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REGULAR MEETING NOVEMBER 14, 2016 Marry Rose Eslinger, 307 East LaSalle Avenue, stated she lives at The Point and has done so for twelve (12) years. She stated she has lived there longer than Mr. Mathews has been out of school. She stated she knows this neighborhood and is in opposition to the entire project even though she loves Martins. She stated she just does not want to see a grocery store across the street. Her quality of life will suffer because she will be in the dark and her AEP bills will be sky -high due to her lights being on all day. This is a good project but he should do something like the East Bank Townhomes not this building. This is incongruous with a village. The traffic will be deplorable. She stated she knows what she is talking about and this is a wrong idea for this block. Apartment buildings should be against the river or on the East Race and should be away from everything. We haven't had a Martins for a long time or grocery store at all but maybe we should do a satellite Target or something. Villages can have a two (2) level department store. She stated she has six (6) opportunities to buy groceries where she lives and she shops local. Let's put the Martins on the west side of the river and build reasonable apartments. She stated she is for growth and development but not on her block. Mr. Mathews was given five (5) minute for rebuttal. He stated he will try to address as many concerns as he can in the time. He stated the owner of The Pointe apartments stated they are okay with nine (9) stories and that the taxpayers are putting in more money than Mathews LLC because the taxpayers are doing a tax abatement. Mr. Mathews stated that is ridiculous. The regional cities grant is ten percent (10 %) of cost. The down payment that he needs to put up to the lender is his own money not the taxpayers and the loan he receives from the bank is guaranteed by him. The bank will get paid unless he has no money. It is certainly his risk even if he has a bank loan. Mr. Mathews stated the owner of The Pointe stated he is not concerned about competition but then brought up concerns about demand which shows that really they do have a concern about competition. If they can get three (3) stories knocked off the building it is seventy - four units fewer. If they can get a grocery store across the street with no apartments above, that is the best case for the other developers. Mr. Mathews stated he believes he knows what it will cost to build this building and he has more experience building condos and housing, like the pictures he has shown, because he actually built them. Mr. Mathews continued that people are asking for the Council to take their time but we have been working on this for six (6) months. We have had multiple public meetings, staff reports, Community Investment supports this proposal, and the Area Plan Commission moved this on neutrally. Now it is up for the Council to make a decision. We are not asking the City for any money in this proposal and this proposal works. We could do it shorter, if we had some support. The East Bank Plan called for millions of dollars to be invested over the past eight (8) years which didn't happen. We had the Jefferson Street and Niles Avenue improvements but the two (2) parking garages the City was supposed to build have not materialized. We have heard from other developers who were the same people who first changed the height limit. Mr. Mathews finished by stating this projects fits within the character of the neighborhood. It is taller but the character and style and design of the building has much more impact on the character of the street than the height. We could build a one (1) story strip mall with a parking structure on the corner which would be completely fine with the East Bank Plan but it would not fit the character of the neighborhood. Chairperson Ferlic stated because we limited the Councilmembers to two (2) questions earlier, we now will have an opportunity for any final questions after hearing public input. Councilmember Williams- Preston asked Mr. Mathews why they did not look into changing the East Bank Plan back in June when the Area Plan Commission recommended them to. Mr. Mathews responded that we had some conversation both with Community Investment and some City Councilmembers. To change the plan is a very involved process. First you have to change the plan, then you have to change the zoning ordinance. The total process would take six (6) months to a year. Once that plan is updated we then have to change the zoning ordinance to comply with the plan. That is probably another two (2) to three (3) months. That puts us well over a year to get this changed. If you look at the precedents that have been set, the ABZA changed the height from sixty (60) feet to ninety -eight (98) feet which is a sixty eight percent (68 %) increase immediately. We are asking for a seventy -eight percent (78 %) increase over that. 23