07-28-08 Common Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETING JULY 28, 2008 Councilmember Dieter questioned on whether the Redevelopment Budget was available on their website? Councilmember Varner stated that he would look into that and report back at the next Council meeting on August 11, 2008. PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR COMMENTS FROM MR. JERRY NIEZGODSKI REGARDING LASALLE SQUARE Mr. Jerry Niezgodski, 2930 Bonds Avenue, South Bend, Indiana, reminded the Council that for all the people that are hearing impaired such as himself, he urged the Council to make sure that their microphones are on and that they talk clearly and slowly into them, so that everyone can hear the comments. He reiterated what Councilmember Henry Davis stated about the LaSalle Square project and how it is going to be a tremendous job. It is going to be more involved than anyone anticipated, but then again he stated that they knew it was going to be a long process. A couple of issues that have been a challenge are that they have been unable to get any kind of cooperation from the management from Beacon Heights. The management will not allow anyone to go door to door and invite residents to come to neighborhood meetings. This is very frustrating. He would like to see city leaders, planners, and neighborhood people write or call the management of Beacon Heights and get through to them that they need to be involved in this planning, because their residents stand to gain or lose something in this process. They need to be involved. He stated that he is concerned about the unsolicited offer for a senior housing project that the city has been offered for LaSalle Square and it seems to him that the City is pretty much set in where they want to put that. Mr. Niezgodski stated that the Redevelopment Commission set the motion in place to acquire the properties on Bendix Drive, the car wash and the properties on each side of it to the north and south and from what he understands that is where the senior housing is going to be built. If there is an agreement to a developer or somebody he is concerned that the plan has not been developed yet and so it shouldn’t be determined where things are going to go and at that meeting that Councilmember Henry Davis talked about earlier, he talked with Jeff Vitton, from Community & Economic Development, the architect and two planners that were in attendance and they were pretty adamant in saying that corner the southwest corner of Bendix Drive and Ardmore Trail, is being saved for commercial or retail or whatever. They suggested putting the housing behind it or anywhere other than on that corner. Mr. Niezgodski stated that he is concerned that this senior housing project has already been committed to being placed on that corner when the plan for the complex has not even been established. COMMENTS FROM REV. HENRY L. DAVIS, SR. REGARDING TAX ABATEMENTS Rev. Henry L. Davis, Sr., 215 N. Sheridan, South Bend, Indiana, stated that everyone has ndth a passion about something. His passion is South Bend, particularly the 2 and 6 Districts. He encourage the Councilmember’s to take a drive through those districts to see what the residents wake up to everyday, while the east side of South Bend has been singled out for over two hundred million dollars to be spent over there. Then only 2.5 million allotted for LaSalle Square, which just doesn’t seem right. He stated that the Council is the elected officials and history is written by the actions that you take. He stated that he has concerns with tax abatements. Everyone wants and abatement, businesses come before the Council to get their taxes abated. He questioned when the residents will get abatement from shouldering all the burden from the numerous abatement’s that the city is giving. Taxes, water rates, and gas bills are all going up, but everyone that is making money wants an abatement. Common sense tells us that the residents of the City of South Bend cannot afford to keep supporting all those ndth abatements. There is no retail shopping in the 2 and 6 Districts of the City. Rev. Davis stated that the residents of those districts have to shop on Grape Road, Ireland ndth Road, Portage Road, while there are areas of the 2 and 6 Districts that are dying, and nobody cares. This is a very sad thing, the residents of those districts are the working class people, they are people who are supporting all those abatements and get no return. 29