A proposed 10-year comprehensive plan drafted by Gary Mayor Eddie Melton's administration lays out a vision for growing the city's population, rebuilding its tax base and promoting density and walkability in the city's downtown.
The document represents an update to the city's last comprehensive plan, which was adopted in 2019 during the tenure of then-Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson.
The intervening years have brought a bevy of changes to Gary, including the closure of the Genesis Convention Center, the expansion of train lines between Gary and Michigan City, the opening of the Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana and the announcement of a new Lake County Convention Center. The new plan responds to Gary's changing circumstances in addition to incorporating new data from the 2020 U.S. Census.
This May and July, the city held public meetings to gather input that informed the content of the new document.
Many event participants "emphasized the importance of expanding diverse, affordable, and walkable housing in Gary, with a focus on transit-oriented, infill, and environmentally sustainable development," according to the document.
At the heart of the new draft plan are updates to the city's future land use map, which depicts the administration's goals for future development in Gary. It is distinct from the more granular and legally binding designations found in the city's zoning code.
Among other aims, the new map is intended to facilitate new mixed-use development in Gary's downtown core. It also adjusts the areas designated as floodplains to reflect up-to-date data from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The draft includes plans for a marina located to the east of the U.S. Steel Shipping Canal. Gary planning and zoning lead Corrie Sharp told council members at an Aug. 12 meeting that the ambitious plan, described in the document as a private-public partnership, "may not be something that we can achieve in 10 years, but it's certainly something that we want to pursue."
"Sometimes our ideas just need to find their place on a page of paper because as we vet these ideas, we will be doing more research to understand its feasibility," she said. "We will be having more conversations and theoretically if all things go right, we need to find the funding. And oftentimes those funders will say, 'well, do you have it written down anywhere?' And so we are writing it down, that this is an idea that we want to pursue."
The new draft plan also incorporates some recommendations made by the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture's Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative, which held its own series of community meetings during the summer of 2024. The university's nearly 150-page report, which includes plans to transform the crumbling City Methodist Church into a park and proposed updates to the city's zoning code meant to remove barriers to residential construction, was unveiled in May.
The draft plan identifies a need in Gary for "missing middle" housing — townhomes, cottage courts, and other arrangements that bridge the gap between apartments and single-family houses.
"While many cities pursue these housing types to address affordability challenges, Gary’s primary needs include population growth, tax base stabilization, and the productive reuse of vacant land," the document reads.
A resolution to adopt the plan was introduced at the Gary Common Council's Oct. 7 meeting, where it was referred to the council's Planning and Development Committee.
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