Legislation Encourages Indiana To Think Regionally

On the shoreline of Whiting, Indiana – Lake Michigan splashes against the rocks. Between the Chicago skyline to the west and the BP Whiting Refinery to the east lies the new Whiting Lakefront Park. Chain link fences surround a soon-to-be-unveiled gazebo, pier and garden.

Al Renda, a lifelong resident of Whiting, walks through the park as part of his daily routine. He says the recent improvements are marvelous.

“I would say in my lifetime it’s probably better than it’s ever been,” Renda said.

The shoreline renovation is one of several revitalization projects Whiting has undertaken in the last decade. It has invested in a new community center, YMCA and a minor-league baseball stadium.

The city’s rustic downtown is peppered with new businesses and an incoming luxury apartment complex. Whiting is known for being home to the largest oil refinery in the Midwest, but its mayor Joe Stahura is trying to change that narrative.

“We needed to have a big project to put Whiting on the map,” Stahura said. “We needed to create the color and the animation to draw people to the community.”

Stahura attributes a big part of the city’s success to the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority. It’s an economic partnership between the state and cities and counties in the area, and it’s funded more than a dozen projects such as the Gary Airport expansion and rail and bus transportation to Chicago. It also provided Whiting with nearly half of the funding for its lakeshore development project.

“That literally opened the door for what we hoped was going to happen which was the spinoff or private development and private money coming into town, making investments in our city,” Stahura said. 

RDA Communications Manager David Wellman said the initial idea was to create an organization that could pool together resources for addressing regional issues.

“They see this as an obvious opportunity to grow the region and reverse some of the negative trends that have gone on in the past decade in terms of declining household income, declining population,” Wellman said.

Legislation lawmakers crafted earlier this year could expand the RDA model. The recently enacted Regional Cities Initiative encourages cities and towns to work together on developing a plan to revitalize their region. Once the bids are submitted, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation will provide matching grants for two regions funded by a tax amnesty program.

IEDC Policy Director Eric Shield says the goal is to have at least two Indiana regions gain a national reputation. 

“After taking a look at all of your assets as a region, what is it that you think you could reasonably become in 8-10 years,” Shields asked. “How do you want to be thought of across the country?”

Shields said each region will create the vision and metrics for measuring a project’s success, but there are some set requirements for the proposals. For example, the IEDC wants a mix of private and public dollars and a plan for brick-and-mortar projects.  

According to Shields, the idea originated in 2013 after the IEDC was tasked with identifying major risks to the state’s economic future. Population stagnation was considered a premiere threat because 80 percent Indiana’s growth over the last decade can be attributed to births, not migration.

Ball State University economics professor Michael Hicks says the regional cities initiative represents a major shift in economic policy from businesses to people.

“What successful communities around the country have done is instead of luring business, have focused on luring people or human capital to their communities,” Hicks said. 

Hicks says the initiative is a better use of resources than the nearly 8.5 billion dollars in tax breaks local governments offer corporations each year.

But, not everyone is sold on the Regional Cities Initiative. Indianapolis Representative Gregory Porter says the proposed $84 million would be better spent on redeveloping blighted urban areas with high numbers of foreclosed homes and abandoned properties.

“If we are going to look at IEDC and other programs look at programs that are working like the enterprise zone things like that that are helping create jobs for middle class Hoosiers within our state,” Porter said. 

Regions have until July 1 to submit their proposals.