Culminating more than a year of public workshops and planning sessions, the Porter County Commissioners on Tuesday gave their approval to a new corridor plan that maps future development options along more than 120 miles of roads in the unincorporated areas.

Two residents who spoke at a public hearing on the plan Tuesday lamented the county’s widespread drainage problems, which they attributed at least in part to years of uncontrolled development.

County Commissioner President Robert Harper, who is also the president of the county plan commission, said the new Porter County Corridor Plan should help the county avoid repeating its past mistakes.

“We’re trying to preserve the natural beauty of this county, knowing that it’s going to get developed,” Harper said.

He noted that the county in recent years has adopted a number of new measures affecting development, including a requirement for independent reviews of proposed drainage plans, an ordinance requiring open space at new subdivisions, and new rules on buffer zones.

The county continues to work on other planning requirements, such as a tree ordinance and a plan to address impacts on overburdened drainage ditches. Harper said with those and other measures, he believes Porter County is at the forefront of getting rules in place that will allow development but without causing problems for existing residents.

The county’s new corridor plan presents a number of development options along major roadways in the unincorporated areas, including Meridian, Ind. 49 and U.S. 6. North Porter Commissioner John Evans noted that two other major roads, U.S. 12 and U.S. 20, are not in the plan but that’s only because they are part of a separate study under the Marquette Plan.

Pete Fritz of Ratio Architects, the consulting firm hired to prepare the plan, said the plan has several guiding ideals, based on public input received at the public workshops held in the past year. These include a goal of limiting new development in areas adjacent to urbanized areas to promote a sense of contiguous growth; inward-facing commercial developments; and enhanced preservation of buffers, wetlands and other natural areas.

Under one development scenario in the plan, a commercial development could have pedestrian walkways so that shoppers would find it convenient to walk through the complex instead of driving from lot to lot. The stormwater plan for the shopping center could also include a wetland recharge system, in turn establishing a natural buffer area.

Similarly, a new industrial park could have a drainage system that would incorporate walking trails along a series of staged wetlands, giving those who work on site a pleasant place to take a break.

Plan Commission Executive Director Robert Thompson noted that the corridor plan is just that -- a plan. It does not change existing zoning, but gives a guide for the county plan commission to use when considering development proposals. As such, the corridor plan is being amended into the county’s 2002 thoroughfare plan and is being adopted in the form of a resolution instead of an ordinance.

One of the individuals who addressed the commissioners Tuesday, Kevin Cornett, said the county seems to be “on the right track” with the corridor plan, as he noted the drainage problems throughout the county, including the problematic site at C.R. 900N and Meridian Road.

Cornett suggested slowing development until the county gets a better handle of where all the water from new developments will go. “We’ve got a mess right now,” he said.

Another resident, Lucie Whitlow of Washington Township, said her Washington Highlands subdivision is surrounded by new development and that drainage problems that have been non-existent for years have now surfaced. She urged the county to be mindful of how new developments could impact long-time residential areas.

Evans said the drainage has always been a top issue for the county when approving new developments. He also gave a history of the 900N drainage problem and said that a new plan is in the works to dig a new ditch that will take the excess water to Damon Run.

Harper and Evans gave first reading approval to the corridor plan, with second reading set for June 2. Commissioner Carole Knoblock was absent Tuesday.

In another planning matter, Evans took note of the ongoing lawsuit against the proposed Porter hospital at Ind. 49 and U.S. 6.

Evans said there are many Liberty Township residents who support the hospital at that site and are “dismayed” that the Liberty Landowners Association has filed an appeal of a lower court’s ruling that found that the group does not have standing to challenge the hospital zoning.

Posted 5/20/2009