By PAULENE POPARAD

Drainage and density.

Those were concerns often cited by neighbors who commented Thursday during a public hearing on the proposed 362-home Sand Creek Farms planned unit development on 130 acres at County Road 250E and East Porter Avenue.

Voting 5-1, the Chesterton Advisory Plan Commission advanced the PUD brought by brothers Vlad Gastevich and Eric Gastevich to the Chesterton Town Council with a favorable recommendation after developers and town officials said the improvements to be made will help, not hurt, area drainage.

Eric Gastevich reminded that the PUD stage is only preliminary and that if successful, more-detailed drainage plans would be developed and reviewed when platting the single-family subdivision, which wouldn’t see home construction until likely 2009.

“This is a major slope and a major drainage area,” Elliot Thostesen told the commission. Tom Kaiser and Rick Rupcich agreed water problems exist, and Gary Carney said the subdivision site drains onto his property north of the CSX railroad. “It’s almost like a river going through the front yard of my house.”

Eric Gastevich said water currently flows over their land to the northwest and under the CSX making its way through ditches to the Little Calumet River. The subdivision would install a storm-sewer system and rear-yard drains that would direct, deposit and store water in a series of ponds for discharge at a significantly lower rate than currently exists.

“They’re not creating a drainage problem for you,” commission member Mike Bannon told the audience of about 20 people with nearly a dozen commenting, some posing questions rather than speaking for or against.

Member Jeff Trout and president Fred Owens, a civil engineer, both agreed the drainage should get better, not worse.

Remonstrator Michael Hartney of 250E told the commission, “This is a super-dense development you’re proposing. The message you’re giving people is you want dense development on that side of town.”

He pointed to calls for a fire station on the east side of State Road 49 and questioned whether the Gasteviches’ donation of 20 acres at County Road 1050N and 250E for a Chesterton park is a back-door way to get it annexed. The Gastevich parcel was annexed earlier this year.

Vlad Gastevich said Sand Creek Farms would have its own open space within the development and a walking path around the ponds; the subdivision also would pay the town’s required $1,171 per-lot recreation impact fee to be used as the Park Board desires.

Bannon said the future 20-acre park would be open to the public. “We don’t set up a gate and say, ‘If you don’t pay taxes to the town you can’t use it.’”

Eric Gastevich said they will widen 250E for its total length of the subdivision frontage, and no ingress or egress is planned from Burdick Road. An easement is provided on Sand Creek Farms’ east side in the event adjacent land is developed and road connectivity is desired.

The fact Porter Avenue, a main Chesterton artery, is one of the subdivision’s two entrances off 250E but doesn’t continue by name through the parcel is what led commission member George Stone to vote no. Other members and town staff agreed with developers that it’s preferable not to have a busy road bisect a residential area.

Msgr. John Charlebois, Robert Harbrecht and others inquired about a berm or fences separating the new subdivision from abutting land and homes. Eric Gastevich said Sand Creek Farms homeowners may elect to put up their own fences, as can adjacent property owners. Thostesen asked if the existing grades on the south and east perimeters of the subdivision would be maintained; Gastevich said yes, to the extent possible.

He also said tree lines would be preserved. “If we can keep a tree, we keep a tree.”

He noted that Sand Creek Farms is not a gated community and will have public streets, however, some streets in the northern phase will be private and maintained by a homeowners’ association.

Albert Rioli of Porter cautioned against promoting urban sprawl and cited the expense Chesterton will incur for personnel and equipment to service Sand Creek Farms. He did say development can occur in a rural setting if done right.

Stone asked if the Gasteviches’ plan to build the subdivision out in four years was too ambitious. Vlad Gastevich said they’re keenly aware of the national housing situation and share Stone’s concern, but Eric Gastevich said they believe the market rebound will coincide with their construction timetable.

In other business, public hearings on platting Phases 6 and 7 of the Estates of Sand Creek were continued yet again at the petitioner’s request.

The commission voted 6-0 with Frank Sessa absent to have plan attorney Charles Parkinson research how other towns delegate a town official, not the full Plan Commission, to approve secondary plats that don’t deviate from the primary plat previously approved by the commission. Member Steve Yagelski suggested an appeal process be included in the event the town official doesn’t approve a plat and the petitioner is dissatisfied.

Stone noted it’s unclear how the Plan Commission will be constituted next year with Sessa and Bannon retiring from the Town Council and Trout taking his new seat there. Stone and others thanked Sessa for his years of service. “He’s done a great job for the Town of Chesterton,” said Owens.

Posted 12/21/2007