INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -
The Indiana House gave final approval Monday to a measure designed to revive
a stalled privatization deal that would bring restaurants, a rooftop bar,
and a banquet center to Indiana Dunes State Park.
The House agreed to
changes made in the Senate, voting 63-30 to send the bill to Republican Gov.
Mike Pence’s desk.
The measure would
allow Pavilion Partners LLC, a group formed by politically connected
Valparaiso developer Chuck Williams, to sell alcohol at the planned
beachfront development--something the group says is necessary for the
project to be viable. It circumvents a Porter County alcohol board and the
state’s Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, which both ruled to deny an alcohol
permit amid opposition from environmentalists who said the decades-long
lease for the development amounts to a sell-off of public land that should
be free of commercial interests.
Democrats railed
against the measure, noting it was folded into a massive alcohol and tobacco
bill that contained other provisions many people support.
House Minority
Leader Scott Pelath, of Michigan City, said many are opposed to alcohol
sales at the park. But he added “it really has more to do with the idea that
somebody seems to be getting a special deal.”
Pence spokeswoman
Kara Brooks said in an email that “the governor will review the legislation
when it reaches his desk and make a decision.”
Williams is a state
Republican Party official who has donated handsomely to GOP causes. But he
has disputed allegations that his connections played a role in the project’s
advancement. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources has said it
followed state and federal laws and did not give Williams preferential
treatment in approving the project, which gives him control of the
facilities for up to 60 years in exchange for $18,000 in yearly rent and 2
percent of gross revenues.
“There is no
correlation between contributions I made to the local GOP 10 years ago and
any legislation pending before the Legislature,” Williams said last week.
Williams, who hired
a lobbying firm to push the bill, has previously said alcohol sales would be
necessary to make it profitable for him to rehabilitate a dilapidated
pavilion in the park nestled among the towering dunes that line Lake
Michigan. His plan would include two beachfront restaurants, the rooftop
bar, and a glass-walled banquet hall offering “the best view in Indiana.”
The effort by
Williams to renovate the Pavilion dates back to the administration of Gov.
Mitch Daniels.
Emails show
Williams pitched the idea and worked with the DNR on a proposal long before
the DNR published its initial prospectus seeking a private investor in the
Pavilion. The only competing offer came from a nonprofit group of local
conservationists, lawyers, and finance professionals.
Williams has
maintained he had “a vision and a passion” to rehabilitate a building that
the state has neglected since he was a child. He says he poured money into a
project that the state had refused to fund.
Jim Sweeney, a
co-founder of Dunes Action, expressed both his dismay in the vote and his
hope for a veto. “I watched most of the vote yesterday and I am disappointed
in the final vote,” Sweeney told the Chesterton Tribune today. “It
sends a terrible message to local communities around all our state parks
that their input and their voices on such matters do not count. I guess
‘local control’ is only important when influential developers want it to
be.”
“I hope the
Governor will veto the bill due to his core commitment to ‘family values,”
Sweeney said. “We remind him that allowing alcohol back into a
family-friendly beach and state park is not family-oriented and the way that
it is happening is incredibly unethical.”
“The fight is far
from over,” Sweeney added. “I’d like to remind folks that the Bailly
Alliance beat the nuclear plant after construction of the plant
foundations had begun.”
Sweeney did take a
moment to thank the Northwest Indiana legislators who voted against the
bill. “We appreciate the support of Reps. Scott Pelath and Chuck Moseley and
Sen. Tallian on this,” he said.
All but one of
Northwest Indiana’s Republican state representatives voted for the bill and
no Democrat ones did.
For: Mike Ayleworth,
R-Hebron; Tom Dermody, R-LaPorte (the bill’s original sponsor); Bill Fine,
R-Munster; Julie Olthoff, R-Crown Point; and Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso.
The lone Republican
nay vote: that of State Rep. Hal Slager, R-Schererville.
Also against:
Charlie Brown, D-Gary (who is notable for actually voting in favor of an
earlier version of the bill as a member of the House Public Policy Committee
and then on the floor); Donna Harris, D-East Chicago; Linda Lawson,
D-Hammond; Chuck Moseley, D-Portage; Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City; and
Vernon Smith, D-Gary.