Grand Central Station in North Judson was bustling Tuesday evening as members of the community gathered to contribute to the Town’s comprehensive plan.
Clerk-Treasurer Andrew Rowe reminded the public that the Town applied for a substantial amount of grant funding through the Office of Community and Rural Affairs to hire HWC Engineers to assist with the comprehensive plan process.
The firm is also working with Starke County and the Town of Hamlet. As a reminder, the municipalities were required to establish up-to-date comprehensive plans when they became involved with the Regional Stellar Communities initiative.
Councilwoman Jane-Ellen Felchuck noted that while the Stellar Communities program requirement helped get this effort off the ground, there has been a desire to get a plan in place for many years.
One member of the public noted that that a lot of people moving out metropolitan areas are looking for communities with “elbow room” to settle down in. He indicated that there is a lot of potential in North Judson but it will take some planning.
He shared, “This is a good thing for this community here. We need to get together and talk and hash out some ideas to get something started, whatever it may be, whatever may be the first step so I’m glad we’re all here starting on this.”
After some additional discussion, the group was divided up and was given the opportunity to provide input through some interactive exercises.
There were various boards set up that prompted the public to engage in different ways. One board simply asked what people like about North Judson and another asked what residents would like to see. There was also a station that focused on establishing ideal locations for future development and identifying priority projects.
In another station, people were encouraged to put red or green stickers on certain options to gauge the public’s preference about particular kinds of projects.
For instance, while a lot of people put green stickers on the ‘grocery store’ and ‘local boutique’ options, the ‘big box store’ option had many red stickers affixed to it.
The participation boards will be displayed in North Judson Town Hall for a little while to give people who missed Tuesday’s meeting the chance to weigh in as well.
Individuals are also welcome to take the comprehensive plan survey online to assist with the process. That will be open to the public until Monday, June 10th.
The results of the online survey and the ongoing public input sessions will be incorporated into a draft plan which will be presented during a meeting in August.
