Elevate Porter County shares updated comprehensive plan with county residents at wellness workshop

On Monday, February 23, the Porter County Expo Center welcomed residents of Porter County for an opportunity to receive a comprehensive wellness check about the community’s most pressing challenges. Elevate Porter County organized a workshop for residents to learn about statistics and trends that represent the current and future status of Porter County.

The open house guided visitors to check out the Porter County map and see where they live to discover current trends. Elevate Porter County created a plethora of posters with statistics regarding the make-up of the county, including a 189% growth rate since 1960. Additionally, home values have doubled since 2005 and the fastest growing age group in Porter County has been ages 65 and older since 2000.

Mike Jabo, director of development and stormwater management in Porter County, has worked with his team to update the county’s comprehensive plan.

“The state of Indiana requires that all municipalities and counties have a comprehensive plan,” Jabo said. “This includes things such as land use and thoroughfare plans that can create parts. These plans also need to be periodically updated, and the last time our plan was done was in 2001. We’re almost starting from scratch, being 25 years later, and creating a new comprehensive plan will guide us into a lot of decisions.”

According to Jabo, this plan can provide ideas for zoning, where certain developments can take place, or where development shouldn’t take place. 

The open house featured statistics from Elevate Porter County regarding the conditions and trends throughout the county. About 75% of housing units are single family homes, with 39% of Porter County residents working within the county. Other stations throughout the open house that were discussed included connectivity and housing, economic development, growth management, and natural assets such as the Porter County parks, trails, and environment.

This plan is devised with the residents of Porter County at the forefront. Elevate Porter County has been listening to the desires of the community through various outlets like public surveys. This includes an online survey that featured 887 unique responses.

“Our consultant, MKSK, and their subconsultants have been working on this for over a year now, pulling information from different sources,” Jabo said. “We did a public survey just last year, and everybody is invited to respond to some questions. We’ve also done a number of pop up events and other activities to engage the public. We have what is called a Steering Committee, which is 22 people that represent various walks of life such as businesses, farmers, or residents in the county. They have met three times so far to give us input, and the workshop is about sharing with them some of the information we’ve got today to get a pulse on things.”

Jabo considers the workshop to be a hands-on process, where people get an opportunity to select or add to the conversation by marking what they like or dislike about different prompts.

“People are able to add new things to the elements, so it’s a very interactive experience,” Jabo said. “It’s a logical sequence, because each station goes through a progressive cycle. Everyone goes through four stations to discuss everything from infrastructure and transportation to our natural assets and where we go from here.”

Elevate Porter County thrives on creating opportunities for the community to network and provide their input whenever possible.

“We did have another working group last winter where we got together planners from other communities in Porter County,” Jabo said. “We got some nonprofits together and put them all together into small distinct groups so they could share information with us as well.”

Through Elevate Porter County, the goal is to allow the community to have a chance to create a long-term vision for how growth, development, and investment happens in the county. It’s impossible to make these outcomes feasible without the people, which is why Elevate Porter County wants to hear from the residents.

“The important thing is for the public to feel they have a voice in what is decided,” Jabo said. “They often don’t get that opportunity, and as long as everything is running smoothly, nobody has any complaints. This is a time for everybody to pause, reflect and decide where we want to be in 10 or 20 years. I’m hoping that this gets people excited about it, so they can share their ideas and then we can continue to foster that notion as we step down the rest of this process.”

You can learn about how to provide input to help shape a positive future in Porter County by visiting  elevateportercounty.com.

For more information on the Porter County Government, you can visit  portercountyin.gov.