04-25-05 Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING APRIL 25,2005 St. Joseph County is becoming a key residential area and the need to think ahead to avoid problems in experienced growth areas. Mr. Frank Perri, Holladay Properties, 227 S. Main, South Bend, Indiana, advised that the project should not compete with downtown businesses. The project should have a “WOW” factor and to recognize the importance of City/County cooperation for success, local government cooperation is the key to a successful development. The utilities in the area have been planned for development along with transportation and telecom assets and potential “Metro Net” connections are a competitive advantage. The Chicago and South West Michigan area access is an opportunity. Light industrial, distribution and tech- based businesses are opportunity areas. Potential location as both “destination” and neighborhood retail. Character which compliments downtown assets. The topography and natural features offer recreational opportunities such as bike and pedestrian links to river corridor, biodiverse areas nearby and to lake country are a great potential amenity. The “smart growth” features organize around transportation assets (US 31); higher density closer to transportation node (moves more traffic in and out via 31); Master planned mixed use (uses are separate but connected: jobs, services, shopping) serve as both regional and neighborhood center for growing residential areas and provide circulation for vehicles and pedestrians/bicyclists with ample “greenways” and connections to regional recreational assets. The Portage Prairie: Smart Growth Scorecard to create a range of housing opportunities and choices in providing quality housing for people of all income levels is an integral component in any smart growth strategy. Create walkable neighborhoods and communities that are desirable places to live, work, learn, worship and play, and therefore a key component of smart growth. Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration. Growth can create great places to live, work and play if it responds to a community’s own sense of how and where it wants to grow. Smart growth fosters distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place and encourages communities to craft a vision and set standards for development and construction which respond to community values of architectural beauty and distinctiveness, as well as expanded choices in housing and transportation. For a community to be successful in implementing smart growth, it must make development decisions predictable, fair and cost effective and be embraced by the private sector. Smart growth supports the integration of mixed land uses into communities as a critical component of achieving better places to live. Open space preservation supports smart growth goals by bolstering local economies, preserving critical environmental areas, improving our communities quality of life, and guiding new growth into existing communities. Providing people with more choices in housing, shopping, communities and transportation is a key aim of smart growth. Smart growth directs development towards existing communities already served by infrastructure, seeking to utilize the resources that existing neighborhoods offer, and conserve open space and irreplaceable natural resources on the urban fringe. Mr. Doug Hunt, Holladay Properties, 227 S. Main Street, South Bend, Indiana, advised that the next steps are to complete the annexation/rezoning of Phase 1. Complete the master plan; traffic analysis; development phasing plan; infrastructure cost analysis and revise as necessary the economic impact analysis along with initiating the development