Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-11-19 Zoning and Annexation 03TH 8,4; 4,16 L.') .- -7'-':--. C w a PEACE: ' V 1865 OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK ZONING &ANNEXATION MARCH 11, 2019 4:43 P.M. Committee Members Present: Jo M. Broden Committee Members Absent: Oliver Davis, John Voorde, Gavin Ferlic Other Council Present: Regina Williams-Preston, Karen White, Tim Scott, Sharon McBride (late) Other Council Absent: Jake Teshka Others Present: Graham Sparks, Bob Palmer Presenters: Jordan Wyatt, Tim Corcoran Agenda: Bill No. 19-04- Special Exception: 1119 Lincoln Way West Substitute Bill No. 19-15-Approval of the City Administration Effort to Establish a South Bend Plan Commission Board of Zoning Appeals Council President Tim Scott called to order the Zoning and Annexation Committee meeting at 4:43 p.m. He introduced members of the Committee and announced the lack of a quorum, rendering the Committee incapable of taking official legislative action. He proceeded to give the floor to the presenters. Bill No. 19-04- Special Exception: 1119 Lincoln Way West Jordan Wyatt, Planner for the Area Plan Commission with offices located on the 11th floor of the County-City Building, stated, The petitioner is not here. We contacted them last week and this morning and they said they were coming. Council President Scott sent Bill No. 19-04 to the full Council with no recommendation,due to the lack of a quorum as well as the absence of the petitioner. Substitute Bill No. 19-15- Approval of the City Administration Effort to Establish a South Bend Plan Commission Board of Zoning Appeals Tim Corcoran, Director of Planning for the Department of Community Investment with offices located on the 14th floor of the County-City Building, stated, A clean copy of the resolution,with markup, is coming. It's being printed right now. This has gone through both City Legal as well INTEGRITY' SERVICE'ACCESSIBILITY JENNIFER M.COFFMAN BIANCA L.TIRADo JOSEPH R.MOLNAR CIIIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Blvd.I South Bend,Indiana 46601 I p 574.235.92211f 574.235.91731 www.southbendin.gov CITY OFSOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK as Bob Palmer looked at this. They suggested the minimum text changes are in line with proper procedures and are ok. They don't substantially change anything. Council President Scott asked, Is this a substitute to the substitute on file at the time? Mr. Corcoran replied, Yes. It is a second (2nd) sub. Mr. Corcoran went on, Thank you, Council Members. Today, I wanted to speak to you about the formation of a South Bend and a Board of Zoning Appeals. What I wanted to start off with right away is what this resolution enables. This resolution allows us to hire the staff as outlined in the 2019 budget. This will help us work toward the development of a South Bend Plan Commission, whose responsibilities will include coordinating with the Area Plan Commission in terms of knowledge and data transfer, process refinements to find efficiencies between City departments including Building, Code Enforcement, Economic Development and the Planning Department. Also, they will help with continuing to work on our zoning ordinance overhaul including a few more quick-fixes we want and intend to bring to Council the next few months. He continued, What this resolution does not do is establish the actual Plan Commission. That would have to be done with an ordinance later this year and, approximately, in September. So, why establish a Plan Commission for South Bend? We talked a little bit about this but, philosophically, we believe South Bend residents should be making decisions for South Bend. There were some questions about the skill sets on the Plan Commission currently and whether or not we would be able to match some of those skill sets with a new Commission. We believe we can. We have a lot of smart people and have a wealth of internal experience to help with this. I think one(1)of the goals of these two(2)people,too,is to help find and vet some of those potential people, especially when it comes to the citizen members that might be on this Board. We believe the South Bend Plan Commission members will have greater insights into City planning objectives and,thus,be aligned with what we are trying to achieve,especially when it comes to neighborhood development and plans. We recently brought the South East Neighborhood Plan to you and we are currently working on the Near Northwest Neighborhood Plan. One (1) of my objectives for next year is to try and do at least two (2) more of these and to continue that effort forward to get that up to date. He went on,And we think through better communication throughout the entire zoning and variance process. We think there will be a streamline and better coordination between departments. From a strategic planning point of view, there is neighborhood vision and master plan strategies we develop. There is a citizen engagement element with these things,too,all the way from plan review which is mainly a Building Department function to Economic Business Development. There are a lot of different people and a lot of different departments that have to come together in order to help make proper decisions. I think having that all under one(1)roof really would help streamline some of those decisions. Zoning Code Compliance (referencing a slide in a presentation which is available in the City Clerk's Office). We hope that the reform to the Code will eliminate unnecessary, overburdensome and out of date regulations. So, we're trying to streamline that part. But,we also want to stand firm on the rules that we really believe in.With this and being consistent in the application of the zoning ordinance, we hope this will help promote compliance with the Code. Over time, we also hope it will further reduce administrative time on things. I know we've heard, anecdotally from some,that certain variances are granted all the time and others aren't even asked of EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.92211f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 s e w.southbendin.gov 2 CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK He continued, The independence and accountability questions were brought up. The make up of these two (2)bodies is dictated in State