09-28-15 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING September 28, 2015 parishioners and parents use Hollywood Blvd. to access the back entrance into Holy Family Church to attend services and drop off their children for school. Crossing over Western is already difficult as it is. But with additional traffic turning on Hollywood Blvd., there will be an increase in accidents at this intersection. The third traffic problem will be at the intersection of Hollywood Blvd and Grant, everyone traveling east on Grant will use Hollywood Blvd. to access Martin’s. This will jam traffic on Grant as drivers wait to turn on Hollywood Blvd. Martin’s representatives have argued that traffic down Hollywood Blvd. will be minimal due to the entrances and exits off of Mayflower, this is false. Since there is no left turn signal at the intersection of Mayflower and Sample, traffic turning North on to Mayflower will begin to pile up, deterring drivers from using Mayflower to access Martin’s and instead use Hollywood Blvd. Everyone says that these traffic problems on Western and Hollywood and Grant and Hollywood Blvd. are INDOT issues. Let’s please stop passing the buck and let’s prevent these traffic problems from being INDOT issues and we can do that by closing access from Hollywood Blvd. into Martin’s. Hollywood Blvd. was not designed to withstand a heavily volume of traffic, it’s a county road not a major thoroughfare. At th the county council meeting on Sept 8 Councilwoman Diana Hess and Councilmen Robert Kruszynski, Raphael Morton, Mark Catanzarite admonished Martin’s to take seriously the concerns of the residents and do something to resolve these problems. Martin’s has not made any concessions or offered any solutions to the safety and traffic problems. I speak only on my behalf, since no resolutions have been offered I propose we make the access off of Hollywood Blvd. into an emergency gate access. I’d also like to thank Councilman Oliver Davis for his assistance regarding the concerns of our County residents. Thomas Kowalski, 56680 Hollywood Blvd.- I speak on behalf of my Mom who has lived at 56680 Hollywood Blvd. since 1954. Our property is directly south, along the south border of the Martin’s. My mom who is 92 would probably hit Bob Bartels with her cane she is so upset, that’s a different story. My concern is the retention pond being one-hundred and (150) feet from our well. Since we live in the county the surrounding homes have well water. The pollution off of the overflow from the parking lot may in time pollute the wells. What kind of recourse will we have? Secondly, she does not want the traffic from Hollywood Blvd. She doesn’t particularly like cars going down the street. Nobody has mentioned the construction trucks. Are they going to use Hollywood Blvd. to haul materials in and out or are they going to use Mayflower and Western, which are built for heavier traffic? She is against it and I am against it. Committee of the Whole Chairperson White: We will now move to the rebuttal and ask the petitioner to come before the council, questions regarding well water, runoff, and what impact it may have, construction trucks, and whole issue of Hollywood Grant, Hollywood Blvd. and Western Ave. and the back entrance and the gate and whether it could be gated to allow for trucks to come in and out. Robert Bartels (Petitioner) - First of all, a lot of things talking about traffic, we’ve got a traffic study coming. I know that we will respond earnestly and in a forth right fashion to those things. The other issue is a larger zoning issue piece. We’re going to become neighbors with folks who don’t currently have us as neighbors. There is nothing like a track record to help explain some things and we’ve heard concerns about light, concerns about traffic, trash, a whole variety of things. First of all, we are taking a proactive approach to what we do. Spent an hour and half th speaking with neighbor folks on August 26, we’ve met extensively with engineering and traffic folks and have engaged a process that is thorough and as fact based we can possibly get it. Third we do take all concerns as seriously as we can. It is very difficult to answer things in an abstract way though. I am not sure what might happen if we try to focus on what has happened. Here are a list of nine stores where we are in very close proximity to neighbors, to side roads, to residential areas, as I look at a couple of things. As you can see our back parking lot is something in the nature of twelve (12) to fifteen (15) feet from the houses within that square on that corner. This is an area where you have heavy remonstrance. Martin’s Supermarket, we did the right things for the right reasons, we took care of the trees, we took care of the shading, we took care of the sound and we made a difference. Here is a neighborhood that is essentially surrounding our store and has many of the same kinds of features that we are discussing here today. Where does traffic go and how do we handle it? What do we do as corporate citizens you notice cars parked directly next to a roof that is on the right. We talk to that neighbor frequently and we don’t have complaints. Here’s our university store that goes on a residential street. They were concerned about us having this access. We said no to truck traffic initially, we had the fence that you are asking about there. 12