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REGULAR MEETING March 11, 2019
<br /> day grunt work such as writing some of those reports and helping out the Zoning Administrator to
<br /> make sure we get all that information in a timely way. Also, when we engage and talk to people
<br /> who are looking to do things in South Bend, that person will do a lot of that work with them and
<br /> help them through that process. The Administrative Assistant is actually pretty important as well
<br /> because there is a lot of engagement that goes on. There are letters that go out. There are a lot of
<br /> phone calls that happen. We have to make sure to hit those timelines for advertising and get those
<br /> things right because, as you know, little clerical errors can cause delays and we don't want that
<br /> either.
<br /> Mr. Corcoran continued, Councilmember Voorde mentioned working together with other
<br /> agencies, I don't think that is going to stop. Some of the governmental agencies that we work with,
<br /> such as MACOG for State and Federal funding opportunities, we worked with them on the Coal
<br /> Line Trail. They helped work on our bike infrastructure as well. St. Joseph County Parks
<br /> Department,trail coordination, again,the St. Joseph County Public Library, we worked with them
<br /> to figure out how the renovations for their building are going to look. I'm on a call with them
<br /> almost every week to see what their doing and to help make sure that their plans work with us and
<br /> we move forward in a good direction. Engineering, Portage Avenue Bridge, that was going to be
<br /> replaced with a guardrail that looked like a highway and we stepped in to make sure there was
<br /> really good rail there and a wider sidewalk for pedestrian access up to the Martin's Plaza,lighting,
<br /> and we worked together to make that happen. We still will be working with the Area Plan
<br /> Commission when it comes to annexations and how development,just outside the City limits may
<br /> come into the City at a future date. Mishawaka, for instance, we worked with them on Brownfield
<br /> coordination. So, we really do work with a lot of agencies already and we plan on continuing to
<br /> work with a lot of these agencies.
<br /> Mr. Corcoran went on, (Referencing a slide from the presentation) This is familiar with you. This
<br /> is just the Plan Commission composition. There are nine (9) members on the Plan Commission
<br /> and this is how they get appointed. Again, State Law dictates the membership of this. The Board
<br /> of Zoning Appeals, five (5) members, also, the composition is dictated by State Law. There are
<br /> still some challenges and progress I would like to talk about. We are still working with the Legal
<br /> Department to determine the exact time and capacity issues and the impacts on current staff but,
<br /> like I said, we've had these conversations already and I feel we're in a good place to feel good
<br /> about moving forward with that. The Innovation Team is, again, helping us map processes and
<br /> determine IT-related impacts. Most importantly, the new staff are critical in the coordination of
<br /> these efforts. Again, we are trying to do things like the NNN Plan at the moment. There are other
<br /> things like that coming up, so, these two (2) people will be helping answer a lot of the questions
<br /> that we have still yet to be able to fully lock down.
<br /> Mr. Corcoran continued, Progress to date, the quick-fixes, we have a few more to come before the
<br /> summer. And, the zoning overhaul is in progress and we hope to have a draft by maybe May or
<br /> June. We are getting that reviewed, currently, by an external legal expert on zoning issues so that
<br /> when we get that draft back, it's been vetted at least once or twice from a legal perspective as well,
<br /> so,when we give it to our Legal Department,who we are also sharing it with now,they don't have
<br /> the full burden of going through it. A lot of it has been tested already. So, we are already trying to
<br /> do things to reduce the things the Legal Team and the other teams have to do in order to make all
<br /> of this work. I think we are doing a pretty good job getting all these pieces in line. The timeframe,
<br /> so,we would like to hire the staff immediately because we want to make sure, as I've said,to reach
<br /> the goal and have a smooth transition.That takes time.We've been taking an incremental approach
<br /> on a lot of things I think that is one (1) of the things that has helped us and helped us make sure
<br /> we are doing things in a good way. We want to have the draft zoning ordinance done by May. That
<br /> is on time. Our external and internal legal reviews are in progress and we hope to have that finished
<br /> in April. With the zoning ordinance adoption maybe in September.These are things that we always
<br /> will, and have in the past, work with you guys to make sure you are comfortable with. Any
<br /> questions you have, we will do our best to answer. Commissioner selection and training, we think,
<br /> would best happen between October and December because we want to make sure that those
<br /> people who are appointed to those boards understand their role, what they need to look at with the
<br /> criteria used to evaluate projects. Finally, all of this, hopefully, on January 1st, 2020 is when the
<br /> Plan Commission would start officially and projects, from that point on, would move through a
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