The Northern Indiana Commuter Train District released a second round of plans for its South Shore West Lake Corridor extension to Dyer residents that included a new footprint for the project.
The first of three meetings this week, NICTD and Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority officials said the presentation offers new configurations to the plan, whose creation started in fall 2014. One option could move the whole project to the west side of the CSX tracks instead of the original east side; another would split sides, with the station and parking on the west side of CSX and a layover yard and employee parking on the east.
A south terminal to St. John will also be included in the final draft environmental impact statement, although it won't be completed with the extension, Paulette Vander Kamp, a consultant on the project, said at the meeting Monday at Protsman Elementary School.
The portion referred to as the "Hammond design" would also include a transfer station that would offer a shuttle train service during nonpeak commuting hours, Vander Kamp said. As well, a maintenance facility could be built at either 173rd Street in Hammond or at Main Street between Munster and Dyer.
Additionally, a large maintenance facility would be built in the North Hammond portion of the plan, said John Parsons, communications director for NICTD. The original $571 million budget didn't include the maintenance facility.
Bill Sheldrake, founder and president of Policy Analytics of Indianapolis, asked Parsons why the project is so expensive. Parsons said part of the new track in North Hammond could be elevated above the current South Shore tracks.
The current configuration also needs to be straightened out so the tracks would merge better with the new extension, Parsons said.
Cathy LaReau, who was elected to the Dyer Town Council in the Nov. 3 general election, said she's most concerned about how many people in Dyer will be required to move out of their homes to accommodate the plan.
"I know one of the men who lives across the street from the nursing home where his wife is," LaReau said. "Another man has lived there since 1958. How do you ask them to leave their homes?" she said. "And what about people who would have the maintenance facility in their back yard?"
Parsons said noise at the maintenance facility could be mitigated by vegetation.
"I understand the convenience (of having the extension), but I want to be a voice for the people," LaReau said.
Lorrie Lisek, of St. John, was concerned about decreasing property values.
Sheldrake, meanwhile, said a study his organization conducted in January 2014 for the extension indicated the money that could come back to Indiana from Illinois could reach $250 million.
"The additional access for commuters would bring salaries that are 40 percent higher, and those dollars coming back would be spent here," he said.