10-08-18 Zoning and Annexation - Laserfiche WebLink

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®CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Tim Corcoran,Director of Planning for the Department of Community Investment with offices on the 14th floor of the County-City Building, stated, I stand before you to speak in favor of this annexation as well as the following but we will get to that when we get to it. There is a lot of talk about why GI. GI does allow for the broadest range of uses. For instance, commercial uses would be allowable in this area if that opportunity came forth.As you know with new development in the City,drainage is a big issue we work on in every project whether it is a rezoning or not. That would carry forward with this project as well. Those issues would be addressed when a project comes forward and how we might address those issues would come out of the nature of the project if, and when, one (1)happens. A little extra information,we have a couple other places in the City where industrial uses are going. Ignition Park is one (1) of them where there is only approximately thirty (30)acres of land available. Portage Prairie is another area we have spoken about many times over the last year. The sites there are approximately ten (10) to thirty (30) acre sites. The advantage of these areas, especially the combined nature of these two (2) annexations, means that we are able to annex two hundred and fifty (250) acres of nearly three hundred and fifty (350) acres of contiguous developable land. It is a voluntary annexation,the only way we tend to annex property into the City. This area is uniquely located with tremendous infrastructure assets that do not exist in other places in St. Joseph County. You may be aware of projects outside the City limits where they are looking to build rail spurs.There are rail spurs here.There are other places that need sewer and water. Sewer and water exists here. Roads exists. Interchange onramps exist. So there is probably no better place in the City of South Bend for this type of development to occur. As the petitioner mentioned, we or they do not have a project in mind but wanted to get ahead of the Census deadline to annex. Change is coming. We are working with people in other areas, like Portage Prairie, where new buildings are being investigated all the time. This is a smart move on their part and, I think, on the City's part to get this included as soon as possible to give us the most amount of flexibility to move forward if, and when, a project becomes available. On that note, we also did bring this forward to Council in a Committee meeting on May 29th, 2018 where we spoke about annexations broadly across the City including areas near the Overlook. This one (1) was mentioned at that time. We were trying to be proactive about this by bringing it to Council very early. Thank you. Steve Matthys, 57572 Mayflower Road, stated, I'm a neighboring farm. Us, the Blads and the Snyders have all been in that same area since the turn of the century. My grandfather started there in 1930 and Martin followed in 1940. I do not disagree that there is developmental purpose for this ground. The Ethanol Plant went in and opened in 1984 which was a big boom for our area farmers. They put in a million dollar street as far as we're concerned so we always figured there would be development there.The ground on the east side of this map(referencing a slide in the presentation), I didn't get the clarification on that if that is zoned industrial or if that is zoned commercial. I mean there is a tire shop, a truck dealership, and a commercial drywall place there, so I didn't hear. It is industrial? (Mr. Wyatt confirmed it was Light Industrial)And we are asking for General Industrial on this piece?And the Ethanol Plant is zoned GI.I guess this is my rebuttal to the whole annexation asking for that zoning. If the Ethanol Plant that created smell pollution to the entire City of South Bend for twenty (20) years, before they ever got their scrubbers in place, is zoned GI, and you allow this parcel and the next parcel to come into the City of South Bend as GI, then what is the neighboring area going to do to stop another smelly Ethanol Plant or a mega-shredding and waste pollution? I do not disagree that this shouldn't be brought into the City. I think maybe it should be a commercial zoning at this point where if anything heavy has to come, they would have to go through rezoning and hear all the neighbors and the complaints that would arise. Also, if this is GI,the Ethanol Plant dumps 2.5 million gallons of water down the ditch that is owned through Ms. EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld'South Bend,Indiana 466011p 574.235.92211f574.235.91731TTD574.235.55671www.southbendin.gov 9