By PAULENE POPARAD

In an unexpected move, the Burns Harbor Economic Development Commission voted 3-0 Monday asking the town’s Advisory Plan Commission at its May 12 meeting to reopen the public hearing on the controversial Stone River subdivision.

A Plan Commission vote on the 24-home, single-family project proposed by developer Robert Lewis ended in a 3-3 tie April 7 with member Mike Perrine absent. At least six speakers during the public hearing said the location is heavily traveled and dangerous.

Lewis’ 10-acre parcel is located on the north side of four-lane U.S. 20 a short distance west of Indiana 149. Narrow, graveled Domon Lane is on Lewis’ land but a new subdivision entrance would be created onto U.S. 20.

Last night sitting as a member of the EDC, Perrine said it’s imperative for future economic development that Domon Lane be preserved so it one day can become a major north/south route connecting U.S. 20 and South Boo Road as well as parcels along the way. Domon currently serves at least two businesses.

Perrine said if Lewis isn’t agreeable to making sure Domon Lane is usable as the future road it needs to be, perhaps the town should consider acquiring it.

Perrine noted that when Lewis came to the town in 2007 with a 40-unit townhome proposal for the same parcel, upgrading Domon Lane to town specifications as Stone River’s main entrance was included. However, the Plan Commission gave that incarnation a negative recommendation and the development request expired without the Town Council taking a final vote.

Since that time Lewis representatives have said that without the higher density needed to pay for the costly Domon Lane upgrade, it won’t be done for just 24 homes although the businesses now using Domon can continue to do so. If some day Domon is improved as a town street, Stone River’s proposed plat includes an easement for the subdivision to connect to it.

Perrine asked town attorney Bob Welsh if the EDC can request the Plan Commission public hearing be reopened. Welsh said yes, especially if commission members want additional information they feel is pertinent to the petition.

EDC members Toni Biancardi, Cliff Fleming and Jim McGee voted for the latter’s motion to recommend reopening the hearing with the suggestion that Domon Lane become a thoroughfare.

McGee, like Perrine, is a Plan Commission member. Fleming is not and remonstrated against Stone River at the April 7 public hearing citing traffic concerns. Last night, Welsh said that did not make Fleming ineligible to vote as an EDC member on the motion. Biancardi, Fleming, McGee and Perrine are also Town Council members.

In other business, the EDC voted 3-0 to add Perrine and Town Council member Louis Bain, who was absent, to the EDC as advisory non-voting members.

The EDC also discussed the status of existing tax abatement agreements with Ryerson Steel, which has been sold, and Arcelor Mittal Steel, whose abatements were granted for former owner Bethlehem Steel with a waiver of certain reporting requirements. McGee said he would contact Mittal to determine which facilities have been built/improved since the abatement was granted. Building permit fees were not waived under the previous agreement.

Posted 5/6/2008