Law and we believe, and we know, the Plan Commission and BZA would remain an independent body that have clearly defined criteria for decision making. There are generally three (3) criteria looked at. I think that is very similar to the zoning criteria that you have to think about when you are considering a rezoning request. Importantly, for us, in terms of some of the capacity questions,we are doing this in a very incremental way.We are doing the zoning update in an incremental way by tackling little pieces at a time, working up to the big picture. This is very much in line with that philosophy and strategy. We need these two (2)people to help us incrementally build this department up. That is going to help us look at and find some of the things that we may not know yet but are zeroing in on. One (1) of those is cost. One (1) of the things I can tell you is that there are three (3) positions, total, that will be part of this. One (1) is a rollover from the Building Department and two (2) are new. The budget, itself, contemplates the two (2) new positions. That is what this resolution is about. I wanted to put all three (3) positions up there (referencing a slide in the presentation) so that you can understand this total cost. So,for all positions,it is around$250,000,including the fringe benefits.That is the maximum salary for a full year. This is not necessarily what the salaries will be, but this is the full amount. He went on, Some of the things we are working on include estimating the cost of potential additional resources that may be needed for the Legal Department. We don't have a number on this yet, but, what we have done is I had a meeting with Stephanie Steele, Aladean, Sandy Kennedy,Mitch Heppenheimer and Brandy Ecker. I've never been in a room with so many lawyers and,basically, I got them all talking about trying to explain the time requirements. The day-to-day running of these two (2) bodies, the Plan Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals, when it is up and running, it runs relatively smoothly. It is fairly predictable in terms of how much time is required from a lawyer. It is about five (5) hours a month when it comes to meetings and things like that. Occasionally, there are issues that spring up where there is an appeal to something, although that is quite rare. We are seeing one (1) now based on the Pandora Bookstore project. But, that is quite rare and doesn't happen very often. City Legal already weighs in on those. So, we already have to tackle those issues when they come to us as they come. We manage that within the normal day-to-day work environment. He continued,Also,we've set up meetings,and they've already happened,between our Innovation Department and the Area Plan Commission regarding IT infrastructure. So, databases and all the other information that needs to be rolled over into the City ecosystem, so far, there are no big red flags that have been thrown up and it seems like it is all manageable. There is some revenue that gets generated through these boards but it's not something we shouldn't look to count on because it is based on development patterns. So, if there are more rezoning requests, there are more fees. If there are less, there are less fees. In 2017 there was about $25,000. In 2018, there was close to $50,000. Staff capacity, so, currently DCI staff does some of the planning and makes some of the recommendations to the Area Plan Commission. We have been leading the charge on the quick fixes, though, we have been doing it in conjunction with the Area Plan Commission staff. The zoning overhaul has been primarily driven from our department, especially when it comes to the form,how it works, and putting it all together. The future staff is really tasked with the day-to-day administration of the Plan Commission. This will actually help reduce some of the workload that current DCI staff already has. So,we won't be necessarily making recommendations because we'll be working this out. The recommendation will now be the recommendation. This helps free up EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 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 3 •CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK some of the DCI staff time and put it towards strategic neighborhood planning efforts, much like we are doing at the NNN right now. He went on, So, we believe these will help create efficiencies through closer coordination. These are the brief job descriptions(referencing a slide in the presentation). I emailed everybody a larger thing that had a lot more duties and responsibilities than that, but these are the primary responsibilities.The Zoning Administrator is really responsible for making those land-use decision calls but then the Specialist is there to support that. The Administrative Assistant is really for the mailings and phone calls and such. That is a full-time job as well. What we are hoping for is that if there is a little bit of capacity left over in some of these positions because, again, it is all about how much is coming in on a month-to-month basis, I really would like to use that extra capacity to go into neighborhood planning and things like that. How much better can it be when your zoning staff is also helping neighborhoods? I don't think you could get more coordination than when that starts to happen. Councilmember Voorde mentioned something about working together. I want to put it out there that this isn't about not working with other governmental agencies. We plan to continue working with other governmental agencies and this is the list I came up with(referencing a slide in the presentation). We work with MACOG all the time and will continue working with them. Right now,we are looking at a lot of State and Federal funding opportunities. The St. Joseph County Parks Department and the trail coordination. The Coal Line Trail, we are hoping, will connect two (2) county trails and then go up into Michigan. We've even had conversations with Niles about things. The Library, I am on a call almost every week with architects from RAMSA and the St. Joseph County Library,working out the detail on that project. Engineering,the Portage Avenue Bridge upgrades,that was DCI working with County Engineering to make sure that bridge was not a steel rail but nicer. Annexations, Area