By PAULENE POPARAD

Purdue University Calumet Chancellor Howard Cohen believes Northwest Indiana needs to find a few big projects around which public officials and community leaders could rally to jump-start the ailing local economy.

At a Monday meeting in Portage, expansion of the Gary Airport and extension of the South Shore passenger service from Hammond to Valparaiso along the Westlake line quickly emerged as the most likely initiatives to generate support from the largest number of constituencies.

But Porter County Commissioner Larry Sheets said getting approval for the airport and railroad expansions, let alone actual construction, will take years. “Isn’t there something we can do quicker?” he asked, pointing to existing industrial parks with vacant land.

Thomas McDermott of the Northwest Indiana Forum touched upon two areas of related concern: the lack of state and local money to match federal dollars for either the airport or railroad, and the non-competitive tax climate both statewide and locally that chills prospective business interest and drives companies elsewhere.

Chris Morrow of Mercantile National Bank cited Lake County's failed attempt to win state authorization in the Indiana General Assembly for a food and beverage tax that could have funded a variety of civic improvements including economic development. “We’re losing millions that could be used for local projects and matches.”

These and other members of the Regional Economic Development Strategy Committee wrestled with how to do more than talk about what's wrong with the region's economy and actually do something to improve it.

Kay Nelson, former director of the northwest Indiana office of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said now is no time to reinvent the wheel when some parcels are already cleared for development. State and federal agencies can take a decade to approve a plan for former industrial sites known as brownfields, she explained. “You don't want to get a brand new project you have to start with environmental (review).”

Edward Charbonneau, U.S. Steel's manager of governmental affairs, said his company has “250 acres stuck to us like flypaper we can’t get rid of” because of the liability aspect of potential environmental problems that scares away developers. Legislation addressing that liability would open more land for development, he noted.

Cohen cautioned the group, “If we don’t come out with definite projects, we’re wasting our time. If we’re all trying to do 100 things, none will get accomplished in any way that is meaningful.”

According to Tom Keilman of BP Amoco, “If it's only one project it would be the Gary Airport. It’s the 500-pound gorilla.” As for additional projects, the committee could narrow them by identifying what are obstacles to the success of each, he suggested. McDermott said both U.S. 30 through Merrillville and the Borman Expressway are examples of a dysfunctional transportation infrastructure.

Environmentalist Mark Reshkin urged the committee to address air and water quality issues as well as ways that existing resources could be shared through cooperative agreements. “Public officials are not the only constituency you want to reach. We have to make the case to them and the broader constituencies.”

Dan Lowery of the Quality of Life Council and Paul Doherty of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, which created the strategy committee, both said coordinated land-use planning is needed. “You can blue-sky with your airport,” said Doherty, yet existing county and community master plans may share common goals already, he added.

Sheets said NIRPC has tried unsuccessfully to get the General Assembly's blessing to reorganize as a Council of Governments that would expand the number of municipalities represented on it. Others said getting 35 to 40 sometimes-territorial cities and towns to work together would be no small accomplishment in itself.

Hebron representative Mike Bucko said across the country there are models of cooperation that resulted in great benefit to those involved and he urged the committee to otain more information about those successes. Sacramento, Calif. was cited for its innovative plan to allow 27 government units to share sales-tax revenue to discourage a bidding war for sprawl-generating developments.

Chris Larson, executive director of the Kankakee-Iroquois Regional Planning Commission in Monon, detailed how his seven-county group has identified its own economic development priorities like extending rail spurs, extending sanitary sewers and seeking approval for an Interstate 65 interchange at State Road 14. However, “I’m very aware you operate in a different sphere of influence,” said Larson.

With three strategy committee subgroups also meeting -- the northern shoreline, middle urban and southern Kankakee areas -- some said it would be wise to first determine the overlapping issues and similar concerns for each zone. But according to economist Morton Marcus, “I wouldn’t worry about it. What’s distinctive about these three areas?”

Gary Mayor Scott King, full committee co-chair, said NIRPC is seeking a regional economic development consultant to help manage the committee’s work for a period of three to six months. The strategy committee next meets June 17 at 9 a.m. at NIRPC’s Portage offices.

Posted 5/21/2002