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REGULAR MEETING February 25, 2019
<br /> current facility? One (1) more though, and it has also been mentioned tonight. Their so-called
<br /> locked security gate is either wide open or not working and people are able to just go in and do
<br /> whatever they want to. This has been seen many,many times. It makes me wonder. Do they really
<br /> care about the clients? Or, are they just there to make money? I, myself, and I think we have all
<br /> been touched by addictions. I think I can speak for everyone, it's not the facilities we don't want.
<br /> It is the location. Choices is located next to a liquor store and now this one (1) is in a residential
<br /> area. These facilities should be located, I believe, in a quiet, less-populated area to get the proper
<br /> care they are in such need of I thank you for your time and I do hope that you will turn down this
<br /> proposal.
<br /> Barbara Steele, 2630 Aspen Way, South Bend, IN, stated, I am the closest neighbor they are going
<br /> to find. I do support their corporation. I do support their purpose. I am an ex-addict. I know what
<br /> the hell it was like. I do know what they have to go through. That part, I support. This is in the
<br /> middle of so many regular citizens.One(1)block away is a school.Across the street are apartments
<br /> with one hundred and eighty (180) members. We are an organization of two hundred and fifty
<br /> (250) members. Then, to the other side of us is another corporation that has apartments. All
<br /> together it comes to right about 2,150 residents who are being submitted to this being that close. I
<br /> do support the group. I do. I have even volunteered in a similar group. That's how much I think it
<br /> is that important. I also know it's that important that it be relocated in a more commercial situation
<br /> where the ladies can come in, get a loaf of bread, and go out and they don't have to worry about
<br /> something happening. Thank you.
<br /> Kathleen Petitjean, 119 South 26th Street, South Bend, IN, stated, I live in the Walnut Grove
<br /> community. Anyone with eyes to see can see that we need healing spaces like that which is being
<br /> proposed tonight. I don't think I need to remind any of you good people on this Council that this
<br /> is not about whether or not our community needs a healing space for people. This is about the
<br /> rezoning issue. I would like to speak about that. For those of you who received my email and read
<br /> it, you know that the City Administration's interface with Walnut Grove has been less than stellar.
<br /> Has anyone talked about what the traffic conditions will be like and how that traffic will be
<br /> impacting our community of Walnut Grove? Let me just tell you, Walnut Grove is a multi-family,
<br /> high-density community. It is zoned MF-Two (2). Our curving streets, unprotected sidewalks and
<br /> the proximity of our tiny homes to those streets put pedestrians, citizens and property at risk. For
<br /> that reason, our community was zoned MF-Two (2) and we have a twenty (20) mile per hour
<br /> posted speed limit. I'm here to tell you today that the only people who obey the speed limit are
<br /> Walnut Grove members, two (2) of the TRANSPO Bus drivers and our mailman. Every other car
<br /> that speeds through Walnut Grove does so because they are using our neighborhood as a high-
<br /> speed bypass. We, in Walnut Grove, begged the people on the 13th and 14th floor of the City's
<br /> Administration to address our concerns in Walnut Grove about the traffic there. In 2014, Pete's
<br /> Engineering Department came out and acknowledged the fact that we do have a problem with cut-
<br /> through traffic and also acknowledged that almost all the traffic far exceeds the twenty (20) mile
<br /> per hour speed limit. That was 2014. Five(5) years later and four(4) significant accidents in front
<br /> of our unit, alone, we have yet to see any improvement to our situation. Walnut Grove consists
<br /> primarily of elderly women and retirees. We have already seen the lack of respect for the zoning
<br /> regulations in our community with respect to speeding. What kind of impact is a facility like this,
<br /> where there will now be transport vans and who knows how many employees will be in the
<br /> corporation, and they are also going to be speeding through Walnut Grove. I'm asking you to
<br /> remember, please, that this is a zoning issue. We need to look at how the rest of the community is
<br /> going to be impacted, both traffic-wise, tax-wise, and this nebulous solution of a fence on the
<br /> corner, I just wonder about aesthetics. I just ask you to be our representatives of our community,
<br /> do the right thing and follow through with the Area Plan Commission's recommendation to decline
<br /> this rezoning.
<br /> Tamara Mason,420 South 35th Street, South Bend, IN, stated, I've lived behind Choices for thirty-
<br /> five(35) years. Thank goodness I have a thirty-three(33) year old son that is now out of the house
<br /> and that he was not young when this establishment was located there. I have witnessed profanity.
<br /> The same things you've heard,jumping of the fences,loud noises,no curfew at 11:00 p.m.,believe
<br /> me. I've been out in my backyard and I hear it go on and on and people wonder what's going on
<br /> over there. I have a sister who is a recovering drug addict. I understand there need to be places and
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