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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-19-20 CCAC 4 5011TH,9 '.L' CO LHOLYLECGES d'. ROS eSAINUNIVERSITY OF d' TNOTRE DAME tk,.."= MARY'S ,86; COLLEGE Re ___ NOTRE DAME,IN IIII IVY'. E „N . COMMUNITY COLLEGE ,: &AoiINDIANA UNIVERSITY • . SOUTH BEND The February 19`h,2020 Community/Campus Advisory Coalition(CCAC)meeting was called to order by Deputy City Clerk Graham Sparks at 3:31 p.m. in the Informal Council Meeting Room located on the 4th floor of the County-City Building, 227 West Jefferson Boulevard, South Bend IN. Persons in attendance included the following individuals representing the following entities: Rachel Tomas Morgan South Bend Common Council rtomasmo@southbendin.gov Troy Warner South Bend Common Council twarner@southbendin.gov Lori K. Hamann South Bend Common Council lkhamann@southbendin.gov Bob Palmer South Bend Common Council bpalmer@southbendin.gov Dawn M. Jones South Bend City Clerk's Office sbcityclerk@southbendin.gov Graham Sparks South Bend City Clerk's Office gsparks@southbendin.gov Geovanny Martinez South Bend Legal Department gmartine@southbendin.gov Richard Nussbaum Attorney dickn@sni-law.com Tim Sexton University of Notre Dame sexton.30@nd.edu Jay Brandenberg Universityof Notre Dame jbranden@nd.edu Leah Kicinski University of Notre Dame lkicinski@nd.edu Colleen King University of Notre Dame cking22@nd.edu Mike Griffin Holy Cross College mgriffin@hcc-nd.edu Ivan Martinez Holy Cross College imartinez@hcc-nd.edu Rylee Horn Holy Cross College rhorn@hcc-nd.edu Rodger Pinto Indiana University South Bend rjpinto@iu.edu Taylor Worthington Indiana University South Bend taworthi@iu.edu Chloe Wigent Indiana University South Bend cwigent@iu.edu Pam Claeys River Park West Neighborhood pamclaeys52@sbcglobal.net Matt Costello East Bank Neighborhood minimana@att.net Deputy City Clerk Graham Sparks recognized a quorum and proceeded to open the floor to nominations for Chair of the CCAC. Councilmember Rachel Tomas Morgan was the sole nominee, and subsequently, became Chair of the CCAC. Chairperson Tomas Morgan then opened the floor to nominations for Recording Secretary of the CCAC. Deputy City Clerk Graham Sparks nominated City Clerk Dawn M. Jones. City Clerk Jones was the sole nominee and. subsequently, became Recording Secretary of the CCAC. Chairperson Tomas Morgan then turned the floor to CCAC member introductions, going around the room and introducing themselves. Chairperson Tomas Morgan opened the floor to discussion about the current section of the South Bend Municipal Code that guides and directs the CCAC. Chairperson Tomas Morgan then gave the floor to Richard Nussbaum to speak to the history of the enacting ordinance for CCAC. Mr. Nussbaum discussed his history and experience with the City of South Bend and his involvement with the spawn of the Community Campus Advisory Coalition Ordinance. He shared his personal connections to all the educational institutions in the South Bend area. The original Ordinance was passed in 2007 with additional sections that were not fully implemented, specifically Section 14-53 which pertains to the permitting and enforcement part of the Ordinance. That section has not been activated since 2007,the main reason being that the CCAC was formed. Good work was done to address the concerns being raised by citizens and Council Members with regard to, mainly, student activity in the neighborhood. Notre Dame students living off campus were not being very good citizens at that time. During the summer of 2007, the then-Student Body President of Notre Dame,Ms. Liz Brown, contacted Mr. Nussbaum. Ms. Brown was concerned about this particular Ordinance. The Council had legitimate concerns, but Mr. Nussbaum questioned the timing of the introduction of the Ordinance, when all the students were back at their homes over the summer. There wasn't a good opportunity for there to be dialogue about it. To the Council's credit, they delayed public action on it until the fall of 2007. Mr. Nussbaum contented that the Coalition was very successful early on in its original conception and he admitted that things may, as of now, have slid a little bit. He commended Ms. Brown for taking it seriously at that time. The Council raised concerns about the behavior of the students living off campus. Mr. Nussbaum claimed that sometimes students may not realize that by being given a bit more freedom living off campus comes with a bit more responsibility of being proper neighbors. Ms. Brown convinced the Council at the time that this Coalition should be adopted without the more onerous sections of the Ordinance being implemented. The coalition met regularly