By VICKI URBANIK

The Porter County Park Board has a new master plan that, among its many other provisions, calls for working with other county officials to develop a comprehensive plan for land acquisition for more parks.

In addition to approving the new comprehensive plan on Thursday, the county park board also adopted a four-year plan outlining how it hopes to spend its share of the County Economic Development Income Tax funds. The park board now gets $400,000 in CEDIT funds, but the plan adopted proposes boosting that amount to $750,000 next year and up to $975,000 in 2011.

In both plans, land acquisition is a major consideration.

The “goals and recommendations” portion of the comprehensive plan has a number of recommendations related to land acquisition, one of which calls for working with the Porter County Commissioners and county plan commission to develop a strategy for land acquisition.

Master plan consultant Richard Twitchell said this language was prompted by public input, due to a concern that the county park department shouldn’t be expected to carry the full responsibility of finding more land for future parks. “You should not be the ones leading the charge,” he said.

Park board member Dave Canright said he views the language as promoting a team effort among county departments in working for additional park land.

Another recommendation calls on the park board to consider land as an “investment resource” that can help fund future park initiatives. Twitchell gave the example of someone wanting to donate land to the parks department at a busy intersection; while that site might not be suitable for a new park, it could be sold later for additional park land elsewhere.

County Park Board attorney David Hollenbeck cautioned, however, that there could be public outcry if the board decided to sell land that could be view as parkland for a private development. He suggested that the park board accept such offers of land with the clear understanding that it would be accepting the land for investment purposes only.

Another recommendation is to encourage the Porter County Parks Foundation to “maximize its development growth” to assist in acquiring more park land and to cooperate with other public agencies and land trusts in acquiring more park land.

The CEDIT plan adopted Thursday calls for the park department to continue to spend the income tax funds for the same purposes as currently, such as for land acquisition, park improvements, master plans and equipment. As proposed, the level of funding would increase to $750,000 next year and increase after that in each of the four years.

Park Board member Richard Maxey suggested that the park board put in a request for additional CEDIT funds in order to acquire property currently available along the Kankakee River for a new park. He said the land in question would make for a good county park, but that the purchase price exceeds what the park department currently has available.

After some discussion, it was agreed that the CEDIT plan would be adopted as proposed, but with the understanding that the commissioners might be asked to approve additional funds due to the opportunity that the park board now faces.

In another land acquisition matter, the park board authorized Hollenbeck to pursue the purchase of a 10-acre parcel on State Road 8 and C.R. 250W as agreed to last month. The board’s motion calls on Hollenbeck to make an offer on the property based on a recent appraisal.

Posted 4/6/2007