The redevelopment of the Johnson Inn site at Porter Beach or any large residential and commercial development north of U.S. 20 in Porter cannot happen without an upgrade of the town’s sanitary sewer system.
It’s why the town is trying again to obtain a grant to finance a force main and lift station that could serve the area.
Michael Barry, the town’s building commissioner and development director, recently submitted through U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Highland, a community project application for a $4.5 million federal grant. The town would provide a $1.5 million match toward the projected $6 million construction cost.
“The ability to leverage $130 million in private partnership funds to redevelop multiple properties is significant to the town as well as the adjacent region,” Barry said in his application.
Porter last year unsuccessfully attempted to obtain a state Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) grant for the same project.
The sewer main would start at Franklin Street and Waverly Road and proceed on Waverly to north of U.S. 20, where a lift station would be built. The sewer line would also open up potential development possibilities east of the U.S. 20-Indiana 49 interchange.
The lack of sewer capacity has hampered the town’s economic development opportunities.
Another key parcel is the 39-acre site at the corner of Waverly Road and U.S. 20, which once was the site of a waterpark. Porter had approved a planned unit development agreement for a large apartment complex with a Chicago developer, who withdrew his proposal in 2019.
The Utah company that owned the waterpark — which was shut down in June 2017 by the health department after 11 children suffered chlorine burns — proposed to carry through the apartment plan. The town’s planning commission rejected that idea in September 2022.
The focus has been on the condemned, ramshackle Johnson Inn, which sits on a valuable Porter Beach lakefront site.
Carl Dahlin Jr., the inn’s owner, died at age 90 on Sept. 22, 2024, and the disposition of the property is being determined in a supervised probate case in Lake Superior Court/Probate Division. The next hearing is scheduled on April 23.
Chuck Williams of C.L. Williams Company had been negotiating to buy the property and is poised to buy the property once the probate process is finished, Barry has said. Williams had overseen the restoration of the Indiana Dunes Pavilion at the nearby state park in a public-private partnership with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Williams hasn’t revealed his plans, but in late 2021, the Northwest Indiana Forum, without the town of Porter’s knowledge, was going to apply for a $30 million READI grant that would have helped to fund the inn’s demolition and the construction of a four or five-story structure. That proposal was withdrawn.
There are many other side benefits from the sanitary sewer line for existing Porter Beach properties.
“The residents at Porter Beach would have the opportunity to access sanitary sewer and eliminate their septic systems,” Barry said in the application.
Most of the septic systems for the beach properties are 50 or more years old and non-conforming to current regulations. Shutting down the septic system would eliminate the potential contamination of Lake Michigan waters.
A sewer would also allow the Indiana Dunes state and national parks to switch their restrooms from the septic system to a sanitary sewer.
Barry noted that the town can leverage property taxes collected within a Transit Development District (TDD) recently created around the Dune Park South Shore train station. The TDD works similarly to Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which allows a government to use a portion of property taxes collected within a designated area toward infrastructure.
The Marquette Greenway Trail also is in the process of being built in sections through Porter and the Indiana Dunes National Park. When the 60-mile trail from Calumet Park in Chicago to New Buffalo, Michigan, is finished, it’s expected to further enhance the area’s tourism opportunities.
Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
