The Hobart City Council has granted final approval for Patriot Park, a planned unit development that could be the home of a proposed Lake County Convention Center.

“This has been a long time coming,” Mayor Josh Huddlestun said of plans for the 213-acre parcel.

The council at its meeting on Wednesday approved plans for Patriot Park, formerly known as Silverstone Crossings located off the Interstate 65/U.S. 30 corridor.

Plans for Patriot Park include a 149,000-square-feet convention center on the north side of the property.

“We’re super excited we are at this point so developers can go forward. And if we are lucky, there might be a convention center in the middle,” Huddlestun said.

Hobart is vying with the city of Gary to have the convention center in their respective cities.

In early March, hundreds of residents gathered at St. Timothy Church in Gary to learn about Gary’s proposed site at the Hard Rock Casino, while members of the Hobart Plan Commission voted unanimously to establish a 213-acre planned-unit development for Patriot Park, its preferred location.

The City of Gary, the Hard Rock and AECOM, and Garfield Public/Private LLC and the City of Hobart have submitted proposals for a Lake County Convention Center. The Lake County Board of Commissioners has until May 31 to decide on a proposal, according to state statute.

Plans for Patriot Park were previously outlined by Civil Engineer and Development Manager Jeff Ban of DVG Team at the Hobart City Council meeting held on March 19.

The parcel is located east of Mississippi Street, south of 73rd Avenue, west of Colorado Street and north of U.S. 30.

The developer, Al Krygier, envisions the area would include an existing 70-unit veterans transitional housing along with three other residential buildings that would contain 680 market-rate units; two 100-unit hotels; a 55-acre youth sports complex; mixed retail/office buildings; five multi-tenant, retail and restaurant buildings and five flex office warehouse buildings among other amenities.

Ban said there is also the possibility of a golf venue at the site since interest has been shown toward that possibility.

The county convention center, should it be awarded to Hobart, would be the center of the development.

The proposed complex could bring in $523 million in new capital, Huddlestun said, whether the convention center is awarded to Gary or doesn’t come to fruition at all.

“It’s a beautiful mixed-use development with high end apartments, entertainment and retail. It’s a perfect live, work, play model,” he said.

Developers are ready to go forward now that approval has been given by city officials.

“We’ll make the region proud with this,” he said.

In other business, the City Council agreed to send back to the ordinance committee specific requirements for the maintenance of chickens.

Huddlestun said the issue would likely be discussed at the May 7 meeting.

Chickens are allowed in Hobart at present but the requirement is that the chicken coop be within 200 feet from a residential structure.

“That’s a challenge in Hobart,” he said, adding, “We’re trying to lighten that. The council is looking to make some accommodations to make it less restrictive.”

Several residents attended the meeting to speak on the many benefits of raising chickens including using them to get rid of insects and using them as a teaching tool for youngsters as part of a 4-H program.

Deborah Laverty is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.