The
Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority on Tuesday approved a request for $2.1 million to start an express bus service from Valparaiso to downtown Chicago.
"You look for levers in economic development and this is a unique lever," said Stu Summers, director of Valparaiso's Redevelopment Commission.
The buses will begin their journey at a bus station to be built on the southwest side of Valparaiso. That bus station will serve as the seed for a 73-acre development of shops, homes and restaurants. If the South Shore is extended to Valparaiso, it would host the commuter railroad's terminus.
RDA members voted 6-0 to fund the Valparaiso express bus service, but still expressed some doubts about letting the city operate the new service separate from RBA services.
"I'm wondering how we would consider just part of the express service, just Porter County, just pieces at a time, rather than considering the whole," said RDA member Carmen Fernandez.
Board member Howard Cohen also noted the piecemeal approach.
"We are making a guess, or bet, that these pieces will fit together at some time," he said.
RBA president Dennis Rittenmeyer said his organization and Valparaiso will be working closely on getting the service up and running.
The $2.1 million will be awarded to the Regional Bus Authority which will then authorize the City of Valparaiso to buy and operate the buses. Under the plan outlined Tuesday, the RBA will assume responsibility for operating the service after its first three years.
The service will start in early 2009, Summers said. The buses will not stop in Lake County.
The request came before the RDA on Tuesday as a joint request from Valparaiso and the RDA. Two weeks ago, an RDA committee of the whole requested the two make a joint request so that express bus service could be funded for both Lake County and Porter County.
But on Tuesday, the RBA agreed to "decouple," its request for $2.1 million for express buses from the Valparaiso request. The RDA first wants to see a detailed market study of the Lake County express service from the RBA before granting the request.