Federal grant to foster developments near South Shore stations
The Federal Transit Administration has awarded the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation $1.2 million for transit-oriented development (TOD) around the South Shore Line’s existing stations and at new ones along the planned West Lake Corridor and Double Track projects.
NICTD, which runs the South Shore Line, will add $300,000, and the $1.5 million TOD process will be run by the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.
“This grant really takes us to the next level, so we’ll be able to be more creative,” said Sherri Ziller, the RDA’s chief operating officer.
The goal, she said, is to encourage ideas from developers, including those who otherwise might have overlooked Northwest Indiana.
The RDA already has begun the TOD planning process along the West Lake Corridor from Hammond to Dyer, helped by a previous $300,000 FTA grant.
In 2016 and 2017, planning consultant Farr Associates conducted a series of public meetings in Hammond, Munster and Dyer to solicit and discuss ideas for potential developments around four proposed new stations along the West Lake’s planned 8-mile rail link from north Hammond to the Munster/Dyer border.
The new grant will include TOD planning along the Double Track project — a second set of tracks from Gary to Michigan City — and at existing South Shore stations, from East Chicago to South Bend. The Double Track project includes new stations at Miller, Ogden Dunes/Portage, and Michigan City.
As part of its TOD process, the RDA formed the Transit Development Districts Steering Committee, comprising citizens and planners from the cities and towns along the South Shore Line. The planning and design group MKSK has been working with the RDA and that committee.
Michael Noland, the South Shore Line’s president, said the Federal Transit Administration had encouraged NICTD to apply for TOD grants.
NICTD’s latest TOD grant was one of 23, totaling nearly $23 million, awarded by the FTA.
“We are proud to support our local partners as they plan for transit-oriented development that better connects residents to jobs, education and services, FTA Acting Administrator Jane Williams said in the agency’s news release.
The idea of transit-oriented development may have seemed exotic in Northwest Indiana several years ago, Noland said, “but now you can say ‘TOD’ and it’s very well understood in this region.”
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