Ignition Park master plan approved by Commission

The South Bend Redevelopment Commission on Friday, Oct. 1, approved a master plan for a planned unit development for Ignition Park, which will enhance the City of South Bend’s ability to attract tenants to the planned technology park.

Under the leadership of the Area Plan Commission, the zoning ordinance will go to the St. Joseph County Board of Zoning Appeals and the South Bend Common Council for final approval in the coming months.

The action includes rezoning nearly 84 acres from general industrial to a planned unit development. Ignition Park, in combination with Innovation Park at Notre Dame, creates a single, two-site, state-certified technology park within the City of South Bend.

Initial tests show Ignition Park can accommodate both industrial tenants and nanotechnology firms needing a site that will suit highly sensitive requirements for vibration and electromagnetic forces, said Geri Hathaway, who is directing the development of a business plan for Ignition Park.

“This planned unit development lays the groundwork for additional required protection in surrounding areas to prohibit the increase of vibration and electromagnetic forces at Ignition Park and to encourage the upgrade of surrounding areas in order to protect the financial and aesthetic improvements that have been and will be made at Ignition Park,” Hathaway said.

The master plan for Ignition Park provides for a campus-like setting with a broad range of high-tech businesses and related support within this multi-use planned unit development. It anticipates facilities that exhibit:

• Excellence in overall site design.
• Integration of individual parcel site design within the overall development.
• Innovation, creativity and quality in building design.

The plan divides the Ignition Park planned unit development into four primary areas (see graphic):

1. Ignition Park itself, the initial 84 acres which could feature educational and industrial uses, offices and professional services, as well as accessory uses, including retail, personal services and utilities.

The near-downtown technology park could serve:

• Firms graduating from Innovation Park at Notre Dame.
• Stage 1 and 2 businesses that are not candidates for Innovation Park.
• Existing businesses with a technology focus.
• National and international firms.

2. The Transpo area of Ignition Park, consisting of the new Emil “Lucky” Reznik Operations, Administration and Maintenance Facility, the nation’s first LEED Platinum transit facility and the first new facility in Ignition Park.

3. The Lafayette Boulevard/Main Street corridor, which allows a much broader range of permitted uses than Ignition Park itself, including educational, food service, industrial, office/professional, personal services, residential and retail uses. In general, the City does not plan to acquire properties in this corridor, excepting the former International Harvester building and property owned by Hamilton Towing and Airgas.

4. Ignition Park’s southern corridor along Indiana Avenue, which would permit a similar range of uses as the Lafayette/Main corridor. The Redevelopment Commission has acquired about half of the properties in this area and is proceeding with plans to purchase the remainder.

Standards established through the planned unit development will protect the investment of companies locating in Ignition Park, which will be overseen by an executive director and an architectural review board.

“There is not a single area around the park that won’t benefit from this,” Hathaway said.