Downtown and old High School Site

[Big Dog]

A discussion of the master plan for Downtown including the old high school site.

Plan is located here: http://www.crownpoint.net/CP_Master_Plan/Master_Plan_Index.html

[bull dog]

I hope that the School Board Considers locating the middle school somewhere other then downtown. A school will do nothing to spur economic growth in the downtown.

[Native Son]

I disagree. A school would have like 1000 students. Lots of after school activities and such will generate all kinds of economic activity.

[Real World]

I think the school is pretty much a done deal. The mayor had his chance to put a deal together but dicked around and now I think its too late to put something together as the school board wants to start building.

[face]

I hope that the School Board Considers locating the middle school somewhere other then downtown. A school will do nothing to spur economic growth in the downtown.

bull dog not true at all. A middle school could attract plenty to the business district, just as the highschool did. With all the activites going on at the new school there would be plenty of traffic to support the business in town. Stop looking at this as something bad and look at the opportunity you may have when this project is done.!

[bull dog]

It's official, the Crown Point School Board has announced that it will build a new middle school at the site of the old CP high school. The city is still looking to squeeze a new city hall and library on the east side of the site.

News Article

[Big Dog]

Today the mayor held an open meeting in the council?s chambers to discuss the old Crown Point High School site. He presented two drawings that show the site with the new proposed Junior High School. The two drawings, which were prepared by the Lakota Group, show potential development of the eastern portion of the school site. The mayor stated that he invited the school board to attend today?s meeting, but they declined the invitation. He also invited the school board to meet with the city council tomorrow to discuss the future of the site, but the school board declined that meeting also. It appears that the school board does not wish to cooperate with the mayor?s office. Both drawings show a proposed festival park space surrounded by a combination of civic buildings as well as private development.

The mayor also commented that the city still owns significant land north of the school site, including the ball fields, that may be used for residential housing and other uses.

About 30 members of the public attended the meeting. After presenting Lakota?s plan, the mayor opened the room to questions. The majority of the people in attendance expressed their disappointment that the school board had chosen to build the school in the downtown.

The two plans presented today are located on our website here.

[bull dog]

I don't like the plans. It appears that the Lakota group is trying to shoehorn the new buildings in the space and they are not allowing enough room for parking. I think there is room for a festival space and some parking and that's it.

[-={ARCLIGHT}=-]

The most salient point here has already been made, the taxpayers have already paid for the land through taxes once, when it was purchased and the high school was built on it. If the City of CP wants to purchase the land , who is actually footing the bill? The answer is, the taxpayer again! I for one do not wish to finace the city and/or theschool board as they shuffle land back and forth for usage.

[Big Dog]

Anyone know who "Concerned Citizens for a Better Crown Point" is or if the school board is coming to this meeting?

[-={ARCLIGHT}=-]

Crown Point continues planning for school site

On Monday night, representatives from Michigan City-based Fanning and Howey, the school architects, presented the board with preliminary plans for the $38 million project.

While H. Steve Sprunger, school superintendent, and Karen Raab, School Board president, reminded those in attendance that the plans were still in the early stages, the future of the U.S. 231 project wasn?t looking too promising.

The plans showed the school sitting on the east side of the property next to the existing football field and track. When Raab inquired about shifting the building, Project Manager Michael Schipp said that moving the building would compromise the amenities the architects were trying to preserve, including utilities, parking and hickory trees that already exist.

The plans also showed a new soccer field on the west side of the property that would be sacrificed if the building were to move.

So since the school board owns the land, and intends to build the middle school on it, it is planning the best way to use the land for that purpose.

William Heidbreder, a local landscape designer, encouraged the board to preserve space on the site for civic green space. Heidbreder presented plans that kept the track and football field and included a memorial park and a botanic garden designed around the architects? site plans.

The school board uses a local talent, and lo and behold the local guy looks to do things like save historic trees, and reuse existing resources like tracks, football field and parking lots. That sure sounds better than just knocking down the west side of the square and rebuilding from the ground-up.

While the U.S. 231 plans rely on the school corporation giving up the northeast corner of the property, the corporation?s plans for the new school rely on approval by the city?s Plan Commission.

