[Southsider2k12]

This should have been done in conjunction with the new police station.

http://www.thenewsdispatch.com/news/articl...76ddbb2ae7.html

[Hypnotic]

lol.....


The city is absolutely relocating City Hall and demolishing the building. Their own cherished and never deviated from study and redevelopment masterplan (LMGIS) by Hitchcock outlines in great detail the necessity for this. I love how they use "interested developers" to qualify it. This was a done deal long ago but the city is deciding to SLOWLY phase-in all these necessary steps. I guess to give the impression they are constantly evolving and moving forward. We are forever hearing about all these "interested developers" lurking in the shadows yet nothing of note ever comes to fruition. The Cleveland Ave extension was paid for because of all the supposed developers with grand plans and almost 20 years later we have adjacent empty fields over thousands of acres. Tonn & Blank purchased the 100 acres across from the airport because of all the "interest" from manufacturers looking to relocate to Michigan City but "there were no suitable locations." Now there is sprawling land zoned Industrial/Commercial/Retail next to U.S. 35, U.S. 20, U.S. 12/212..I-94 and a freaking airport and yet 3 years later, still vacant fields.....Lmao....We have a lot of amateurs. If you can't recruit development when you are paying for all the land, infrastructure, the feasibility and market analysis studies wrapped in tax abatements and other incentives when you already have interested parties allegedly in place then there is a major incompetence on behalf of those involved.

This is getting ridiculous, the city is now conducting study's of the study of the study. How many millions are going to be spent on studies to redevelop every parcel of land? The "Public-Private" partnerships is all public from what I've seen. I'm beginning to think there's some old fashioned kickbacks and palm greasing going on. The city paid for a study by Tracy Cross for market analysis of housing feasibility on the Memorial Hospital site. Then when a developer proposes the Elston's Legacy apartments which fully meet/are limited to her recommendations they throw back another study to her to find out the benefits or viability of adding retail to the ground floor. Thus, not only paying her more money when it's not needed, they hold up building by months and months.

Craig Philips, Rich Murphy and Ron Meer can't make one damn decision without a blueprint by a third party giving them green light. It is not necessary at all to conduct a study to relocate City Hall. Declare it as being vital to the city's overall redevelopment vision and continue on from there. Scout land, buy it, hire an architecture firm to design a new building and build it. Demolish the old site and free up the land for private development. New York would have 6 buildings if they used Michigan City's process. The News Dispatch and police station were supposed to be demolished last spring according to Craig Phillips and Rich Murphy on "Lakeshore Focus." 8 months later and still no equipment on site when a bid has been awarded for a long time now.


Next it will be the Lubeznik Center or Rag Tops the city is paying to relocate and then conducting studies for redevelopment opportunities followed by a feasibility study of relocating them and then a market analysis study of the recommendations. If they don't pay for further contradictory studies in the case of unrealistic or unfeasible development guidelines in the original study.......Unreal

Let's conduct a study to see if we should build a new police station. Now let's conduct a study to see if the Eastport school is ideal. Then let's conduct another study regarding what to do with the former site. Then let's pay for an additional study to see if it reaffirms the last study. Then we need a study to see if there are any affects on the environment, etc. etc. Come on...


Michigan City is 10 years(!) behind schedule from when we had two thorough redevelopment plans put forth and the only adaptation was the $3 million Westcott Park that nobody ever goes to. (Which they built without a further study, see it's possible!) They need to bring in real talent with vision and an extensive portfolio in urban planning and development.