat. The Health Department said they couldn't do anything about it. The judge granted the owners until November 2018 to fix it. There is a need to see the relationship between Code Enforcement, the Health Department and the Building Department when property owners don't comply. Unless there is a formal complaint by the citizen affected, they cannot go in and inspect. With no further discussion, Committee Chair White adjourned the Residential Neighborhoods Committee meeting at 6:28 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, r - Karen White, Chairperson EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 46601',p 574.235.9221 lf574.235.9173 ITTD574.235.55671www.southbendin.gov 4