and there has been an ebb and flow of people that have participated. Off campus living is not just a north east neighborhood issue- it is a City-wide issue. The Coalition started running and when problems arose, they were addressed. The sense at that point was that things were going pretty well, and students were taking the initiative to introduce themselves to the neighbors. Students comes and go so we had to make sure that the leadership that comes on understands some of the responsibilities that the leadership has with regard to off campus students. The student body presidents of all the campuses do a really good job of that. Matt Costello is an important member to the Coalition because he lives in the neighborhood and he can speak to his experiences. Matt Costello spoke to the history of the ordinance and his personal experience with off campus student housing. He and his wife Annie bought a house on Notre Dame Avenue and Colfax about twenty-five (25) years ago and set out to lovingly restore the house. Soon after theymoved in,theysaw an alarmingtrend where one(1)neighbor gY g after another would sell to Mark Kramer to make them into student party houses. House after house were sold and we got more and more student party houses. By 2008, Mr. Kramer had eighty-four (84) what Mr. Costello calls `party houses.' What Mr. Costello means by party house is when more than two (2) unrelated people live together. In the Ordinance, they call them boarding houses. The trend finally stopped about the same time as the Coalition was created and theyput into Code that no more than two (2) unrelated people can live in one(1) unit. p p So, that was a big help toward stopping the trend, Mr. Costello believes. There are twenty-four(24) student party houses close enough that Mr. Costello has been woken up by. It is very troublesome in that, at its worst, the students had the sense that they owned the neighborhood,in Mr. Costello's opinion. He claims the students would take their drinks, parties and kegs into the front yard, into the streets and going house to house. People would be staggering, vomiting and urinating, and obviously neighbors couldn't tolerate that and many of them left. Since the Coalition started, it has been better,but things have slipped. The part Mr. Nussbaum referred to as the onerous part of the Ordinance is that part that Mr. Costello believes should have stayed because, in his opinion, it has teeth. What it said was that in a boarding house- a house with two (2) or more unrelated people -that in order to have a party of more than twenty-five (25) people in which alcohol would be served, they would need to get a permit. Mr. Costello believes it is regrettable that part of the Ordinance didn't get implemented. Instead, there was the Coalition. Mr. Costello still believes that the Coalition could have done more to have some teeth and take a more active role. Mr. Costello quoted the Ordinance and reiterated that it states the Coalition's job is to make recommendations to the Common Council,but he claimed that never in his ten(10)years being on the Committee had he remembered a vote on a recommendation. He gave an example of asking landlords take out the use of outdoor fire pits. He believes that would have been very reasonable. He also believes the Council could do more to ask the Police to fine the students and to arrest underage drinkers.Mr. Costello is thankful for the Police coming out and quieting the students down. However, he also believes Council could do more to get Code Enforcement to fine the students that leave garbage in neighbors' yards and not taking their recycling bins and trash bins back to the curb. He believes the Council could have done more to ask Notre Dame to be more responsible in disciplining unruly students. He believes it is not as bad, but it is still going down and it is because very few homeowners want to live there. He believes it's a sad situation. Tim Sexton believes the Coalition has been a body where significant relationships have been formed to the point where phone calls can address situations. Seniors are living next to Mr. Costello could be great but then they graduate in May and a new group comes in and that group might be different. The University deals with students living in off-campus housing, specifically interacting with their behavior off campus. There are programs that exist now that didn't exist back in the day. There has also been a lot of revitalization in those areas. Now, also, a student can't move off campus until they are a senior. Mr. Sexton believes there are a lot of positive things that have come from the Coalition. Chairperson Tomas Morgan then opened the floor to