By VICKI URBANIK
A consultant overseeing Porter County’s corridor plan said initial feedback
from citizens and community leaders shows support for preserving the rural
character and natural features along the county’s major roadways.
In an update to the Porter County Plan Commission on Wednesday, Peter Fritz
of RATIO Architects said the corridor planning process so far has shown that
the public wants to see new developments emanate out from cities and towns,
instead of in scattered locations.
Such support for contiguous growth is positive, Fritz said, since it is
already a major component of the county’s land use plan, which calls for
higher density development closer to the municipalities instead of the rural
areas.
Fritz also said that the planning process has shown an interest for green
technologies, such as for systems that manage stormwater in an
environmentally sound way. That interest is unusual, he said, since many
other communities haven’t even addressed the issue.
The corridor plan, which will address land use, development standards and
transportation issues along most of the main roads in the unincorporated
areas, has so far involved one public workshop and meetings with members of a
steering committee and key “stakeholder” groups.
Plan Commission member Tim Cole expressed concern about the lack of
involvement from Chesterton in the process.
“Chesterton is a large, growing area,” Cole said, noting that several of the
roads in the corridor plan, such as Ind. 49, touch on the town. Future land
use could be negatively impacted if Chesterton is not part of the planning
process now, he said.
Cole cited the Coffee Creek Center as an example. The project is turning out
to be a typical retail development and “not what it started out to be,” Cole
said, referring to the initial plans for an environmentally innovative,
mixed-used development.
Plan Commission member and County Surveyor Kevin Brietzke said the county
invited all municipalities to participate, but that only the cities of
Portage and Valparaiso have been represented. He noted, though, that the
cities have paid planning staff.
Retail ‘Leakage’
As part of the planning process, RATIO is conducting a market study that will
analyze how much people spend in and out of county.
Although the study is not yet completed, Fritz said the preliminary results
show that a significant number of Porter County residents are leaving the
county to shop, which suggests an unmet demand for more retail in this
county.
Plan Commission member Herb Read questioned if that finding will lead to a
recommendation for more strip malls along the county’s corridors. Fritz said
not necessarily.
The statistics about retail “leakage” might show that Porter County residents
are going elsewhere to spend their money, he said, but “it doesn’t mean you
have to respond to it” by allowing more retail.
Read said the public has indicated opposition to retail clogging the main
roads, and Fritz agreed that this concern has also been raised in the current
planning process.
Cole said strip malls are as “ugly as sin” and create congestion, but are
nonetheless needed.
He suggested that if there is a demand for more retail, that it be located
off the main corridors in order to avoid congestion on the roads.
Plan commission member Robert Detert told Fritz that the commission will be
more likely to be against new business growth along the main corridors than
in support, and that RATIO should keep this in mind as the study proceeds.
“We don’t want to be like some communities,” he said.
Meetings Planned
Fritz noted that the public workshop, which was held in May in Washington
Township, attracted about 25 people, many of whom were from Liberty Township
who raised concerns about growth and traffic concerns along U.S. 6, Ind. 49
and Meridian Road.
“We had very good input,” he said.
The corridor plan is expected to be completed within the year.
Another public workshop is planned for mid to late September. In addition,
the consultants will have a steering committee meeting next week and again in
August.
The members of the steering committee include county and municipal officials
and representatives from the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning
Commission and the Indiana Department of Transportation.
More information about the corridor plan is available at
www.communitycollaborate.com
Scroll down to the link for the Porter County project.
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Posted 7/10/2008
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