Members of the
Porter County Redevelopment Commission Thursday said they are interested in
working with the city of Valparaiso on a TIF zone around Porter County
Regional Airport, but they lack funding to pay for a $38,000 zoning study
the city wants.
The airport is at
the northeast corner of U.S. 30 and Ind. 49 adjacent to Valparaiso. The City
recently annexed land east of Ind. 49 near the airport to bring utilities to
the new Pratt Industries plant.
RDC attorney Gregg
Sobkowski said he contacted Valparaiso Economic Development Director Patrick
Lyp on behest of the commission to move forward with the discussion.
Sobkowski said Lyp told him that the area would require unified zoning codes
between the city and the county.
RDC President Ric
Frataccia said the commission could ask the County Council if $15,000 is
available for the County to share in the cost of hiring a consultant for a
zoning study.
The commission
currently has no funding mechanism, but could receive funds from the
abatement agreement between the county and Porter Regional Hospital. The
agreement stipulates the hospital must annually give the county 10 percent
of taxes abated for purposes of economic development.
RDC financial
advisor Dan Botich said the hospital has yet to be billed on what it owes as
he and the County Auditor’s Office are still figuring the correct amount of
abatement. Since this is the third year of abatement, the hospital owes two
years of economic development funds. Botich said he expects the minimum
amount to be over $150,000.
The County Council
however has not yet made the RDC the recipient of the funds. RDC member and
County Councilman Jim Polarek said he will bring the matter up at the next
Council meeting for discussion.
Duneland matters
Also on Thursday,
non-voting RDC member and advisor Ralph Ayres informed the board of the
agreement between the Burns Harbor Redevelopment Commission and the Duneland
School Corporation to share in the tax revenues from the existing Burns
Harbor TIF district.
Ayres is also a
non-voting member of the Burns Harbor RDC and President of the Duneland
School Board. He said the school district could get as much $135,000
annually from the TIF over the next ten years.
A copy of the
agreement can be seen on Burn Harbor’s town website, he said, and the County
RDC may want to reference it when considering working with local school
districts.
“Just an FYI. I
thought it would be good for the order to share with you what’s going on,”
Ayres said.
RDC member Dave
Burrus wondered if other town RDCs are taking notice of the County RDC’s
effort to partner with schools.
Meanwhile, Liberty
Twp. resident Tim Cole from the floor said that if the TIF zone proposed for
Liberty Township is revisited it is important for the RDC members to take
note that redevelopment zones would have to be the length of U.S. 6. “The
utilities are there. It has to be U.S. 6,” he said.
Cole added that if
development ever comes to that area, and it’s likely it will, the County has
to find some way to find a north-south connection besides Ind. 49 as the
traffic congestion around U.S. 6 and Ind. 49 would be hazardous.
“That has to come
sooner or later,” Cole said.
Porter County
officials have proposed extending Willowcreek Road in Portage to U.S. 30 as
another north-south route.
“Well stated. We
feel the same way,” Frataccia said.
Lastly, Cole
pointed to the previous discussion about the $15,000 the RDC wants to put up
for partnership with Valparaiso. The better way, he said, is to get rid of
the “big brother, little brother” type of deals and in order for it to be an
equal partnership, it all should be split fairly so one body does not have
power over the other, he said.
Kouts wants to
collaborate
At the start of the
meeting, representatives from the Town of Kouts Jay Birky and Tim Jones said
they are hoping to act on the County RDC’s offer to help with future
projects, now that the new county park about a mile north of the town could
attract new development.
The town was
awarded a $200,000 challenge grant from the Northwest Indiana Regional
Development Authority last year to extend its infrastructure north.
Birky said the town
hopes to see a mix of residential and industrial with the potential
expansion and the town’s water treatment plant has the capacity to sustain
it.