Copyright Chicago Tribune
Valparaiso city officials faced a largely perturbed crowd Tuesday afternoon when they held an open house to unveil and receive feedback on two tentative plans for the 400-acre Eastside Campus, formerly planned for a sports complex. The land east of Ind. 49 is south of Burlington Beach Road/County Road 500 N and north of Vale Park Road/County Road 400 N. The proposals include varying layouts of single and multi-family residential, light industrial, tech offices, retail, medical space, hospitality, and a restaurant, as well as a nature preserve and outdoor community space. What started off with a presentation by Valparaiso Director of Development George Douglas explaining mock-ups for what would be a public/private endeavor and asking the standing-room-only audience to vote between two plans devolved into people shouting their frustrations at Mayor Jon Costas. “Quit eating baloney sandwiches!” shouted Gary Brown, president of the Porter County Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America. “Homeowners, stand by your rights! This is being rushed!” “This is an opportunity. This is conversation,” Costas told the crowd. “The goal is to get your input this evening.” Referred to as Eastside Campus Master Plan 2.0, the complex consists of 250 city-owned acres and approximately 150 acres owned by Patko, LLC and St. Mary Medical Center. Architecture, planning, and landscape architecture firm Browning Day had been engaged in 2022 when the sports complex was being planned. Drew Braley, vice president of Browning Day, said 189 of the 400 acres are developable. By the end of 2023, the sports complex was a no-go, according to Douglas, and the $25 million in bond money planned for it was redirected: $10 million to renovations of the city’s legacy parks, and $15 million to the Valparaiso Recreation Project at the site of the old McGill plant on Lafayette Street. The city used $4.7 million in America Rescue Plan Act funds to reimburse the Redevelopment Commission for its purchase of the 250 acres it owns at Eastside Campus. Green spaces and walking paths are part of the plan, but the public was particularly concerned with the 16 and 26 acres of light industrial use that are proposed on plans A and B, respectively. The bulk of the input officials received wasn’t limited to a vote on the two mock-ups or answers to an eight-question survey, but lots of pushback and questions from the audience that they initially said they weren’t taking. Douglas explained the process began in August with meetings with the stakeholder group made up of: city staff; planning consultant Browning Day; City Council President Ellen Kapitan, D-At-Large, and Council Member Barbara Domer, D-3rd; Plan Commission Member Matt Evans; Redevelopment Commission Members Domer; Frank Dessuit, who represents area school interests; East Porter County School Corporation Board Member Vanessa Moore and former member Dessuit; Powers Health representative Dave Otte; and Patko representative real estate broker Tim Brust. Council Members Domer, Diana Reed, D-1st, Robert Cotton, D-2nd, and Kapitan were present. Several members of the East Porter County School Corporation Board and Superintendent Aaron Case were also in attendance. Not everyone was critical of the plans. Some were simply looking for information, while others were supportive. “We had no idea what they were doing, so we came,” said Marcia Kent, of Washington Township, who was sitting with her husband Tim. “You put that much in there, are the roads going to be able to handle it?” she wondered. “This is a relatively close project to where we live,” said Tim Kent, who was concerned about “traffic, noise, even light pollution, other pollution.” “I’ve seen this since its infancy when it was originally purchased,” said retiree Dillon Dalton of Valparaiso. “Different renderings over the years, anxious to see it developed.” After seeing the presentation, he spoke at length about the DASH bus service he used for 17 years to get to his banking job in Chicago and said the Eastside Master Plan looked like another good idea. “You have a professional firm that does nice work. I think you have to start with that,” he said of the renderings by Browning Day. “I think it’s a good format,” he added. “Does the perfect project exist? Maybe.” Public input on the plan closes Nov. 12. The stakeholder group will then reconvene, and Browning Day will update the Redevelopment Commission at its Nov. 13 meeting. Cender Dalton will prepare a financial assessment, and Browning Day is slated to prepare a draft plan for another stakeholder meeting in late December or early January. The consultant will compile public input for stakeholders. “How do we know that the input you’re getting isn’t compromised?” demanded Hannah Trueblood, who also wanted to know if the open house was being recorded. It was not. In the vein of Trueblood’s questioning were a selection of jaded views. “We want to focus on what we were promised,” said Agnieszka Slys, of Valparaiso. “The (sports) complex.” “This looks like a done deal,” said Jeannie Hornback, of the Meadowbrook neighborhood, which abuts the east side of the proposal. “This whole area was given at a very low cost to the city for the health of the citizens, and it’s a shell game.” City officials expect to present a final plan to the Plan Commission and Redevelopment Commission in January or February. Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
