04-25-05 Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING APRIL 25,2005 proposes to work with INDOT and the appropriate agencies for an interchange at Adams Road and the Bypass. The petitioner will work with the City and County to improve Mayflower, Auten, and Adams Roads. The entire site itself will be servied by a local street network. The entire area to be developed will contain a pedestrian way and trail system. The site will be serviced by municipal water and sewer from South Bend. The development is subject to Final Site Plan approval through the Plan Commission staff. Each phase of the development will need to meet all City Drainage and road improvement standards. According to the Agencies maps, there appears to be two wetland areas east of the bypass. This site is in compliance with the comprehensive Plan. Goal 2, Objective A ensures that suitable areas are available for future industrial growth. Industrial uses should have access to major highways. Quality employment centers are vital to the short and long term functioning of the community. Objective C promotes developing business areas to meet the retail and service needs of the area. Policy iii indicates that future commercial sites should be designed for convenient access and safety by encouraging limited signage, curb cuts and access to adjacent developments. The policy plan also encourages business centers to locate at the intersection of highways or limited access interchanges. Goal 3, Objective C encourages new developments to take place in the traditional neighborhood form by having access to arterial streets and providing adequate open space and green areas for residents. The Land Use Plan designates this area as an industrial growth area. The proposed commercial and office uses are not out of character with the proposed industrial growth area. The areas to the north of this development are rural residential in character. To the south there is residential, commercial, and industrial development. The northwest side of South Bend has been experiencing industrial, commercial and residential growth in the last 5-10 years. If an interchange is located at Adams Road and the Bypass, the most desirable uses are for commercial, light industrial (when adjacent to other industrial zoning and uses). The Comprehensive Plan identifies this area as desirable for industrial growth. The development, if property screened and buffered, may increase the adjacent property values, as future development may become more likely. The adjacent industrial park should not be affected. It is responsible to encourage developments that will meet the service and retail needs of the community.Locating a mixed use of commercial and light industrial uses adjacent to the bypass ensures that the businesses have good access to the major transportation routes in the County, and likewise the residents and workers have easy access to this development. Locating industrial uses adjacent to existing industrial uses minimizes the impact on adjacent residential properties, and the petitioner is providing residential bufferyards above and beyond the requirements of the ordinance. Encouraging this type of project will ensure more integration between the different uses than if they were developed in a piecemeal fashion. Based on information available prior to the public hearing the staff recommends that his petition be sent to the Common Council with a favorable recommendation, subject to a Final Site Plan. As the City of South Bend grows, it is important to meet the retail and service needs of the residents in the City and County. It is responsible to encourage this type of large development to be annexed into the City so they can be served and supported by City services while contributing to the overall tax base for the City and County. Locating at a potential interchange along the bypass is responsible since that is where higher intensity uses will