After being postponed twice, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management hosted a virtual public hearing Monday evening to discuss a waterways project for a permit affecting Hobart wetlands.
About 18 people were present in the meeting, which had little public comment. Emersyn Harriman, the hearing officer, said a lot of public comment came previously from a petition service.
According to IDEM, the proposed permit is for an industrial development that would impact 5.49 acres of wetlands and 325 linear feet of stream channel with fill and excavation. Harriman said the project is for shipping warehouses and will mostly be parking lot space.
If approved, the projects will be located near the intersection of U.S. 30 and Colorado Street, near the Crossings of Hobart shopping center. The project is not related to Hobart’s Amazon data center, which will be nearby at 61st Avenue and Colorado Street.
Christine Pierce, the hearing’s lone public commenter, told IDEM officials that she was under the impression that it was related to the data center. IDEM Communications Director Allen Carter told her that it had never been related to the data center.
Pierce asked what the key takeaways of the project are and if there’s wetlands on adjacent parcels. Harriman told her that there are wetlands on adjacent parcels, which are a mix of residential, businesses and farmland.
“The impacts are limited to the parcel that the warehouse is going to be on, but any technical questions will receive an answer with the permitting hearing,” Harriman said. “… The timeline to get a decision document back could be influenced by the results of this hearing … but we do expect to have it in the next few weeks.”
Ashley Williams, executive director of Just Transition Northwest Indiana, said in a previous statement to the Post-Tribune that her organization opposes the permit.
“We demand IDEM see the cumulative picture of what’s being built around our communities, which already suffer the burden of industrial pollution, and reject this isolated, short-sighted decision,” she said.
IDEM previously rescheduled the Hobart hearing due to power outages in Lake County following the Aug. 11 derecho. The virtual public hearing was originally scheduled for Aug. 12, but then changed to Aug. 19 before finally being scheduled for Monday evening.
According to NIPSCO’s website, at about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, 3,401 Northwest Indiana residents were still without power. Of those, 29 live in Hobart.
More Top Picks Carts Plants