By KEVIN NEVERS

The Chesterton Redevelopment Commission is eyeing the permanent closure of the intersection of South Calumet Road and C.R. 1100N.

That closure would be the linchpin in a package of traffic fixes engineered by DLZ of the South Bend for the improvement of the South Calumet Triangle, that chunk of land bordered by South Calumet to the east, C.R. 1100N to the south, and C.R. 100E to the west.

At its meeting Tuesday night, the commission voted 3-1 to endorse that package and forward its recommendation to the Town Council. Although the commission has the statutory right to proceed on its own authority with any project funded by tax increment financing moneys, President David Canright—managing editor of the Chesterton Tribune—has long followed a policy of taking a lead from the council.

Still, three of the four current council members—Chris Christofersen, D-2nd, is resigning his seat on Friday—already sit on the commission and their preferences would appear to be clear at this point. Sharon Darnell, D-4th, voted on Tuesday for closing South Calumet and C.R. 1100N, and Mike Bannon, R-5th, voted against it. Dave Cincoski, R-3rd, was not in attendance but Darnell said that he had previously communicated to her his support of the closure. Member Jim Ton, R-3rd—who does not sit on the commission—observed Tuesday’s meeting from the floor but did not publicly voice an opinion.

In fact DLZ presented four different packages to the commission on Tuesday, only one of which featured the closure of South Calumet and C.R. 1100N. One of the others, whose key component was a roundabout at the intersection of Beverly Drive and C.R. 100E, the commission immediately rejected. The challenge then became to reach a consensus on a package which, as Canright put it, would cause the least pain to the greatest number of property owners.

In the end the commission settled on a combination of two packages. The hybrid would look something like this:

•The idea, very roughly, would be to turn the South Calumet Triangle into the South Calumet Trapezoid, with C.R. 100E as its western base, South Calumet its eastern base, an east-west connector road linking them at the south and aligned with the entrance to ‘Round the Clock, and a second east/west connector linking them at the north and aligned with Beverly Drive.

•The intersection of South Calumet and C.R. 1100N would be permanently closed. At the extreme southern terminus—a privatized stub of road extending south from the ‘Round the Clock entrance—it would only serve the First National Bank of Valparaiso. Between Beverly Drive and ‘Round the Clock South Calumet would become, for all practical purposes, an access or frontage road.

•The hodgepodge of entrances to businesses along the South Calumet access road—Doler Plumbing & Heating, Trout Glass & Mirror, Farm Bureau Insurance, Apex Excavation, AMT Computers, Tiger Martial Arts, Kathy’s Antiques, CVS Pharmacy, and Dean’s Tire & Automotive—would be closed and a single consolidated entrance constructed at the location of Dean’s. North of Beverly Drive a second consolidated entrance would give access to Starin Marketing Inc., Brown’s Mini Storage, Grand Rental Station, and M&S Collision.

•The new intersection of C.R. 100E and Beverly Drive would become, according to DLZ’s usage, a “major gateway” into Chesterton. The South Calumet access road would “curve into” that intersection, with a two-way stop for eastbound and westbound motorists.

•The intersection of C.R. 100E and C.R. 1100N would be reconstructed and signalized. Motorists who wanted to access Ind. 49 from the north would have to turn left there onto eastbound C.R. 1100N. Motorist who wanted to access either the Downtown or the businesses along the South Calumet access road from Ind. 49 would have to turn right there onto northbound C.R. 100E.

•C.R. 100E would have three lanes between C.R. 1100N and Venturi Drive, the center one a dedicated left-turn lane. The apex of the old Triangle—where South Calumet and C.R. 100E now split at the Y—would be eliminated and a new intersection with dedicated left-turn lanes created at Venturi Drive and aligned with the entrance to the Range Master Outfitters.

•C.R. 1100N would be widened for additional traffic lanes and a non-mountable concrete center curb installed. The existing access to St. Paul Lutheran Church on C.R. 1100N would become right-in/right-out only, and the commission expressed its willingness to use TIF funds to assist the church in relocating its access to C.R. 100E.

Discussion

On one subject the commission was in full consensus: the learning curve. No matter what package of traffic fixes members ultimately elect, Darnell said, motorists will have to be re-educated, and that process “will take a long amount of time. . . . People will have to re-learn how to access that part of town.”

Members were not, however, unanimous on the closure of South Calumet and C.R. 1100N. Bannon called it “a pretty daunting thought,” voiced the fear that ‘Round the Clock in particular could be hurt “tremendously” by it, and cited the proposed closure in refusing to join his colleagues in endorsing the hybrid package.

Darnell respectfully disagreed with Bannon on the potential impact of the proposed closure on ‘Round the Clock—she suggested that the southernmost east-west connector road, because aligned with the entrance to the restaurant, would provide that business with sufficient access—yet she did concede that some businesses could be hurt. “We’re going to impact somebody,” she said.

For his part Canright suggested that the hybrid package would probably be the least disruptive to the most businesses—though, he ventured, it could also be highly disruptive to a few—but in the end he argued that any solution to the problem of the South Calumet Triangle which does not close South Calumet and C.R. 1100N is hardly a solution at all, given the perilous proximity of that intersection to Ind. 49.

Canright did broach an entirely different concern, however: the extent to which the consolidation of business entrances along the South Calumet access road would force those businesses to cooperate in such matters as parking, snow-plowing, and maintenance. In effect, he said, the elimination of those isolated private drives will turn those businesses into a sort of strip mall. “Businesses would be more agreeable if we went in with a plan to help them figure out those issues. Tell me something,” Canright challenged DLZ engineer Mike Jabo, “we can reassure those businesses with.”

Jabo was perhaps not entirely reassuring. There are “fair and equitable” mechanisms for closing private drives, he replied, but the terms of the closure may need to be negotiated.

Public Comment

In fact right now members haven’t the vaguest idea what businesses may think about the hybrid package—or, for that matter, what residents of Beverly Drive may think—because to this point the commission has not actually solicited public input on the problem of the South Calumet Triangle.

Indeed, earlier this summer Darnell said that a specific invitation to the public to comment on the problem would best be postponed until the commission had sifted all of the packages engineered by DLZ and narrowed down the alternatives to the most likely constellation of traffic fixes.

The winnowing phase has been completed, though, and businesses and residents will have their first crack at making a debate of it during the public comment portion of the council’s next meeting, at 7 p.m. Sept. 11.

Posted 8/30/2006