South Shore development districts pass first public hearings

Seven proposed transit development districts, promoted as Northwest Indiana’s most important development tools, passed their first public hearings without opposition.

The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority conducted the TDD hearings Thursday.

The development areas are planned around new and current South Shore Line stations, thanks to a state law designed to link Northwest Indiana more closely to the Chicago region’s economy.

Sherri Ziller, the RDA’s president and CEO, called the TDDs “the largest economic development project in the state’s history.”

Three proposed districts are around South Shore Line stations to be built along the planned West Lake Corridor — Hammond, Munster and border between Munster and Dyer.

Four are proposed around existing stations in East Chicago, Gary’s Miller area, Portage/Ogden Dunes, and Michigan City.

The only comments at the public hearing supported the proposals.

“We know it will be the economic engine that revitalizes Gary,” Trent McCain, Gary’s deputy mayor, said of the proposed Miller TDD.

Other supporting comments for their communities’ districts came from Phil Taillon, Hammond’s chief of staff; Skyler York, Michigan City’s planning director; and David Hein, Dyer’s town manager.

Taillon noted that three developments, totaling 350 housing units, have started already in Hammond’s downtown area, near a South Shore Line station the city plans to build. And, he said, the city is talking with three other developers.

“I think the younger generation will really be excited,” he said of the TDDs, which are intended to promote walkable communities.

The final public hearings on the proposed TDD districts will be on July 14.

After that, Ziller will take the proposals to the State Budget Agency, which has the final say. She expects the new districts to be official by year’s end.

Once the districts are officially established, new developments in each will generate property tax and local income tax revenue to pay for improvements there — similar to tax increment financing districts that have been around for decades, but with the addition of income tax revenue.

Aaron Kowalski, a senior associate of the firm, MKSK, that has been the RDA’s consultant on establishing the TDDs, noted that each community retains planning control in the districts.

Each proposed district covers up to 320 acres — one-half a square mile.

Potential TDDs also are being studied around the new Hammond South station along the West Lake Corridor and the existing Gary Metro and Dune Park stations.

Maps of the proposed districts are at www.in.gov/rda/documents, and more information on TDDs is at www.nwitdd.com.