Nearing the end of its second decade, the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority is looking for a plan for the next 20 years.
The RDA’s board voted Thursday to begin a more-than-year-long process for developing a new long-range strategic plan.
The board also conducted its first public hearings on new transit development districts in Gary, Hammond and the town of Porter.
The RDA’s current strategic plan, updated in 2016, launched the RDA in helping to fund the South Shore Line’s West Lake Corridor and Double Track construction projects and in organizing development districts around new and existing South Shore Line stations.
More than $1.5 billion in federal, state and local money is paying for the South Shore Line’s construction projects, which the RDA has had a role in overseeing.
The RDA also has helped pay for runway expansion at Gary/Chicago International Airport, projects along the Lake Michigan shoreline, and grants to help industries move to the region.
“While the evidence shows that most if not all of the RDA’s original challenges have been met,” Policy Analytics executives David Reynolds and William Sheldrake wrote in a letter to the RDA board, “many stakeholder in Northwest Indiana and leading observers in the Statehouse believe that much remains to be done to accomplish the mission of fully developing the economy and providing an enriched quality of life in Northwest Indiana.”
“The question,” they continued, “is how to identify those catalytic infrastructure projects that will move the regional economy forward.”
The new plan, Reynolds and Sheldrake wrote, would require “objective analysis and the input of regional leaders and the public.”
Sherri Ziller, the RDA’s president and CEO, said she has detected “uniform enthusiasm and approval to move forward with this.”
The goal is to have a new strategic plan by early 2025.
The Indiana General Assembly bill that established the RDA in 2005 said its goals would be regional bus service, commuter rail expansion, shoreline development, and expansion of Gary/Chicago International Airport.
The three new transit development districts reviewed by the RDA board Thursday would join seven districts established recently along the South Shore Line’s existing line and its new West Lake Corridor, now under construction.
The RDA’s final action on the three new districts is scheduled for Oct. 12. The State Budget Committee then would review the districts before they’re official.
The proposed Gary Metro district would cover nearly 309 acres of downtown Gary, stretching east to Carolina Street and west to the Methodist Hospitals campus.
The RDA’s consultants have worked with the city since last June to develop the plan.
“We are looking forward to moving this process along,” Rachelle Ceaser, executive director of constituent services for the city, told the RDA board.
The proposed South Hammond district, based around a South Shore Line station to be built at 173rd Street, would cover about 206 acres and would stretch along city streets to nearby areas, including land formerly occupied by Gavit High School.
“We look forward to using this tool and bringing more residential to the city,” Hammond Chief of Staff Phil Taillon, an RDA board member, told the board.
Hammond resident Nathan Reeder, president and managing broker of the Reeder Companies LLC, suggested extending the district east along 173rd Street and south of the Borman Expressway on Harrison Avenue for residential development.
Reeder noted that there would be room for the additions because proposed district now is using less than two thirds of the 320 acres allowed initially in a TDD.
The Dune Park district would be based around the intersection of U.S. 20 and Indiana 49 in the town of Porter, since the land around the Dune Park station is in the Indiana Dunes National Park.
The town sees opportunities to develop tourism businesses there and at Johnson Beach, connected by Waverly Road to the rest of the district, consultant Aaron Kowalski told the board.
“The town of Porter is very excited for this project,” Michael Barry, the town’s director of development, told the RDA board.
Tim Zorn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
