MUNCIE, Ind. — A study used by the city of Muncie to push for the construction of new housing locally used “fabricated” data, a Ball State University economist says in a new report.
The study was used to justify the city’s recent housing-creation efforts, including turning the former Mitchell Elementary School into high-end housing, despite its misleading conclusions that the city’s population is growing when it has fallen since its peak in 1972, the report said.
Ball State economist Michael Hicks released the report to The Star Press and talked about its contents at Wednesday’s State of Commercial Real Estate luncheon.
“These errors (in the city’s report) are not random mistakes, but in each and every instance supports their conclusion that Muncie is in the midst of a population revival and suffers an excess demand for housing,” according to the study by Hicks, who is head of the university's Center for Business and Economic Research.
The “memorandum for the record” accompanying the report said that the data and analysis from the study by Zanola Company and the city’s “Live Near Your Work” program “appear fabricated” and the Zanola study posted on the city of Muncie’s official website cites U.S. Census population estimates “which do not exist.”
John Fallon, the former Ball State faculty member and Muncie Redevelopment Commission member who, along with writer Tom Farris, oversees the city's "Live Near Your Work" program, said Wednesday he hadn't seen Hicks' report until asked about it by The Star Press but said his report was based on more than just the city-funded Zanola study.