A coordinated approach to housing development could be on the horizon for Starke County. Starke County Economic Development Foundation Interim Director Lisa Dan says Knox Mayor Dennis Estok is very interested in pursuing a housing development project, and she recently asked the North Judson Town Council if they’d like to join.
“I’m not sure where North Judson is as far as something like that,” she said. “It’s possible that we can work on a county-wide project at some point in time.”
Clerk-Treasurer Andrew Rowe noted that North Judson had been pursuing one development downtown and two just outside the town limits as part of Constellation of Starke’s Stellar Communities application. “We’ve talked a lot about other pieces of property,” he added. “We’ve put some things in our comp plan, so that’s just another one of those, ‘Take a look back at some of our comp plans, what we’ve done, what we can do,’ because there’s still a need.”
Dan said there may be opportunities outside of the Stellar program, but there’s also the possibility the state will reopen it once the need for COVID-19 Response funding eases.
