THE MUNICIPAL CODE OF THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA
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The General Ordinances of the City
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Originally Published 1971
Republished 2005
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>OFFICIALS
of the
CITY OF
SOUTH BEND, INDIANA
AT THE TIME OF THIS REPUBLICATION
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Stephen J. Luecke
Mayor
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John Voorde
City Clerk
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Charlotte A. Pfeifer
Council President
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Charles S. Leone
City Attorney
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Kathy Cekanski-Farrand
Council Attorney
PREFACE
This Code constitutes a republication of The Municipal Code of the City of South Bend, Indiana.
Source materials used in the preparation of the Code were the 1971 Code, as supplemented through Ordinance Number 9577-05, enacted March 14, 2005, and ordinances subsequently adopted by the city. The source of each section is included in the history note appearing in parentheses at the end thereof. The absence of such a note indicates that the section is new and was adopted for the first time with the adoption of the Code. By use of the comparative table appearing in the back of this Code, the reader can locate any ordinance (Commencing with Supplement No. 1-76) included herein.
Chapter and Section Numbering System
The chapter and section numbering system used in this Code is the same system used in many state and local government codes. Each section number consists of two parts separated by a dash. The figure before the dash refers to the chapter number, and the figure after the dash refers to the position of the section within the chapter. Thus, the second section of chapter 1 is numbered 1-2, and the first section of chapter 6 is 6-1. Under this system, each section is identified with its chapter, and at the same time new sections can be inserted in their proper place by using the decimal system for amendments. For example, if new material consisting of one section that would logically come between sections 6-1 and 6-2 is desired to be added, such new section would be numbered 6-1.5. New articles and new divisions may be included in the same way or, in the case of articles, may be placed at the end of the chapter embracing the subject, and, in the case of divisions, may be placed at the end of the article embracing the subject. The next successive number shall be assigned to the new article or division.
Page Numbering System
The page numbering system used in this Code is a prefix system. The letters to the left of the colon are an abbreviation which represents a certain portion of the volume. The number to the right of the colon represents the number of the page in that portion. In the case of a chapter of the Code, the number to the left of the colon indicates the number of the chapter. In the case of an appendix to the Code, the letter immediately to the left of the colon indicates the letter of the appendix. The following are typical parts of codes of ordinances, which may or may not appear in this Code at this time, and their corresponding prefixes:
CODE CD1:1 CODE COMPARATIVE TABLES CCT:1 STATE LAW REFERENCE TABLE SLT:1 CODE INDEX CDi:1 Index
The index has been prepared with the greatest of care. Each particular item has been placed under several headings, some of which are couched in lay phraseology, others in legal terminology, and still others in language generally used by local government officials and employees. There are numerous cross references within the index itself which stand as guideposts to direct the user to the particular item in which the user is interested.
Looseleaf Supplements
A special feature of this publication is the looseleaf system of binding and supplemental servicing of the publication. With this system, the publication will be kept up-to-date. Subsequent amendatory legislation will be properly edited, and the affected page or pages will be reprinted. These new pages will be distributed to holders of copies of the publication, with instructions for the manner of inserting the new pages and deleting the obsolete pages.
Keeping this publication up-to-date at all times will depend largely upon the holder of the publication. As revised pages are received, it will then become the responsibility of the holder to have the amendments inserted according to the attached instructions. It is strongly recommended by the publisher that all such amendments be inserted immediately upon receipt to avoid misplacing them and, in addition, that all deleted pages be saved and filed for historical reference purposes.
Copyright
All editorial enhancements of this Code are copyrighted by Municipal Code Corporation and the City of South Bend, Indiana. Editorial enhancements include, but are not limited to: organization; table of contents; section catchlines; prechapter section analyses; editor's notes; cross references; state law references; numbering system; code comparative table; state law reference table; and index. Such material may not be used or reproduced for commercial purposes without the express written consent of Municipal Code Corporation and the City of South Bend, Indiana.
© Copyrighted material.