Plan Commission, Mishawaka, and Brownfields coordination. He continued, This is the make-up (referencing a slide in the presentation). Again, nine (9) members. It is in your packet if you want to get into the details on some of this. The Board of Zoning Appeals composition is five (5) members and has a similar appointee system. This is all State Law. So, some of the challenges and progress to date includes working with the City's Legal Department to really zone in on that time capacity issue. Really, what it looks like is that ramp up to the Plan Commission is where the extra effort is going to need to come. What we think is we could probably hire an outside lawyer to rewrite or write the bylaws. We might even be able to use existing funding in Professional Services or something like that, but we are still in the process of figuring out what that might be. The Innovation team is helping us to map out processes. They try to find efficiencies through mapping out the processes they go through. They are helping us, and they are excited about this. The new staff are absolutely critical in these efforts. We've done all the quick-fixes over the past few years, hopefully there will be a couple more before July, the zoning overhaul is in progress, and we would like to get these new staff hired immediately. The draft zoning ordinance is on time. Our consultant is looking at that and we have external review on that from a lawyer specialist on Indiana Code. They are looking at it before we bring it to our own legal team. Again, it is about reducing workload on our legal team and I feel we are doing a lot to try and do that. We hope to have the zoning ordinance adopted in September and that is when we want to have the ordinance that comes through to formally establish the Plan Commission. It is at that point that we could say January 1, 2020, this takes effect. Council President Scott opened the floor to Committee and Council Members. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION j INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 4 CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Committeemember Jo M. Broden asked, Is the job description for the Zoning Administrator baked into State Law as well? Mr. Corcoran replied, Yes, that is correct. We can add, and we have added some elements to that, but yes. Committeemember Broden followed up, Are the current legal services for APC and ABZA contracted or outsourced? Are they evaluated annually for performance? Mr. Corcoran replied, They are outsourced. As far as the review of their work and performance, I don't know. I do know the Area Plan Commission puts together an annual report that sort of summarizes what's happened over the year. I think that report is something we would like to continue as a metric, just for our own understanding. We might be able to find some data that suggests we tweak it. One (1) of our goals is that the zoning ordinance should not be a static document. It is a living document. Some of these Codes have not been updated. The subdivision ordinance was something like 1982. We want to make sure that as we find things that don't make sense, we figure out how to make it make sense because I don't want to administer something that doesn't make sense and you don't want to deal with things that don't make sense. Committeemember Broden followed up, To your philosophical point about South Bend residents making decisions for South Bend, I do think South Bend is not an island and we are part of the County. I think there are a number of issues,beyond annexation,that you hinted to where you have City meeting county and they are challenging things. I appreciate your point about the other projects we coordinate on, but that interface can be problematic if that relationship isn't ongoing and formalized, especially with regard to those projects that abut right to the county. Mr. Corcoran replied, I've personally thought a lot about it and I hope to be able to develop some better thoughts as to how we make good decisions about annexations or planning just on the other side of that line. We are asking Urban3, who are the people who came out in 2016 and analyzed our property tax evaluations, to do a cost model for South Bend. That is going to do a lot of things but one (1) of the questions I've posed to them is what is the minimum amount development that the City would accept because it is a revenue positive thing? Not suburban sprawl which is a cost to the City. So, is there a minimum density or dwelling count, per acre, that we would have developers provide? So, if people want City water and services, they have to achieve a minimum value, right? Otherwise, it is a drain to the City and then what we are finding is other neighborhoods, like the NNN, are subsidizing other parts of the City because of the imbalance of value. That is a difficult question to answer but is one(1)we are trying harder than most to tackle. Committeemember Broden followed up, I do think there needs to be a level of independence in the legal piece. The evaluation on an annual basis and a contract on an annual basis could help put in some safeguards there. I guess I want to understand, more fully, as this conversation goes forward, about that legal component because that legal authority, in particular with the ABZA matters, can really impact the quality of the decision-making process. So, I just want to make sure we keep track of that as a Council and that we are not just defaulting to an internal City Legal Department function because it's a cost savings. I think the quality of our decisions include a tradeoff where we don't really want to go that serves our community. EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.92211f574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 vwwv.southbendin.gov 5 CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Council President Scott stated, And the good thing is, we are going to get farther in depth on that. That is a crucial point on that. Tonight, is just to get the thing going and then I see multiple meetings before we even have a public meeting and Committee meeting on this stuff. Mr. Corcoran replied, I agree, and I look forward to those. One(1) thing I want to note is that our discussions with APC and ABZA legal counsel were much like the Historic