Porter County will pull the Willowcreek Road extension project off the back burner with a public workshop Tuesday afternoon aimed at filling the community in on the latest plans while seeking input in a very informal setting.
“People are here to listen and talk and engage with you one on one,” said Porter County Development and Storm Water Management Executive Director Mike Jabo, adding the workshop will not include a public comment portion.
“We’re only talking about Phase I here,” clarified Porter County Board of Commissioners President Jim Biggs, R-North, referring to the portion of the proposed extension from County Road 700 N to Ind. 130. “It’s probably been two years since we have met as a group in a public meeting.”
The open house style workshop will cover land use planning for the proposed corridor and the public is invited to share their concerns, ideas, and priorities with county staff and consultants. Staff will also share analysis findings and mappings, as well as zoning regulations and overlay information.
Jabo explained the Willowcreek Road extension project involves two simultaneous processes. Tuesday’s workshop will be about the land use a half mile on either side of the road. The development of the physical road alignment, which involves federal highway monies through the Indiana Department of Transportation, is still in the process of studying environmental impacts. It’s expected to wrap up by the end of the first quarter or early second quarter next year and will include a public hearing at that time.
The only part of the Willowcreek Road extension under design right now is Phase I. Phase II would include the overpass of 130 and the parallel Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern and Norfolk Southern Railroads. “We don’t have any preconceived notions,” Jabo said. “We just want to hear from the public what their visions are for the development of this corridor.”
The county is also in the midst of updating its comprehensive plan, which hasn’t been done since 2001. In the future, it will ideally be updated every five years, Jabo said. That update should be completed at the same time as the physical road alignment of the Willowcreek extension.
“Mike believes, as I do, that there has been hundreds and hundreds of hours poured into this project, as well as hundreds of thousands, if not $1 million,” Biggs said, referring to Jabo, who inherited the project when he took on the job nearly two years ago. “For those reasons alone is why the project must move forward.”
Wheeler resident Liz Bennett suspected that in-too-deep-to-back-out-now argument. She and her husband have passed out informational flyers and started the Facebook group No Willowcreek Extension.
Wheeler resident Liz Bennett speaks during a public meeting about the Willowcreek Road Extension at the Porter County Expo Center in Valparaiso, Indiana, Monday, January 30, 2023. County officials are holding a workshop about the road extension Tuesday. (Andy Lavalley/ for the Post-Tribune)
She said her group was last at a county meeting in March 2023 when former Development & Storm Water Management Director Bob Thompson “promised us we could do an overlay.” Bennett said Thompson’s successor Jabo has been receptive as well.
“As I understand it, that’s what this particular meeting is about,” she said. “We have an opportunity to help them write something down that makes us a little happier.”
Her group’s main concerns are the belief that the planned location doesn’t make sense, and what would go on either side of any extension. “It absolutely threatens our way of life,” Bennett said. “We want to be Porter County. We want to be quiet. We want to be residential.”
While he does think the growing population necessitates the ability to handle greater traffic, Porter County Council President Andy Vasquez, R-4th, is sympathetic to that ethos. “They had better think long and hard what they’re going to do commercially” before the extension is completed on its proposed ultimate path south to U.S. 30. “Forgive me, St. John. They went from zero to 60 mph as far as commercial development.
“You created sprawl,” he added. “We need to preserve the flavor of Porter County as long as we can.”
As far as the council’s perspective on the proposed extension, Vasquez said, “We really haven’t talked much at this point. We were more concerned about SB 1,” or Senate Bill 1, which cut state funding to municipalities.
He’s sympathetic to the Hardesty family, whose family farm, established in 1853, would be bisected by the proposed extension.
“Being a farmer, I understand, somebody’s going to take my land. I won’t be happy,” Vasquez, himself an organic farmer in Porter County, said. “Unfortunately, with progress comes disruption to the way of life we’ve known.”
Hardesty Farms operations manager Andy Hardesty feeds an apple to a cow on the pasture at the farm on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. He plans to be at a Tuesday workshop about the Willowcreek Road extension, which would bisect his family’s farm. (Kyle Telechan for the Post-Tribune)
Andrew Hardesty, whose family home sits at the corner of County Roads 350 N and 650 W, plans to be at the workshop. “I just think they need to do some more research as to a better option, a better route,” he said. “There are major environmental constraints due to the amount of water that flows through the area. All the roads south of 130 are curvy and they are curvy for a reason. The route basically goes through the lowest point in the township . . . where all the water in the area flows to.”
“It does bother me that it’s bothering some residents,” Biggs said. “There are a hundred things I would rather spend this money on if it wasn’t necessary. These bean fields and these corn fields throughout the county eventually get sold to developers. It’s just the natural evolution of things.”
Indeed, Bennett said it was one of her neighbors who was willing to sell to make way for data centers in Union Township. “I’m praying that people will pay attention and at least come out and we’ll have good conversations with public officials,” she said.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
If you go
The Willowcreek Road Extension Project Workshop will be held in an open house format from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9, in the Commissioners Chambers of the Porter County Administration Building, 155 Indiana Ave.