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CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
<br /> He continued, The independence and accountability questions were brought up. The make up of
<br /> these two (2)bodies is dictated in State Law and we believe, and we know, the Plan Commission
<br /> and BZA would remain an independent body that have clearly defined criteria for decision making.
<br /> There are generally three (3) criteria looked at. I think that is very similar to the zoning criteria
<br /> that you have to think about when you are considering a rezoning request. Importantly, for us, in
<br /> terms of some of the capacity questions,we are doing this in a very incremental way.We are doing
<br /> the zoning update in an incremental way by tackling little pieces at a time, working up to the big
<br /> picture. This is very much in line with that philosophy and strategy. We need these two (2)people
<br /> to help us incrementally build this department up. That is going to help us look at and find some
<br /> of the things that we may not know yet but are zeroing in on. One (1) of those is cost. One (1) of
<br /> the things I can tell you is that there are three (3) positions, total, that will be part of this. One (1)
<br /> is a rollover from the Building Department and two (2) are new. The budget, itself, contemplates
<br /> the two (2) new positions. That is what this resolution is about. I wanted to put all three (3)
<br /> positions up there (referencing a slide in the presentation) so that you can understand this total
<br /> cost. So,for all positions,it is around$250,000,including the fringe benefits.That is the maximum
<br /> salary for a full year. This is not necessarily what the salaries will be, but this is the full amount.
<br /> He went on, Some of the things we are working on include estimating the cost of potential
<br /> additional resources that may be needed for the Legal Department. We don't have a number on
<br /> this yet, but, what we have done is I had a meeting with Stephanie Steele, Aladean, Sandy
<br /> Kennedy,Mitch Heppenheimer and Brandy Ecker. I've never been in a room with so many lawyers
<br /> and,basically, I got them all talking about trying to explain the time requirements. The day-to-day
<br /> running of these two (2) bodies, the Plan Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals, when it
<br /> is up and running, it runs relatively smoothly. It is fairly predictable in terms of how much time is
<br /> required from a lawyer. It is about five (5) hours a month when it comes to meetings and things
<br /> like that. Occasionally, there are issues that spring up where there is an appeal to something,
<br /> although that is quite rare. We are seeing one (1) now based on the Pandora Bookstore project.
<br /> But, that is quite rare and doesn't happen very often. City Legal already weighs in on those. So,
<br /> we already have to tackle those issues when they come to us as they come. We manage that within
<br /> the normal day-to-day work environment.
<br /> He continued,Also,we've set up meetings,and they've already happened,between our Innovation
<br /> Department and the Area Plan Commission regarding IT infrastructure. So, databases and all the
<br /> other information that needs to be rolled over into the City ecosystem, so far, there are no big red
<br /> flags that have been thrown up and it seems like it is all manageable. There is some revenue that
<br /> gets generated through these boards but it's not something we shouldn't look to count on because
<br /> it is based on development patterns. So, if there are more rezoning requests, there are more fees.
<br /> If there are less, there are less fees. In 2017 there was about $25,000. In 2018, there was close to
<br /> $50,000. Staff capacity, so, currently DCI staff does some of the planning and makes some of the
<br /> recommendations to the Area Plan Commission. We have been leading the charge on the quick
<br /> fixes, though, we have been doing it in conjunction with the Area Plan Commission staff. The
<br /> zoning overhaul has been primarily driven from our department, especially when it comes to the
<br /> form,how it works, and putting it all together. The future staff is really tasked with the day-to-day
<br /> administration of the Plan Commission. This will actually help reduce some of the workload that
<br /> current DCI staff already has. So,we won't be necessarily making recommendations because we'll
<br /> be working this out. The recommendation will now be the recommendation. This helps free up
<br /> EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
<br /> 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov
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