By VICKI URBANIK

The process for developing Northwest Indiana’s first comprehensive plan for areas along the Lake Michigan shoreline continued Tuesday, with an open house-style event at which the public got to weigh in on a myriad of land use and traffic recommendations for north Porter County and surrounding areas.

More than 30 people attended the session held at the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center in Porter, at which a preliminary draft of the Marquette Plan’s phase II was on display.

Planners from the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, which is overseeing the project, and consulting firms such as J.F. New, JJR, and SEH did not give a presentation, but were on hand to answer questions and hear comments. Those in attendance were invited to walk around the meeting room, view the oversized maps and delve into the recommendations.

The event more or less culminated a series of planning meetings at which the consultants took input from municipal officials, environmentalists, neighborhood groups and other stakeholders on how they would like to see the shoreline areas improved.

Consultant Kerry Keith with SEH said the purpose of Tuesday’s open house was one of validation -- to find out if the public agrees with the recommendations put forth by the consultants, who culled together all the comments received from the previous meetings held.

The participants at Tuesday’s meeting were asked to place sticky dots next to the recommendations that they strongly agreed with. Among some of the most popular suggestions were:

•Evaluate alternative truck routes to I-94 to improve the traffic flow on U.S. 12 and U.S. 20 for local residents and tourists.

•Coordinate efforts between the National Park Service and local jurisdictions to develop the Marquette Greenway Tail, the approximately 8-mile “missing link” that will connect the east and west units of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

•Implement a dedicated shuttle service to get from communities, such as Chesterton, to the National Lakeshore.

•Educate the public about the drawbacks of septic systems, namely, that about 75 percent of Indiana’s soils are not suitable for septics.

•Implement long-term solutions to improve Beverly Drive in Beverly Shores.

•Encourage remediation of brownfield sites; explore the feasibility of relocation of industries along the shoreline.

•Implement a joint effort between NIPSCO, the Indiana Department of Transportation and Michigan City to enhance U.S. 12.

The consultants will meet again on Dec. 12 with the Marquette Plan’s working group to review the input received Tuesday. Then, possibly in January, the final plan will be released, Keith said.

To put the plan into action, NIRPC will be asked to give its approval. In addition, individual communities involved in the plan will be asked to give the final plan a formal endorsement and include it in their own land use plans, just as what has occured with the Marquette Plan’s first phase involving largely Lake County and extending east into Portage.

Among those in attendance Tuesday was local environmentalist and Porter County Plan Commission member Herb Read, who commended components of the plan, such as the proposals for improving the aesthetics and safety along U.S. 12.

But he also said the plan doesn’t go far enough in promoting more open space and public access to the shoreline areas, either through outright purchase or conservation easements. While acknowledging that much of north Porter County is already preserved in the Indiana Dunes parks, he noted in particular the quickly developing areas east of Michigan City. He said Marquette Plan’s Phase II, which includes LaPorte County, could be the ideal mechanism for setting up a framework to preserve the remaining shoreline areas. “East of Michigan City is building up faster than I can say the word,” he said.

Read noted that U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky spearheaded the original plan in Lake County, as a way to open up more of the shoreline to public use. The plan for Porter County could have gone farther, he said. “It’s not the grand vision Visclosky had in mind,” Read said.

Another open house on the Phase II plan will be held today at 7 p.m. at the Michigan City Senior Center. The draft plan is available on NIRPC’s website at www.nirpc.org

Posted 11/28/2007