City holds first workshop in building LaSalle Park Neighborhood Plan

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- On Tuesday, the city of South Bend hosted the first of three workshops to build a Neighborhood Plan for South Bend’s LaSalle Park neighborhood.

Residents and Common Councilmember Henry Davis Junior have called for more investment in the westside neighborhood.

The city says this is part of its incremental process to build a neighborhood plan for each of the city’s neighborhoods, claiming there's been plans to start this process, but the city needs neighbors to give feedback.

“I learned about what I should have done as opposed to what I did,” says a lifetime resident of the LaSalle Park Neighborhood, George Lee Jones.

Jones says he tried leading development in the neighborhood himself over 10 years ago.

Seeing his neighborhood’s needs and in an effort to uplift his community, he built three homes with a friend right before the housing market crashed.

Jones says the city’s plan to rebuild and develop his neighborhood gives him a new sense of hope.

“We come with a blank slate, there’s no plan in place,” says the city’s Director of Planning and Community Resources, Tim Corcoran. “It’s the residents that help us figure out what’s the vision, what are the priorities, what are the things that really they think will make this neighborhood a more livable and better place.”

The city kicked off its initiative to build a LaSalle Park Neighborhood Plan with an informational session to provide insight into potential opportunities for growth in the neighborhood, but also the harsh realities of building new housing.

LaSalle Park was a victim of racist redlining practices which essentially segregated parts of South Bend, causing decades of disinvestment.

“Things can be difficult to do, but we are seeing new home construction slowly but surely in some parts of the city that are really showing how a neighborhood can heal itself by really being active and participating in that process,” assures Corcoran.

Local developers and city housing experts say growth in the neighborhood is not impossible but will take a strong vision and team effort from neighbors.

“We have some unique differences than the other areas, but they gave us the wherewithal on how this can be done,” Jones says about the first workshop. “There is a possibility to do exactly what’s been done on other sides of town.”

The next planning workshop will be on Thursday, where neighborhood residents can come to the Charles Black Center from 10am to 6pm and provide their ideas about how they envision the future of the LaSalle Park Neighborhood.

You can find more information about the workshops as well as participate in an online survey here.