South Bend Common Council

City zoning specialist Tim Staub told council members Monday that five single-family homes would be replaced by five residential buildings. “Over the years, we have seen a steady development on the properties around these parcels. . . . The current surrounding land uses are a mixture of townhomes, stacked flats and detached homes,” Staub said.

In addition to a public hearing on whether the city of South Bend is doing enough to help SNAP recipients during the shutdown, Common Council Member Oliver Davis says the council should appoint a task force to be ready in case the dysfunction in Washington causes more emergencies that affect city residents in the future.

"I would say, on the whole, South Bend does pretty well," Chief Innovation Officer Denise Riedl told the common council’s Information and Technology Committee. "We were one of the first small cities in the country to deploy any kind of policy or governance document for our city, and we were one of the first small cities to roll out Copilot."

"We’re going to have to find additional cuts, in order to fund cost of living increases and inflation costs,” Mayor James Mueller told common council members during Monday's budget hearing.

“I personally think it’s very important that people on this board be able to see the police video: bodycam, car cam, et cetera,” said community police review board member Cheryl Ashe.

Critics of the bill worry that the people who interact most with police can't afford the new fees to monitor police officer behavior. But city legal staff hope the fees will incentivize people to more carefully craft public records requests because redacting confidential information takes so much time.

The South Bend Common Council expects to vote Monday night on a bill creating new fees, up to $150, for police dash and body cam videos that people request under the Indiana Access to Public Records Act.

The South Bend Common Council's Personnel & Finance and Residential Neighborhoods committees will hold a joint meeting to further discuss the bill sometime before the council's next regular meeting Aug. 11.

A 180-unit workforce housing development may be coming to South Bend’s south side. The common council Monday agreed to rezone land at 250 Chippewa Avenue from Commercial to Suburban Neighborhood development.

Kroger has said it will close the Western Avenue store in South Bend by August but that could come sooner depending on how long shelves take to clear.