By PAULENE POPARAD

“This just shows ourselves and the community the passion that talking about change and the future brings out,” observed Burns Harbor Advisory Plan Commission president Jeff Freeze during Monday’s meeting.

Commission members at times sharply disagreed how to go about updating the town’s master plan, comprehensive plan and likely amendments to the zoning ordinance.

Member Cliff Fleming’s motion asking the Town Council to pay to hire a professional consultant now to guide the commission in redoing the comprehensive/master plan failed. He, Freeze and Jim McGee voted yes with Mike Perrine, Terry Swanson, Virginia Bain and Jim Meeks voting no.

Fleming, McGee and Perrine are Town Council members. Fleming’s Plan Commission appointment ends this month with the return from Iraq of commission and council member Louis Bain, a U.S. Marine.

After additional discussion the commission voted unanimously to recommend that the Town Council impose a moratorium on all commercial /industrial construction excluding projects already on the table with building permits; also excluded would be residential construction.

The action was conditioned on commission attorney Charles Parkinson advising that the moratorium would be legal and how to implement it.

Perrine said his desire is not to antagonize current property owners but rather to direct desired growth like a grocery store, pharmacy or family restaurant to the most appropriate areas, whether in a dedicated town center or in strip malls, and make sure those sites aren’t taken by undesirable uses first.

“We don’t have much time,” said McGee. “People are knocking at the door to develop now.”

The commission also set March 19 at 5:30 p.m. as a special meeting to continue the master plan discussion.

Fleming said the town’s 1995 master plan is outdated and urged throwing out the book and starting with a whole new vision more appropriate for the Burns Harbor of today, which he described as “a new town with a new future.” He said doing that is a complicated process and hiring a consultant would be money well spent and give value to the end product.

According to Meeks, “Let’s know exactly what the people in this town want before we start spending taxpayer money. “ He said a community survey was taken prior to developing the 1995 plan and suggested asking the Town Council to fund a new survey before updating --- not discarding --- the existing plan.

Swanson was involved in the 1995 zoning revisions. He said the commission took months going over them page by page, line by line. “Before you go looking at somebody else’s stuff, look at what you have,” he said, suggesting that changing the schedule of uses allowed within zoning districts might be a solution.

Parkinson said the comprehensive plan would have to support those changes, and Perrine questioned if a one-size-fits-all solution by district would work.

Fleming said he’s an attorney who’s worked with developers for 35 years. He also is a residential developer in Burns Harbor. Fleming cited the way Merrillville, Crown Point, Chesterton and Bolingbrook, IL dealt with planning to attract major retailers. “If we do not position ourselves for growth, those developers won’t knock on our door.”

Meeks said some grand plan to bring a Target or Kmart to a town as small as Burns Harbor won’t happen. Long-time residents should have a voice, he added, because not everybody wants to duplicate urban Chicago here.

Perrine suggested the moratorium. He said the region, not just Burns Harbor, is at a crossroads, but throwing out the town’s current zoning book isn’t necessary. Perrine and others said the best areas for commercial growth are along U.S. 20 generally west of Camp-Land. The town is hoping to force removal of the blighted long-abandoned Standard Plaza truck stop east of Indiana 149 so it can be redeveloped.

Freeze said as a five-square-mile town, Burns Harbor has limited opportunities to attract the business uses it wants. He asked if changes to the zoning ordinance could be used to create an overlay of restrictions/regulations for certain areas. Freeze also said it may be helpful to define a scope of work and do a request for zoning-consultant proposals to find out the cost.

Bain said any planning effort will take time to get it done properly and the town shouldn’t start spending money it doesn’t have.

Parkinson was asked to give members a list of resources for finding what other towns have done in similar zoning situations to guide development.

Jeffrey Ballard of Abonmarche Consultants, LLC, was present for a separate matter on the agenda. He suggested the commission engage the public in person about their zoning preferences rather than seek written responses, and that the town adopt an updated economic development plan.

Meeks asked that a copy of the community survey used for the 1995 updates be supplied to commission members. He said the response from residents and property owners at that time was good.

Posted 3/4/2008