10-22-18 Zoning and Annexation - Laserfiche WebLink

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•CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Mr.Vanderveen replied,Yes, so last year and the year before,what we found at the Kratz building, as you know, we had a number of encampments under the bridge and a lot of homeless around the downtown area. The neighbors were very concerned about having Weather Amnesty at the Kratz Building and what they told us is that the business owners thought it actually improved for them once Weather Amnesty opened because people were now housed and they were less unstable and doing crazy things. We also now have some way of having a consequence if they negatively affected our neighbors. So when we run the Weather Amnesty program, if one (1) of the people who is accessing the service and they negatively affect our neighbors, the neighbors let us know. We talk to that person and we let them know that if that continues, they will not be welcomed to stay and they typically stop doing that behavior. Our neighbors found that it is actually better for them when Weather Amnesty opens. In fact when we got to April 1"last year our neighbors asked if we could keep it open longer because they didn't want it to go back to the way it was before. So sometimes it is hard to imagine it will be better if we are bringing more people in, but I think at this site, as most of you probably know, is there are already a number of folks that are camping back in that triangle behind the building. We think there are probably twenty (20) of them right now and they probably cause a lot of problems during the day. We think that once Weather Amnesty is opened, people will be housed and then once morning comes they will go elsewhere to access the other services. They won't have their campsite there so they won't be back in that area during the day. I believe businesses will see less impact during the day in that triangle and I know that in the evenings and when people are there, we will have staff on site. Committee Chair Davis followed up,You mentioned that some of the people at the Kratz Building would like to continue this past April Pt. Given the climate change and everything else that is going on, I remember last April it was still cold. Who sets that date for the Weather Amnesty? Is there any consideration to extend that given the fact that our weather patterns may be changing? Last year we had a cold spring. Mr. Vanderveen replied, Yes, we did. Last year The Center for the Homeless, I believe, did stay open a little bit longer. We try to be flexible. As you remember last year the zoning approval was honored until April 1" and we felt we needed to honor that. So the group of service providers in the area that have talked about this have kind of set that. They used to do it based on temperature but we've now decided to do it based on dates. Typically it works out fairly well. We try to be flexible. Committee Chair Davis interrupted, I remember a few years ago we had a warm spring, it was interesting. We had to start cutting grass but lately we haven't had that. And so, in terms of the wording, my only concern is, do we need to have a hard-fast date of April 1" or do we need to have it pending weather issues? Some kind of wording there that still gets us out of the issue but also being sensitive to the fact that April Pt could be a very cold day and then sending people out on that day is not good for you, the neighbors and everybody else in the process. And so, that is just where my head is right now. Mr. Vanderveen replied, Yeah, and I appreciate the heart behind that. We want to serve people in the way they need to be serviced. My understanding is your approval of the rezoning doesn't come with an expiration date. We will have a lease with the property owner and that lease will have an end date which currently is April 15th, 2019. But then there is also the issue of the commitment to rezone and so there is some timing associated with that. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 vwvwsouthbendin.gov 11