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REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 22, 2016 Gary King, 730 N. Hill Street, spoke in favor of the bill. He stated he is concerned it may be more difficult now to have a household employee. Mr. King stated his experience in special education has presented times where a family will have personal assistants live at home because they need constant care. We want flexibility but it has to be the right flexibility. We should be removing hurdles that serve no purpose. Marguerite Taylor, 714 Corby Blvd South Bend, spoke in favor of the bill. We want the Council to close the loophole. We need to stop having neighborhoods with six (6) to seven (7) students living in two (2) and three (3) bedroom houses. Gregg Hackenin, 415 Main Building Notre Dame Indiana, stated he is both the Director of Northeast Neighborhood Redevelopment and a board members of the NNRO. There are two (2) basic parts to the text amendment being proposed here. We are trying to preserve and continue the Northeast Neighborhood as a family neighborhood and the single biggest barrier to that is a house that was built as a Single Family Home and being rented to four (4), five (5) or six (6) college students. He stated he is not hostile to students but that lifestyle is inconsistent with the neighborhood. The definitions as they exist allow someone to have six (6) unrelated residents and list them as household servants and then it's legal. This is the single largest threat to what we have accomplished in the neighborhood over the last sixteen (16) years. The second part of this amendment permits these types of residents in the Central Business District. We are not opposed to group residences but only if it is in the proper location. It is appropriate to have a public process through which to review those as they come forward. Those from the public wishing to speak in opposition: David Matthews, 215 East Colfax, stated he is the guy who figured out this loophole four (4) years ago. The quick history is that four (4) years ago seven (7) guys came to him and stated they wanted to start a company and live together in downtown South Bend. The option for a special exception did not exist in the CBD. He read the. rules and found the loophole which worked. The group of guys ended up forming EnFocus, which has done a phenomenal job for us in South Bend. That project took between four (4) and six (6) months. If we would have to go through the process laid out in this new bill it would have taken much longer and been far more burdensome. This bill doesn't make sense. In the Central Business District we let most everything go. A developer can have a bar downstairs or restaurant downstairs in a residential unit. Buildings can go from vacant to occupied very easily because of this loophole and positive things happen. The CBD has no parking requirements. It would be easier to convert a building to a bar or restaurant with almost no public input than it would be to have three (3) roommates if this bill passes. A two (2) month process added on to the normal time of doing business can be the difference between being business friendly and looking somewhere else. The Northeast Neighborhood has done a phenomenal job cleaning up that neighborhood and this would be a positive change to get rid of the loophole for that neighborhood. Just don't make extra needless paperwork to do something that has been working successfully in the CBD. The only thing to do would be modify the section where it says group housing is a special exception in the CBD and make it a permitted use. Willow Wetheral, 701 North Niles Ave., spoke in favor of the bill. She stated she is friends with many of the people who spoke in favor of the change and she previously lived on Notre Dame Avenue and she understands having college students crammed into single family homes is an issue. Downtown is a different case though than the neighborhoods. There are many people who use this loophole in the right way and the way we are trying to attract millennial and young professionals downtown. We should not penalize people with a lot of bureaucracy and hurdles when they are trying to do positive things for the community. Dr. Matthew Teeters, 223 East Colfax Ave., stated he is the homeowner association president of the East Bank Townhomes. He stated he moved downtown in 2012 with his girlfriend and they are not traditional and do not plan on getting married but they are still a family. It was always his intention to have a roommate in his townhome. These are people who through the experience of living downtown have enriched lives. This proposal puts an undue burden upon the homeowners to provide that enriched environment. ►A