Preservation stuff. A lot of times, what the Commission Members really need comes down to procedural issues and interpretations to make sure they stay on course. Then, it gets to you guys to deal with some of the other broader issues. I think the hard part really is getting to that point and that is the part we are working on right now. Councilmember Karen White asked,When we have written commitments,who follows up to make sure that happens?And then what is the process and how do we, as a Council, get that information back? Also, when we do special exceptions and they open up a business, who follows up to make sure that happens? I know a couple of developers, small developers, came before Council and they wanted to open up a business,they were open for two (2)weeks and now they're gone. I just want to understand that, especially when it comes to written commitments. Mr. Corcoran replied, That is something we have to explore a little bit more but from my own personal standpoint, I would like to reduce the number of written commitments that go forward and try to work those things out prior to it coming to Council. I think some of it can be in the ordinance itself Occasionally,there are always unique things about some projects that require that extra level of scrutiny that, I think, helps neighbors get on board with a particular project. Committeemember Broden interjected, In State Law, the responsibility is on the Zoning Administrator, Council, then there is a third (3rd) and I think it's Building Department. Councilmember White stated, When we are looking at this reorganization, that, to me, is a piece that needs to be clearly defined. Committeemember Broden interjected, It's enforcement, and that is not happening. Mr. Corcoran stated, There are two (2) elements of enforcement to potentially be able to catch these things. One(1)happens at Plan Review. So, once something has been rezoned and someone wants to build something new, they have to get a building permit. They go to the Building Department,they look at the plan and look at whether or not the building is going to stand up. Plan Review has to be checked off by the Engineers and the Area Plan Commission, as well. I know the commitments exist, but I don't ever know if it has been actualized in a building plan. Now, some written commitments are something like they will only keep their building open until 10:00 p.m. at night. That isn't going to be on the building plan. That is something, I think, with which enforcement needs to be strengthened. That is a harder thing, as we know. I don't think it has been done very well, maybe even ever. It has been reactionary and not proactive. So, we can look at these as we move forward. Committeemember Broden interjected, That could be an IT thing that can easily be solved. You could hover over the specific properties on our current Area Plan maps and it says there are commitments. Then being able to zero in and have that appear at a deeper level, it's not there. A EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 I 11)574.235 5567 w w.southbendin.gov 6 eCITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK general awareness would help the enforcement piece come from a wider knowledge of what that developer committed to when they applied for that property. Council President Scott stated, That is why we need a deeper conversation on this. There is a property in my neighborhood that is now an Area Plan Commission violation junkyard and there is nothing they are doing. They send a letter and there is no recourse. Committeemember Broden stated, I do think we have to keep in mind the effectiveness at the staffing level is only as good as the budget is, as well. We need to make sure they can carry out their duties and functions. Council President Scott then opened the floor to members of the public wishing to speak in favor of or in opposition to this legislation. Kathy Schuth, 911 Leeland Avenue, stated, I am here wearing multiple hats. I am a mayoral appointee for the Area Board of Zoning Appeals and I started that in 2015. It is my fourth (4th) year sitting on it. I was surprised by this move but am very much in support of it. I think what we are seeing right now is South Bend asserting itself as more and more of a nuisance planning City and, I think because of that, it requires a City-based planning team. The way it is now, there isn't even a City-majority voice to speak to a City-based issue. Conversely, it feels a little silly to talk about County issues that I kind of feel I have no business discussing and making decisions on. The truth of it is these boards are only as good as the information that citizen brings. Mike Keen, 1012 Riverside Drive, stated, I would like to speak in support of this as well. I've had personal experience of trying to do neighborhood redevelopment. I also have sat on the Board of Zoning Appeals and what I think is, again, having a body that is more familiar with the issues of the City can make a huge difference in pursuing those solutions. When I took at a look at that budget slide, I thought to myself, the City is already sort of stretching themselves to provide some of these services. We did a bootcamp where we had fourteen(14)people do development projects in the City and when we talked about what they were working on, $3 - $4 million of development over the next eighteen (18) months to two (2) years but thinking about the next seven (7) years, there was $20 million worth of development sitting at that table. That was being brought together because of our ability to work with the improved South Bend Plan Commission and some staff members there. I think it would be really important to have a Commission that understands City issues such as parking. I think this would provide a greater ability for us to have a partner we can work with, especially for small developers who don't have large staffs that needs this kind of assistance. Again, the City has already stepped up and provided that. Thank you. Council President Scott sent Substitute Bill No. 19-15 to the full Council with no recommendation. With no further business, Council President Scott adjourned the Zoning and Annexation Committee meeting at 5:22 p.m. -:.- • '• -d Tim' o ounci 'resident EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 wwwsouth bend in goy 7