About 20 people had congregated within the first hour at the Willowcreek Extension Workshop at the Porter County Administration Building Tuesday afternoon, reluctantly, or not at all, contributing to the stated goal of sharing ideas for land use along a potential extension from 700 N to SR 130.
“Tonight is just talking about land use around if a road would go through,” Porter County’s Executive Director of Development & Storm Water Management Mike Jabo told those gathered at 4:30 p.m. in the council chamber. But Wheeler resident Kelsie Patton, with her “100 and 1000%” opposition to “everything” about the idea, was representative of the attitude of the small crowd.
“Our little, small community is like, ‘Leave us alone,’” she added.
Brothers Clay and Kyle Duarte, who live on 725 W and 650 W, a half mile from each other in Hobart, read the various posters provided by urban planning consultant MKSK Consultants, of Columbus, OH, and talked with Jabo. They said they’ve been fighting the plan for five years.
“I just don’t think it’s going to do what they say it’s going to do,” Kyle Duarte said. “All of the traffic coming from the toll road and 80/94 through Portage would end at 130 and those county roads were never designed for all of that. And they’re trying to fix that by putting a new route through.”
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Clay Duarte said the intersection of 650 W and SR 130 has a lot of accidents, sometimes two or three a week. “There’s going to be safety concerns for farmers, our children,” he said.
“The road will come up in March/April,” Jabo reiterated.
“It’s hard to talk about land use without talking about the actual road,” Kyle Duarte countered.
“Well, yes and no,” Jabo quietly insisted.
Behind the Duartes, unincorporated Valparaiso resident Tony Lahaie sat in a pew. “Well, they’ve been trying for like 70 years, trying to build this thing,” he said, and indeed, one of the posters gave a timeline of aspirations for a north/south route dating back to 1955. “It’s a thorn in their side, especially since they spent some money. They have to pay that back if they don’t do it.”
He questioned how many motorists would actually use such a road to get to the toll road. As far as how the sides of the road should be populated if the extension is built? “I know there’s going to be gas stations all along it,” Lahaie said. “Mini marts.”
Across the room at Station 5, designed to take votes from folks on how they’d like to see the land used, Jeff Langan, of Wheeler sported his bright orange “Country, Not Corporate” t-shirt from the recent fight against the proposed data centers that wanted to come to Wheeler. “So much of this has been decided for us,” he said with a sardonic grin. “Where was the consultation along the way?”
A few feet away from him Karen Naminski of Valparaiso was “very reluctantly” voting with stickers on what features and qualities she would like to see along the proposed route that would be very near the two-and-a-half acres where she’s lived on 650 W for 26 years.“I think once that road goes through I’m worried about what’s going to go on either side of the road,” she said. “Is it going to look like Portage? If they’re going to do something, I’d like it to be residential.”
Her neighbor Jean Hardesty, who lives at the farm at 650 W and 350 N that would be bisected by the proposed extension, wasn’t bothering to vote on land use.
“It’s just going to be, ‘We don’t want it,’” she said. “We don’t see any benefit and when we ask, ‘how is this going to benefit Wheeler?’ Nothing.”
Her family will be honored with the next-level Hoosier Homestead Award in March as their family farm reaches the exalted age of 150 years. If the road goes through, they won’t be able to afford to continue farming, she said.
Hardesty also said there are weight limits on the Portage portion of Willowcreek Road that would make an extension impractical. Jabo said that is being looked into, “but the question is does Portage want them (large trucks) coming through their neighborhood?” He said meetings with the city are being planned to investigate such issues.
Aaron Kowalski, principal with MKSK, said his firm has been doing county-wide engagement for the past eight months. They were at the Porter County Fair in July getting input from residents. All of that input, plus the feedback from the workshop, will contribute to the county’s overhaul of its comprehensive plan which hasn’t been updated since 2001, which in turn will help shape any future Willowcreek corridor.
“It’s a pretty substantial project,” he said.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.