Municipal Code Corporation and the City of South Bend, Indiana. 2005.HISTORY
City of South Bend
The first European to explore what is now Indiana was Rene Robert Cavalier Sieur de la Salle. On December 3, 1679 with a party of thirty men in eight canoes he passed up the St. Joseph River from Lake Michigan and crossed the Portage to the Kankakee. That Portage began where present day Riverview Cemetery is located.
Until they were moved west in the 1830's the two major Indiana tribes in Indiana were the Miami and Potawatomi. Until their removal there was no permanent settler or settlement in this area. The first known permanent European to settle was Pierre Navarre who came to Northern Indiana in 1820 in behalf of the American Fur Company. To the north of South Bend, French, English, Spanish and Americans briefly held Fort St. Joseph between LaSalle's time and Navarre's arrival in the area.
Three years after Navarre's establishment of a trading post, Alexis Coquillard, another Frenchman, and American Fur Company agent, moved from Detroit. He established a trading post on the St. Joseph. After the Indians, be became the largest land owner of what is now South Bend.
Coquillard was followed by Lathrop M. Taylor, another fur trader. Both men were active in manufacturing and milling. Together they platted the town of South Bend in 1831. Taylor became our first postmaster. In that same year, Horatio Chapin settled here, the first merchant not associated with the Indian fur trade.
South Bend's industrial growth was slow. Coquillard's Flour Mill was the primary attempt to use water power. But water power did not come into its own until a dam and races were built along the river.
During the 1840's and 1850's four major manufacturing firms began business. Almond Bugbee and Alexis Roote formed a firm to manufacture boots and shoes. Eliakim Briggs invented a traveling threshing machine. It was not until the 1850's when the Studebaker brothers (1852) and the Olivers (1855) ushered in the area's industrial era. At the same time the Birdsell Manufacturing Company was producing the Birdsell Clover Huller. This firm operated until 1932.
On the national scene, the country was pre-occupied with the Sectional-Slavery question. In South Bend, an active "under ground railway" was maintained by local abolitionists, Thomas Bulla and Solomon Palmer. Two black barbers, James Washington and Matt Sawyer furnished hiding places, solicited funds and generally aided the runaways. Between 1849-1851, local people became engrossed in the famed fugitive slave case fought in the courts of South Bend. The court sustained several local men who prevented a Kentucky slave owner from repossessing his runaways. The owner later sued the men involved and recovered thousands of dollars. The community answered the call to war in 1861. John Auten, from South Bend, was the first Indiana soldier killed in the war. Before the end, South Bend had provided several companies to the cause. Schuler Colfax served in Congress during the period and later became Vice-President under President Grant.
After the war and into the 1920's South Bend grew with an influx of immigrants from middle Europe. Poles, Hungarians, Belgians, Irish and Germans brought their colorful cultures into the area. They formed a "melting pot," rivaled only by the larger cities of Chicago and New York. Most found employment with the Studebaker and Oliver Corporations.
The area has been strong in the education field since Notre Dame was founded in 1842 by Father Edward Sorin. St. Mary's was chartered in 1855 and the South Bend Commercial College in 1882. Bethel, Holy Cross Junior College, Ivy Tech. and Indiana University of South Bend are products of the 20th Century.
Today South Bend is a diversified city; politically, industrially, socially, and culturally, with a population of 107,789.
Incorporation of South Bend
The original plat of the town was recorded March 28, 1831, and it was made the permanent county seat of the St. Joseph County on May 12, 1831. Not until four years later, however, were proceedings commenced to incorporate. On September 8, 1835, the County Commissioners ordered that an election be held on October 3, 1835, for the purpose of electing trustees for the incorporation of the Town of South Bend. This order was granted on petition of two-thirds of the citizens of the proposed town.
The town government functioned for about two years but the money panic of 1837 hit the community so hard that the town languished and the town government ceased to function.
A few years later after the growth of the community had resumed, it was felt desirable to revive the government, but there was considerable doubt as to whether the original corporation still existed. To cure this problem the state legislature was petitioned for a special charter and on January 15, 1844, the town was re-incorporated by special act of the state legislature. This town government continued to function until the town became a city in 1865.
