By PAULENE POPARAD

The 190-home Trails of Porter subdivision was approved on a 4-1 vote Tuesday by the Porter Town Council; the project encompasses 64 acres known as the Iron Triangle, a problematic parcel with limited access now redesignated as a planned unit development.

Citing the Porter Plan Commission’s 4-2 unfavorable recommendation on the PUD among other reasons, Councilman Jon Granat voted no.

The Trails will be located at the northeast corner of Wood Street and South Mineral Springs Road north of the CSX Railroad.

Attorney Karen Tallian, representing developers Rich Brennan and Bob Gorgei, told the council after the vote, “Thank you very much. It’s the result of many months of work.” The PUD ordinance was given first reading Jan. 22. The project now returns to the Plan Commission for final platting.

In addition to committing to purchase 5 acres for a public park adjacent to The Trails own 6.25-acre wetlands park, B&R Development will pay the town $1,842 per lot toward an upgrade of the Porter Avenue lift station. Under town code each lot also is required to pay $3,000 in sewer tap-on and capacity-allocation fees.

Council member Michele Bollinger said she visited homes built by B&R Development. The Porter pricetags will range between $180,000 and $220,000. “I think that price point is very reasonable for Porter (and) the ponds and walking trail are a plus.”

The PUD also would have nearly 18 total acres of open space and 78 of the 190 lots would back onto a pond or wetland.

Town planner Jim Mandon said Porter department heads endorse the PUD as by far the best proposal for the site. The subdivision’s stormwater improvements will help area drainage, he added, and a traffic study by the developers demonstrate traffic problems will be “non-existent” because they will add two turns lanes as part of Phase 1 at the Mineral Springs intersection with Old Porter Road, which ends at the subdivision.

Mandon said department heads pushed the developers for as many concessions as possible. “We feel potential problems we first saw have been mitigated. We think it is the best compromise we’re going to get.”

Then why, asked Granat, did the Plan Commission give the PUD a negative recommendation? Council president Bill Sexton said he wasn’t sure. Councilman Dave Babcock said he thought it was because of the density and traffic. Town attorney Patrick Lyp noted the commission’s opposition wasn’t unanimous.

After the meeting Granat said, “I agreed with the Plan Commission, the density (concerns). I read the traffic report. I think it will be a problem.”

Tallian previously said The Trails’ density is equal to or less than other comparable subdivisions in Porter, and that under the current zoning for the Iron Triangle up to 600 living units in four-unit apartments could be built.

Town Utility Board Proposed

Granat asked for clarification that no sewer connections would be allowed into the Porter Avenue lift station, where The Trails sewage would flow, until repairs to it are in progress.

Warren Theide with town engineer Haas & Associates said Porter has to prove that it has reduced the amount of stormwater, also known as infiltration and inflow, into the sewer system and a complete lift-station rebuild, estimated to cost about $750,000, might not be required. “The big deal is I & I.”

Porter is under an agreed order with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to upgrade its sewer collection system. Sexton said he has received positive comments from IDEM. “ We do not have a moratorium.” However, to do even The Trails Phase 1 will require some sewer improvements to take place, said Sexton.

Granat noted later that The Trails has agreed to pay its $1,842 per lot as a cash payment as each phase is approved rather than a lump sum. “It’s not up front. You can’t piecemeal a pump station like that.”

In light of the amount of work the town’s sanitary system needs, Sexton asked that at the Feb. 26 meeting the council be prepared to discuss formation of a Porter Utility Service Board to concentrate on compliance with the IDEM mandates. Sexton said the amount of work involved over the next five to 10 years would be overwhelming for the Town Council, which now has jurisdiction over sewer matters, to supervise.

To that end a joint meeting of the council, the Porter Redevelopment Commission and the Porter Stormwater Management Board is being scheduled to discuss the sewer system’s needs and how to finance them. Preliminary cost estimates have ranged from $2 million to $10 million. The town currently is completing a $190,000 upgrade of the Oak Hill lift station.

After the meeting Sexton said a likely five-member Utility Board would be created with the authority to issue bonds of its own. State revolving loans also would be sought for the sewer projects.

WBEZ PUD advances

Although not specifically so listed on the agenda, the Town Council took up the proposed Tremont Place PUD ordinance for Chicago Public Radio station WBEZ; it seeks to locate a 595-foot FM transmission tower on five of 21 acres it would purchase at the southwest corner of Tremont Road and U.S. 20, the site of the former Andershock’s Fruitland.

The remaining acreage would be offered to commercial/light industrial developers. Final platting would be up to the Porter Plan Commission, which gave the PUD a favorable recommendation.

As part of its commitments, said WBEZ local attorney Greg Babcock, the derelict Andershock buildings and loading docks would be torn down and the areas seeded as part of initial tower construction; in addition, the south end of the acreage where numerous truckloads of apparent construction debris had been dumped years ago will be graded, leveled, covered and seeded.

Actual removal of the debris would be up to the end user who purchases those lots, as would what to do about wetlands there.

Babcock said WBEZ has a March 3 closing on the property and asked the council to act on the PUD. Lyp said council members had not reviewed the PUD ordinance and written commitments and suggested final action be postponed until Feb. 26. The ordinance was passed unanimously by the council on first reading only.

Other WBEZ commitments include prohibiting some zoning uses on the site; removing the tower and guy wires if it is abandoned; installing a web-based weather camera on the antenna with the town controlling who has access to it; installation of an antenna for town services including police and fire departments; and agreement to drop a pending lawsuit brought by WBEZ against the Porter Board of Zoning Appeals after it rejected a 2006 tower request for a nearby site just west of State Road 49 south of U.S. 20.

Babcock said after the meeting that despite Porter’s interest in it, WBEZ’s current PUD does not include its 2006 offer to install wireless Internet service on the tower to serve Porter and surrounding areas. The pricetag for the 21 acres makes that cost-prohibitive, he explained.

WBEZ is at 91.5 FM. Its president Torey Malatia said despite having sister station WBEW at 89.5 FM with a local bureau in Chesterton to serve the Duneland communities, “We’re not covering all of northwest Indiana the way we need to. We’ve been searching for an option and this (PUD) is the one we’ve come to.”

Mandon said the WBEZ tower is more suited to the industrial area it eyes, and improving the site will make it an attractive property to develop. He did recommend making access to the entire parcel off U.S. 20 rather than Tremont Road.

Posted2/13/2008