10-14-13 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING OCTOBER 14, 2013 SECTION VIII. This Resolution shall be in full force and effect from and after its adoption by the Common Council and approval by the Mayor. s/Derek D. Dieter Member of the Common Council Council Member Scott disclosed that his wife Karen Ainsley is the Director of the Near Northwest Neighborhood Association with that I am going to recuse myself from this bill. Council President Dieter stated that before we proceed with this resolution tonight, I know that there are emotions running high on both sides of this so again when we are talking about it let’s be cordial to the people who are speaking, if someone is opposed at what you are going to say that’s absolutely fine let’s just be professional about this whole thing once we get to it. And with that I will let our Council Attorney read the rules of how we will be handling this meeting. Councilmember Schey asked for a point of order. Council President stated that when we are done speaking we can talk about that. So I will ask our Council Attorney to talk about the rules that we will be adhering to tonight. Council Attorney Kathleen Cekanski-Farrand stated that the general rules for this evening is that the petitioner has the unlimited amount of time to make a presentation, immediately after the formal presentation anyone wishing to speak in favor, must give their name and street address and you have a maximum of five minutes to speak in favor at the end of that session anyone wishing to speak in opposing to the proposed bill again has a five minute restriction you must also give your name and address after that section is completed a rebuttal may then be given by the petitioner to answer any questions that may have been raised during the public portion. At that point the public hearing is closed and then it will go to the City Council for deliberation and questioning of the petitioner and making motions to dispose of the bill before us. With regard to the actual law that is involved just briefly, the City Council amends rules and regulations that have been codified into the South Bend City Code beginning with Section 2-76, so very briefly it states that the Council declares that tax abatement procedures and general standards set forth in this article shall mandatory govern tax abatement requests for that are filed for their consideration. In light of the committee meeting earlier I also would like to clarify at the request of Dr. Varner and Dr. Ferlic that Section 2-84-16 calls for the City Council to review all tax abatement procedures in calendar years which end in even numbers. The City code regulations on tax abatements were last amended in 2012 this report from Councilmember Gavin Ferlic’s committee; if he is the Committee Chair next year would be due by October 1st pursuant to that section. Councilmember Schey stated that for accurate recording keeping purposes it should be noted that it was actually sent to the full Council with no recommendation. Citizen Member Patrick Mullen had to abstain from the vote. Council Attorney Kathleen Cekanski-Farrand advised that the tie was then broken by the Council President, per City Code. Councilmember Schey stated her apologies. Karen Ainsley, Director, Near Northwest Neighborhood, Inc., South Bend, Indiana, and th Nike Surak, Englewood Development Company, 860 E. 86 Street Suite 5, Indianapolis, Indiana made the presentation for this bill. Karen Ainsley: We are proposing an affordable housing development at 906-910 Portage Avenue specifically it’s the Ford Distributing Building, that building in particular is the building that has sat vacant and abandoned for over four (4) years and has not been generating taxes many, many years now, there is over $100,000.00 in back taxes owed at this point. They are proposing through a tax credit application to create 42 units of affordable housing with 1-2 st bedroom units in that mix and were are hoping to submit an application on November 1 of this year, so we are coming before you today to ask for a tax abatement . The one thing that I would 14