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By PAULENE POPARAD A new Burns Harbor steering committee has some heavy homework ahead. In the words of the project manager, “We’re all starting today at about 100 mph.” Meeting for the first time Wednesday, the committee heard consultants map out an ambitious schedule that would see both an updated town comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance drafted, reviewed, offered for public comment and adopted by June 30. If it isn’t, Burns Harbor risks losing a $100,000 grant that will pay for the project. Signing a contract for the money with the Lake Michigan Coastal Program through the Indiana Department of Natural Resources is pending. The $40,000 comprehensive plan and the $60,000 zoning ordinance are part of a $200,000 contract with Short, Elliott Hendrickson Inc. of Munster entered into last month by the Town Council. The LMCP grant requires a local match; $50,000 will come from the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority and $50,000 from the town itself. The SEH contract includes doing a $50,000 master plan using the RDA funds to develop alternative routes for a Marquette Greenway hike/bike trail in Burns Harbor; adjacent areas outside the town limits will be included to identify connecting trail alignments. The town’s $50,000 will buy a town center/U.S. 20 sub-area plan with development alternatives proposed in addition to the prior comprehensive-plan studies and recommendations already adopted. Committee members initially had more questions about the process than the planning itself. Referring to the lengthy itemized scope of work in the SEH contract, “Are you going to get 21 people to agree on 11 pages in six months? It’s going to be cut-throat to push this out,” said Marsha Watkins. According to project manager A.J. Monroe of SEH, “Yes, it’s going to be tough. The ones (Town Council president) Jim (McGee) asked to participate, you’re in for it. This is quick (but) it’s really important to the community.” The existing comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance were adopted in 1993. SEH’s compressed schedule targets adoption of the comprehensive plan by the Town Council in April and the zoning ordinance, the more complicated of the two projects, June 10 leaving only 20 days until the LMCP deadline. Next week SEH will conduct stakeholder interviews with residents, property and business owners identified by the town as key private and public-sector individuals. Jan. 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the Westport Community Club the public is invited to an input meeting to share their vision of what the town should and could be. SEH will present various development styles and options to determine the preferences of those attending. With those comments in hand, the Steering Committee and SEH design team will meet, again at Westport, Jan. 23 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Jan. 24 from 8 a.m. to noon for intensive visioning sessions with graphics weighing the opportunities and constraints facing the suggested proposals. Myrtle Zehner asked, “At what point does your company deal in realism? I could say I want Disneyworld in that field.” Replied Matt Reardon of SEH, “That’s my role. I’m the financial person.” He said a key part of SEH’s plan will be to prepare a market feasiblity analysis to corroborate or modify the planning alternatives to best reflect economic reality. The town may want a Target, but Target may not want Burns Harbor. The town needs to establish its bar for the standards it wants, Reardon added. Mandating high standards has the potential to raise the value of investment and lower property taxes, but too high a standards could drive away investment. The zoning ordinance needs to be crafted in a way to promote the stated goals, avoiding fights at the Advisory Plan Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals level, said Reardon. By sticking to its comprehensive plan and ordinance, he continued, the town can say, “Let’s not take the first deal; let’s take our deal.” Reardon told committee members, “At no point in time should anybody in the room be shy about what they want and raise the bar. It’s OK to say no, I don’t want that, I don’t desire to have that in my town. It’s pretty therapeutic to say no.” Plaza demolition coming? The committee had a longer-than-intended discussion regarding the status and future of the long-abandoned Standard Plaza former truck stop on U.S. 20 east of Indiana 149. The 22-acre site has been proposed by some residents to be the new town center. Reardon said SEH is helping Burns Harbor secure an outright $100,000 federal grant for an environmental assessment of the site and to develop a remediation plan. The grant would qualify the town to seek revolving loan funds for a clean-up. Jan. 14 the Town Council will consider specifications to solicit bids to demolish the plaza structure now that the Nevada owner’s estate has given permission to enter the property. Councilman Cliff Fleming said the town is moving through the condemnation process to make a valuable piece of real estate available for development. Kristi Lohmeyer said the committee needs to view the town as a full picture, not just snapshots. U.S. 20 may be ripe for commercial and retail development but it’s also heavily traveled, especially by semi-trucks, she said, so while scenic sidewalks along the highway may sound nice, would mothers want their children using them? Jeff Freeze said, “I lived in a town that was dying; I saw the impact on residents. I’m not pro-growth or anti-growth. I’m for good planning.” At one time Burns Harbor’s future was in doubt, but Monroe said the approximately six-square-mile town is now one of the top three fastest-growing in northwest Indiana. Since 2003 the town Plan Commission has approved the platting of 579 new residential lots, and the population has jumped by 32 percent to an estimated 1,015 in 2006. Despite its small size, Reardon said Burns Harbor has a high income level. Accelerated plan schedule The Steering Committee will meet Feb. 9 and 25 and March 9 and 25 with a public hearing on the final draft comprehensive plan set for April 6, however, the document has to be ready by March 26 to give public notice. To make the deadlines, “This has to be everybody involved. Period,” said Monroe, who advised SEH is setting up a website to share needed information. Monroe said SEH has done a similar project for a community the size of Burns Harbor under an expedited schedule, but that doesn’t mean he prefers it that way. “A little more time and a little more comfort would make all of us feel a little safer.” Reardon noted, “If you allow more time you take more time but that doesn’t mean you’ll get a better product.” The schedule puts responsibility on SEH to produce and deliver fast as well, he reminded. The consultants were asked what would happen if for some reason the Town Council didn’t approve the comprehensive plan/zoning ordinance by June 30. Said Monroe, “My first answer is there would be a severe problem with that.” Steering Committee chairperson Donna Meeks, a former town clerk-treasurer, asked if Burns Harbor has $100,000 to pay SEH if the LMCP grant is lost. After the meeting current Clerk-treasurer Jane Jordan said, “I don’t think so.” There would be money in the rainy day fund, however, “I believe the community wants to see that used when tax bills are late so we don’t have to go out for tax-anticipation warrants. That’s my perception of a rainy day fund.” All money for the project is tied up in the SEH contract. Consultants were asked who would pay the necessary legal fees associated with the new plan/ordinance work; they said that was covered under the contract. No other firm was approached or considered for the zoning work, said Town Council member Toni Biancardi, and the $200,000 contract did not have to be put out for bid under state law.
Posted 1/9/2009
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