By PAULENE POPARAD

A state spokesperson said Tuesday that two Indiana shoreline initiatives will complement, not compete with, each other.

“I don’t see any overlap,” said Laurie Rounds. “It’s a partnership opportunity.”

Rounds, manager of the state’s Lake Michigan Coastal Program, addressed the Executive Board of the new Lake Michigan Shoreline Development Commission in Portage. At last month’s shoreline meeting, concern was raised that the two programs might duplicate each other’s efforts.

Rounds said the final environmental impact statement needed for the coastal program to be approved should be released for public comment soon with federal approval anticipated to follow. That will qualify Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources to receive $1 million every 18 months to implement local projects.

The projects will be identified during an annual public meeting and through the work of a local stakeholders’ advisory group yet to be formed.

Local, state and qualifying non-profit groups all could apply for the grants for priority projects in the northern portions of Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties.

At this time, “We haven’t identified specific projects we’d like to implement,” said Rounds.

Allowable projects, which would require a local match, could be trails, boardwalks, prairie restoration or dunes conservation but broadly would protect and restore significant natural and cultural resources in the state’s Lake Michigan coastal region.

Rounds stressed to the four members present of the shoreline Executive Board -- not a quorum of its members, two of whom have yet to be appointed -- that the coastal program is not a zoning or land use document and that it creates no new law or regulations. The Shoreline Commission itself, she said, can apply for coastal grants to implement some of its projects.

Pending federal approval later this year, the first round of coastal grants will be awarded next year, said Rounds.

Shoreline Executive Board member Tom Cera of U.S. Steel asked Rounds what she expects her program’s relationship to be with his commission. In the broad sense, she said, the coastal program will balance economic development with protection of natural resources. “I certainly see compatibility between our goals and the (shoreline) committee’s goals,” Rounds added.

After it drafts and adopts a master plan for areas adjacent to Lake Michigan and along its tributaries, the Shoreline Commission also will offer a grant program for allowable activities within the corridor, grants for remediation of environmental contamination, for economic development, limited transportation projects and for general development and redevelopment.

Consistent policy sought

Whoever’s engaged in these activities, environmentalist Lee Botts told the Executive Board, “The critical issue is there is a need for policy on the use of the shoreline consistent with today’s conditions and situations (that) takes into account changes occurring.”

Where previously there have been policy conflicts and costly mistakes, there now needs to be a consistent policy, emphasized Botts.

By the Shoreline Commission and coastal program working together, Botts added, Indiana has the opportunity to develop a coordinated policy. “Exactly how that will happen has to play out.”

Botts noted that although the federal coastal program was begun in 1973, Indiana is one of the last eligible states to participate; one benefit will be that whatever a federal agency does along the Hoosier Lake Michigan coastline now will have to be consistent with Indiana policy.

Rounds said the Shoreline Commission, not the coastal program, is responsible for determining where developable property is along the lakefront.

Historically, one-third each has been in residential use, industrial use and protected lands, said Rounds, but Botts said the shoreline is very dynamic: municipalities have changed their view of best uses for such property, industrial users have land they no longer need, and there is a renewed push for public access.

Assistance offered

Sylvia Wilcox, representing the DNR, said its new director John Goss is excited about the Shoreline Commission’s potential and offered the agency’s assistance. “He sees this as a partnership.” If any conflicts do surface between lakefront initiatives, Wilcox added, they can be worked out.

Environmentalist Charlotte Read asked if the DNR’s Natural Resources Commission will set policy for the coastal program. Rounds said it will be the main policy-making and approval entity although it will work closely with local advisory groups.

Dana Reed Wise of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management offered the Shoreline Commission technical assistance in developing its master plan. Once the shoreline grant program begins, she added, IDEM will provide assistance there as well.

Wise also said she anticipates IDEM’s Northwest Indiana Advisory Board and IDEM’s local office in Gary will play a major role in this effort.

Interim shoreline Executive Board chairman Portage Mayor Douglas Olson thanked the state officials for their commitments.

Jody Melton, aide to the Shoreline Commission, said its $500,000 seed money authorized last year by the General Assembly is in limbo there tied to intense budget negotiations during the special session that prevented the commission’s legislative members from attending.

Dan Gardner, deputy director of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, said an economic development strategy committee meeting there is identifying brownfields, some of them former industrial uses in the lakefront corridor that could be redeveloped; he said the NIRPC committee’s recommendations would be consistent with other ongoing efforts.

Posted 6/19/2002