10-23-06 Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING OCTOBER 23, 2006 but in fact, is going to be used as a guide, a blueprint for moving forward in the future. As the City brings capital projects before the Council, zoning projects, this is a document that will hopefully help to inform your decisions and the decisions of future Mayors and future Council in moving forward. Mayor Luecke stated that what he is most excited about with the process has been the participation from the community. Scores of meetings, thousands of residents from the community participating because they love our community and want to be part of the planning process, they want to be part of the decision making process, they want their voices to be heard. He commends the community for making it their plan, not the Mayor’s plan or staff plan or the Council’s plan, but really a true City Plan. Mayor Luecke recognized and thanked the members of the Civic Alliance as well as some of the Chairs of the different panels, and the staff that worked on the City Plan. Mayor Luecke noted that this plan builds on the County’s comprehensive planning effort that was several years ago, the City participated but specific planning for the City of South Bend was left for the City to do. This plan meets the statutory requirements as a comprehensive plan. Mayor Luecke asked the Council to favorable adopt this resolution. th Ms. Pam Meyer, Director, Community and Economic Development, 12 Floor County- City Building, 227 W. Jefferson Blvd., South Bend, Indiana, made the presentation for this bill. Ms. Meyer advised that this Resolution would allow for the adoption of the City Plan with an addendum. Addendum A is a list of non-substantive format, typographical, grammatical changes to the document. She noted that they are aware at the point the Council approves City Plan and the amendments, that because of those amendments they would go back to the Area Plan Commission for their review of those amendments and at that point the Plan would be formally adopted and finalized. Phase I – visioning, Ms. Meyer stated that there were a number of visioning sessions with the Community. Report back sessions to the community that resulted in the drafting of a vision brochure. Phase II – analysis establishing topic areas, analyzing current conditions of those topic areas, again going back out to the community and seeking ideas for solutions on how to address those. The second part of Phase II was actually setting goals and policies and producing the City Plan Draft I. Phase III – is the pubic review and plan adoption. The City Plan Draft II has been presented to the public and Council and that is where the City Plan is today. The first public meetings began in October 2003, there was a total of 38 public meetings to date, attending approximately by 3,700 people. Over 100 small group meetings with approximately 170 stakeholders, because the Civic Alliance had requested people in the community who were experts in their field to assist in the analyzing process and they were part of the process as well. The plan contains all of the elements required by State Law. A statement of objectives for the future development of the jurisdiction and there are objectives and policies for every subject matter in the document. A statement of policy for the land use development of the jurisdiction, there is an extensive land use chapter; it speaks to current land use, future land use with a future land use map and a statement of policy for the development of public ways, public places, public lands, public structures, and public utilities, a capital facilities chapter as well. The plan includes additional elements, she noted that they went above and beyond what the minimum requirements are, and tried to address other topic areas that compliment the entire comprehensive nature of how the City will develop. Ms. Meyer thanked Mayor Luecke for his constant support and the time that he took to meet with everyone. She thanked the Council for their support and willingness to ask questions and to constantly be their. She thanked the Area Plan Commission for their support. To all the department heads and staff in the Community and Economic Development who were in a variety of meetings internally over the years, specifically to the communication and special projects department who help with the marketing related to City Plan and getting the word out to get community people at the meetings. Ms. Meyer extended a special thank you to Sharon Kendall, Executive Director, Community & Economic Development, because she came into this process sort of in the middle of City Plan, probably not really grasping what is was, until she was here for awhile. She was a constant supporter throughout the process. Additionally, Ms. Meyer stated that she worked for the City for twenty-three years this has been one of the most challenging as well as delightful experiences, she gives a lot of credit to the passion and creativity of some very strong people in her division who really have a passion and a commitment and a respect for the community 17