informal discussion in review of the current Ordinance and its content.This discussion consisted of more history,conversations about grant seeking and possible new avenues of how the CCAC could help support low-income members of the community have more access to college and the campuses. There was also conversation about public safety as well as off-campus student activities that are cross-campus. There was a consensus that the scope of the Ordinance needs to be further defined as less negative or punitive. Mr. Nussbaum encouraged new off-campus students to meet with their neighbors early in the year. He also encouraged the CCAC to get on the full Council's agenda to report on the relationships and invite neighbors and students to come to that meeting. Chairperson Tomas Morgan encouraged members to email suggestions to her at rtomasmo@southbendin.gov. Chairperson Tomas Morgan then opened the floor to announcements and updates from members of the CCAC. Holy Cross College Representatives Updates/Concerns: Mike Griffin announced that March 27th will be an open house for high school students all around South Bend who need help filling out their FAFSA. Rylee Horn announced a relationship with their ROTC program as well as their Boys Basketball team making it to the National Tournament. There is also an Expo on April 23"`` in the middle of IDEA Week to support entrepreneurs. Ivan Martinez announced that March PI will be the elections for the new student body executives as well as the Student Senate. University of Notre Dame Representatives Updates/Concerns: Tim Sexton announced that Marguerite Taylor from the Robinson Community Learning Center has had some health issues but has been released from the nursing home she was in and is living with her sister now. He believes both she and LuElla Webster from the Robinson Community Learning Center will be at the next CCAC meeting. The Robinson Community Learning Center had their anniversary celebration on February 1 4th Leah Kicinski announced that March 27th will be the Landlord Summit and Spring Housing Fair. That is an opportunity for local landlords to come and hear from the University of Notre Dame and connect them to the off- campus housing website. It is also an opportunity for students to come and meet local landlords. There will be a Q&A session as well as a panel for current off-campus students. There have also been programs with the Notre Dame Law Center about reading leases. Colleen King announced that over four hundred(400) students attended the Social Concerns Fair on January 21St There were different community partners and groups there for students to come and be a part of. There is also work being done on a Cross-Campus Engagement Council. They are working at IU South Bend, Holy Cross, Saint Mary's and Notre Dame Student Governments to come together. There was one (1) meeting last semester. Notre Dame Student Government published a South Bend Adventure Guide. That was an attempt to give students ideas of what to do in South Bend in hope to make students understand their South Bend community beyond their Notre Dame community. Back the Bend is April 26th and there are a large number of students that go out into the community and do volunteer work. The website is still getting set up for students to sign up, but fliers will be going out soon for that, as well. Indiana University South Bend Representatives Updates/Concerns: Rodger Pinto announced that IU South Bend finalized the purchase of the Civil Rights Heritage Center. The Student Government has set aside a Community Engagement Fund to do programming between students and community members through that fund. There will be a reception held there on February 25th. The Polar Plunge is being held February 29th at Four Winds Field. Residents/Neighborhoods Updates/Concerns: Pam Claeys announced that the next meeting of River Park Neighborhood will have Superintendent Todd Cummings and Mayor Mueller will come to a meeting, as well. South Bend Green Corps will come to a meeting in May to talk about home improvement projects. The River Park Clean-Up is Saturday, May 16th and the River Park Block Party is July 25th City of South Bend Updates/Concerns: Geovanny Martinez announced there will be six(6) new recruits going through the South Bend Police Academy. He announced that there is a Cadet Program for college students that are interested in a career in Law Enforcement. There is a scholarship portion associated to that opportunity. Chairperson Tomas Morgan adjourned the meeting at 4:34 p.m. The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for April 15th, 2020 at 3:30 p.m. Re ctfully Submitted, civ II Rachel Tomas Morgan, Committee Chair