The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission is working on a comprehensive economic development strategy. The public has until May 4 to offer public comment.

A draft of the plan is posted at nirpc.org. Public input sessions were held late last year in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties as the plan was being developed.

The NIRPC Economy and Place Committee reviewed the draft Friday and offered suggested revisions.

Goals deal with economic diversification and innovation, workforce resiliency and quality of place.

“This is a transitioning economy. It is transforming,” said Annie Cruz-Porter, a community and regional development specialist with the Purdue Center for Regional Development.

In the future, Cruz-Porter said, two key areas to focus on are energy and advanced computing. For energy, that would include things like pharmaceuticals, not just refining fossil fuels or developing renewable energy sources. For advanced computing, that would include programming for quantum computing as well as data centers and other industries.

“You really need a good basis on which to grow the industries,” she said, including helping to build awareness of the ecosystem and Northwest Indiana’s assets.

Gary Johnson, board chairman for the Society of Innovators at Purdue University Northwest, said threats to the steel industry introduce a sense of urgency in developing the plan.

“The energy clusters are a long-term project. They’re not going to happen in a few years,” he said.

Advanced computing includes opportunities for the semiconductor industry, Johnson said. Quantum computing will require a new type of programming. “I think the first step is to study where the opportunities are,” he said.

George Topoll, Union Township trustee in Porter County and chair of the committee, said there has been a lot of pushback on emerging industries. In Porter County, for example, there has been considerable opposition to data center proposals in Chesterton, Burns Harbor, Valparaiso and Union Township. Is it reluctance to change, or is more information about these industries needed, he wondered.

Porter County is currently working on a comprehensive plan, the first since 2001, to guide land use and other issues.

Regarding the Union Township data center project, “I haven’t even seen this proposal. I’ve heard all kinds of things that could be of concern,” Topoll said.

“We need to know overall where we should put these projects and what they should be,” he said.

“There are zoning codes that probably haven’t been updated since the 1960s,” said AJ Bytnar, economic development director with the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.

Don Babcock, PNW’s economic development director, noted the value of data centers. “Our primary funding for local government is property taxes, so when somebody drops a $1 billion development on you, that’s a positive hit for the local economy,” he said.

“We’re on the cusp of change, and change is sometimes uncomfortable,” said Denarie Kane, NIRPC’s economic development coordinator. “We have to provide information that we’re on the cusp of change.”

“Change is going to come, and it’s going to involve decisions that are perhaps uncomfortable right now,” she said.

The committee is looking at how to develop a highly skilled workforce to meet the needs of emerging industries, working with partner agencies to do so. That includes choosing a tool to help evaluate needs for various industries.

“I’m just saying this tool is too advanced for Northwest Indiana. We have a reading problem,” said Lois Whittaker, president of the Black Chamber of Commerce of Northwest Indiana. In Gary, reading comprehension is a major concern for a significant portion of residents, she explained.

LaPorte County Surveyor John Matwyshyn said that when Amazon held a hiring event for a data center in his county, it was focused on people with a high school education.

“There’s some value in hiring employees with low-level reading skills. They’re not a threat,” because they wouldn’t be able to understand proprietary information as easily as highly skilled workers, thus helping the company protect its intellectual property, Matwyshyn said.

Jobs for people with just a high school education, especially jobs that pay well, are hard to find.

Math skills can be a problem, too, Babcock said, but “it’s up to us to build a workforce or talent pool for these jobs.”

“This is setting the stage for opportunities relative to the type of industries we’re trying to attract,” he said.

Addressing quality of place, Cruz-Porter said this is an area in which NIRPC is already focused, including things like identifying and cleaning up brownfields and addressing land use issues.

In reviewing the draft, the committee members suggested changing “affordable” housing to a term that doesn’t have negative connotations for some residents. What the area needs is a wide mix of housing options to address everyone’s needs, they noted.

Lack of coordination among transit agencies is an issue, too, Johnson said.

Joe Wszolek, chief operating officer for the Northwest Indiana Realtors Association, said traveling by South Shore Line is good, but getting to the final destination in Northwest Indiana can be problematic at that point.

Johnson, who lives three miles from a train station, said he doesn’t feel it’s appropriate to leave his car at the train station for days at a time.

Bytnar said the value of transit development districts, which encourage development within a half mile of train stations, is to encourage residential development near the stations. Michigan City is doing this well, already nearing the 30-year goal in terms of development near the station there.

“The last mile home is to your house,” Bytnar said, so living near the station with more housing density provides that option to more people.

NIRPC is expected to adopt the final draft of the economic development strategy on May 15.

Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.