HUNTINGBURG — The City of Huntingburg is looking to bring four of its largest Stellar Communities projects to fruition this year.
The Market Street Park, Fourth Street trail, Fourth Street water line and Hunters Crossing workforce housing development projects will all see leaps and bounds being made over the next six months, and city leaders continue to stress the importance of public input
“The whole success we’ve had with the Stellar Communities designation is based on public input from the very beginning, and it’s a very vital part of the process as we move forward,” Mayor Denny Spinner said.
Spinner said the next few months are a crucial point in time for working with the public as committees for the Market Street Park and Fourth Street projects move from concepts to real design. A public hearing will be held during the regular meeting of the Huntingburg Common Council on Tuesday, March 8. Council meetings are 7 p.m. at City Hall, 508 E. Fourth St. Huntingburg citizens are encouraged to look at the conceptual designs as they did in July to provide input on specific features and materials to help the project’s architects — design firm Taylor, Siefker and Williams of Indianapolis — move forward.
Spinner said the council is working with the Huntingburg Chamber of Commerce to host quarterly updates from the Stellar committee regarding all Stellar projects. The meetings would serve as an open house situation where residents could speak with representatives of the city, Stellar committee members and selected design and engineering firms for each project. The first of these meetings is set for Tuesday, Feb. 16, with the time and place to be determined.
“We want to keep people aware of what we’re doing, hear their input and work on making sure the product we get is what the community wants,” Spinner said.
The city is seeking appraisals of the properties — two empty plots owned by OFS Brands Holdings on the northwest corner of the area outlined for the park along Market Street between Third and Fourth streets — to be acquired as part of the project. The request for proposals for appraisal services is due Tuesday and a selection will be made by Thursday, Feb. 11.
On the Fourth Street trail and water line, the city has received approval from the Indiana Department of Transportation for funding for the engineering phase. Documents are being signed by all parties involved to allow construction to proceed. A committee has reviewed five proposals and the top two firms will make presentations to that committee Friday.
A pre-construction meeting for the water line took place last week, and six firms have requested copies of the plans. The timeline has changed at the request of the firms because weather conditions have prevented some of those firms from visiting town. The new schedule is for the bids to be opened Tuesday, Feb. 9, instead of this week. The bids will be reviewed by the water department and Midwestern Engineers of Loogootee. They will come before the council Tuesday, Feb. 23, to recommend the bid awards.
The Huntingburg Planning Commission granted approval for Phase 1 of Hunters Crossing on Dec. 21, and meetings have been held in the past month with the developer, Jane Hendrickson of Boxer Girl LLC, to finalize plans for the construction of the Stellar Way, which will connect Chestnut Street to the planned park in the subdivision. Tax increment financing district funds of $500,000 have been designated toward the workforce housing project. Boxer Girl’s engineering firm will deliver to the city complete plans for the street, and the city will use those documents to receive bids on the project, which will be a joint venture between the city and Boxer Girl, which is based in Indianapolis. Any amount more than $500,000 will be the responsibility of the developer, who is also taking on the cost for site development prior to street construction. All future construction of roads and other infrastructure in the subdivision will be at the developer’s cost.
Spinner said he’s excited for Hunters Crossing to begin toward providing housing to meet the county’s demand. He said the city has already seen a huge amount of interest from people locally and regionally looking to get into the proposed 144 new homes.
“There’s a lot of planning that goes on and you don’t see a lot of physical activity,” Spinner said. “Planning is very much a big part of what we’ve had to do to get through this process, so seeing that workforce housing development come to a point where we will see construction this year is very exciting.”
© 2010 - 2024 Jasper Herald Company. All Rights Reserved.