Elevate Porter County, the effort to develop a comprehensive plan for land use and thoroughfares, hosted a workshop Monday evening to engage the community in steering the county’s future.
The last comprehensive plan was completed in 2001. It’s considered a valuable document to aid the Redevelopment Commission, Board of Commissioners, County Council, and Board of Zoning Appeals in managing the county.
“I think it’s overdue,” said Porter County Council President Andy Vasquez, R-4th, who was on hand studying the many displays and questionnaires that asked people to vote with sticker dots on a variety of topics. “Where are we going in the next 20 or 30 years?”
The Porter County RDC is paying $349,000 for the comprehensive plan, economic development research, and an overlay of Willowcreek Road. The county is awaiting review and approval of environmental documents by the Federal Highway Administration before there can be further movement on the Willowcreek Road project.
The Porter County Parks Department already has its own updated master plan. All of these documents can be taken together to guide the use of the county’s 80% unincorporated land.
The comprehensive county plan will result in a 25-to-40-page book that will be presented to the plan commission at the end of the second quarter. That body will then make a recommendation to the Board of Commissioners on whether to adopt it.
In the meantime, the plan commission and RDC are given updates on the process at each of their meetings. Porter County’s Executive Director of Development & Storm Water Management Mike Jabo believes the state is going to become “a little more brisk” on enforcing its statute requiring municipalities regularly update their comprehensive plans.
“It’s wise to keep your comprehensive plan at the ready,” Jabo said.
Last October, Jabo suggested to the Plan Commission that a subcommittee be formed to look into improving the county’s Unified Development Ordinance. The Plan Commission picked four members, the Board of Commissioners picked three citizen members, and Jabo’s office picked three professionals: a surveyor, an attorney, and a residential developer.
Jabo said he and his staff give the subcommittee case studies to consider and vet in the interest of seeing if ordinance revisions are needed. “The UDO, as I see it, is a living, breathing document,” he said.
Consultants MKSK and All Together have been working for the past year to gather input at community events and pull data from census track records and public domain statistics, such as workforce data.
“Tonight is just kind of a glimpse of that info,” Jabo said. “Does this information sound good to you? Are you surprised by it? Does it ring true, and what does it tell you about where Porter County is today?”
Porter Township Schools Superintendent Stacey Schmidt said the topics on display around the large conference room are right on the money for the issues that concern her running a school corporation traversed by Ind. 2 and County Road 100 South on the edge of the county, butting up to Crown Point.
“We have lots of subdivisions filling out,” she said. “We kind of are right in some of these questions. How do we use farm land? How do you balance the housing inventory that you have in Porter County?”
For Joshua Sutton, owner of Trailyard Outpost adjacent to Creekside Trails, how small businesses fit into the plan is huge. “Not just the large ones, all the last names that we know, is going to make a difference,” he said. “Both the restaurant industry and the retail industry is having a hard time right now.”
And lest they forget the region’s diverse ecotourism impact, Sutton was there to provide input on biking, hiking and paddling. “So much of what I do, too, is giving people maps,” he said. “I don’t want to say it’s pushed to the back, but it’s an afterthought. That’s money on the table.”
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