The successive presidents of the town board of trustees were the following: Horatio Chapin (1835-1836); Edmund Pitts Taylor (1837); John Brownfield (1845-1847); John A. Hendricks (1848); Solomon W. Palmer (1850); Matthias Stover (1851); Henry Carleton (1858); Benjamin F. Price (1859); Edmund Pitts Taylor (1861); John A. Hendricks (1863); Henry Carleton (1865).
On May 8, 1865, a petition signed by John H. Keedy and 285 others was filed with the town trustees seeking an election on the question of incorporation as a city. Such an election was held on May 22, 1865, and those favoring the change of the form of government from town to city prevailed. The first election of city officers took place on June 5, 1865.
Following incorporation in 1865 the city was first laid out in three wards, but in 1867 the Town of Lowell on the east side of the St. Joseph River opposite South Bend was annexed to the city and became the fourth ward.
An ordinance authorizing the establishment of a municipal waterworks was adopted on July 7, 1873. Following these two bond issues totaling $165,000.00 were sold, and the system went into operation late in that year.
In 1901 the Indiana General Assembly passed an act dealing with the incorporation of cities which applied to a population bracket which apparently included only South Bend. This, then, in effect became a special charter for the City of South Bend and caused the structure of the city government to be set up, for the first time, in the basic form it has held ever since. This "South Bend Charter" (Chapter 108 of the Acts of 1901, approved March 8, 1901 and containing an emergency clause) contained most of the provisions later incorporated in the Cities and Towns Code of 1905 (Chapter 129 of the Acts of 1905) which supplanted it.
The following have held the office of mayor since the incorporation of the City of South Bend: William G. George (Rep.) 1865—68; Louis Humphries (Rep.) 1869—72; William Miller (Rep.) 1873—76; Alexander N. Thomas (Rep.) 1877—78; Lucius G. Tong (Rep.) 1879—80; Levi G. Ham (Dem.) 1881—84; George W. Loughman (Rep.) 1885—88; William H. Longley (Dem.) 1889—92; David R. Leeper (Dem.) 1893—94; David B. J. Schafer (Rep.) 1895—98; Schuzler Colfax, Jr. (Rep.) 1899—1902; Edward J. Fogarty (Dem.) 1903—10; Charles L. Goetz (Dem.) 1911—14; Fred W. Keller (Citizens Ticket) 1915—18; Franklin R. Carson (Rep.) 1919—22; Eli F. Seebirt (Rep.) 1923—26; Chester R. Montgomery (Dem.) 1927—30; William Riley Hinkle (Dem.) 1931—34; George W. Freyermouth (Rep.) 1935—38; Jessee I. Pavey (Dem.) 1939—45; F. Kenneth Dempsey (Dem.) 1945—47; George Schlock (Dem.) 1948—51; John A. Scott (Rep.) 1952—55; Edward F. Voorde (Dem.) 1956—60; Frank J. Bruggner (Dem.) 1961—63; Lloyd M. Allen (Rep.) 1964—71; Jerry J. Miller (Dem.) 1972—76; Peter J. Nemeth (Dem.) 1977—79; Roger O. Parent (Dem.) 1980—87; Joseph E. Kernan, 1988—1996; Stephen J. Luecke (Dem.) 1997—2011; Pete Buttigieg, 2012—.
OFFICIALS OF THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND
2009
Mayor: Stephen J. Luecke
Clerk: John Voorde
COMMON COUNCIL
Derek D. Dieter, President
Derek D. Dieter Oliver Davis, Jr. Henry Davis, Jr. Al "Buddy" Kirsits Tom LaFountain Timothy A. Rouse Ann Puzzello Karen L. White David Varner BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS
Gary Gilot, President
John Murphy, Member Carl Littrel, Member BOARD OF PUBLIC SAFETY
Juanita Dempsey, President
Donald Alford Patrick D. Cottrell E. Jack Reed Bruce J. Bondurant