You know the Planning Commission is going to ham-string the school corporation every chance they get for daring to think for themselves when is came to the decision to sell the land and the price they were willing to accept. I imagine it will be a bit of the old "give us what we want of we will never approve your building plans".

[Ray Gun]

Anyone know who "Concerned Citizens for a Better Crown Point" is or if the school board is coming to this meeting?

The meeting is being held by Paul Keller. He is a member of the city's Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals but he is claiming that the city or the mayor has nothing to do with the meeting.

The mayor has said he will not come and I assume that the school board will not come as they have already made up their minds on what they are going to do with the former high school property.

I'll probably go for the hell of it but I don't see anything changing the school boards mind.

[Ray Gun]

You know the Planning Commission is going to ham-string the school corporation every chance they get for daring to think for themselves when is came to the decision to sell the land and the price they were willing to accept. I imagine it will be a bit of the old "give us what we want of we will never approve your building plans".

It will be interesting to see what kind of drama unfolds. I imagine that the city can't be too obvious in their game playing however.

School Board President Karen Raab asked the architects if would be possible to shift the school building, either to the west or by making the building spread out across the property from north to south rather than east to west.

But Schipp (the architect) said the proposal shows the school in a way that's most sympathetic to the site's boundaries and utilities.

I find this exchange to be interesting. I wonder if the school board president was genuinely interested in exploring the idea of moving the school as Klien had requested or if she was just pretenting to be? It seems like she would have had this discussion with the architects prior to them being discussed in public, but who knows.

[Big Dog]

At the meeting held on 3/2/05 a protest flyer was distributed. Here is a copy of the flyer.

[-={ARCLIGHT}=-]

[url=http://nwitimes.com/articles/2005/03/03/news/lake_county/10070a0c1bc05cb786256fb900172026.txt]Public turns out for debate over new school

Local residents disagree about impact of building downtown[/url]

About 60 people turned out Wednesday to talk, and sometimes shout, about the impact of a decision by school officials to build a new middle school downtown.

While the meeting was organized to get people thinking about how a new school on the old high school site will affect the community and tax rates, the discussion also touched on topics ranging from the value of the site to the updating of the city's master plan.

Think of the money which would have been saved in planning if they waited until they knew what they could build on before they drew up their plans. The Lakota plans assumed any land, developed or undeveloped, owned by the city, school, or private intrest, state road, or local street, was their to do with as they wanted with their colored pencils. It is as if someone threw them an aerial view of the city and said "Chicago is pretty, make it like that".

Paul Keller, a member of the city's Plan Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals, organized the forum but stressed it wasn't sponsored by the city or any other organization. He opened with a 20-minute talk about the history of negotiations between the Crown Point Community School Corp. and the city over the old high school site.

One of Keller's main points was that if school officials already are planning to buy more land to build another middle school east of Crown Point in the next few years, that school should be built first. Then, in the next few years, the district could consider tearing down Robert Taft Middle School and building another school.

That sounds reasonable to me too. If they have another site in mind, build the first middle school there. The old HS land isn't going anywhere, it could be like a park for a few years.

No tax dollars will be generated by building a middle school downtown, while the land could be used to develop moderate-income housing, creating a yearly tax flow of $250,000 to $750,000, Keller said. Of that money, the district could get $95,000 to $260,000 annually. By building a school east of Interstate 65, school officials also would spur new housing development in the area, creating additional income.

But some in the audience didn't buy that reasoning, questioning why developers didn't try to buy the land if it was so appropriate for housing. While the district has valued the land at $3.4 million, two appraisals done by firms hired by the city put the value at about $1.3 million.

This is just ignorant. The land is worth the amount it will bring. That is how the free market works. If you put you house up for sale and you have not sold it in six months, you are asking more than the market will bear.

Keller also said he didn't think there was enough promotion of the hearing the district had in January to vote on whether to build the new school and the remonstrance period that followed. Local businessman Alan Katz loudly disagreed.

Face, you said you raised quite a ruckas, is that you?

Mary Klepsch, of Stewards of the Square, said she understands some people don't want the city to change. But, she said, the downtown is in trouble and needs some new housing nearby.

"I'm sorry, I don't care where you go, nobody is revitalizing a downtown by building a middle school," she said.

I am aware of all of the opinions that have been posted reguarding the old CPHS site, and that is a good point that has not been made yet.