Notre Dame initiative helps Gary with downtown vision plan
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The city of Gary on Tuesday unveiled its Vision and Action Plan for the city’s downtown, a plan that was developed in partnership with the Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative (HCRI) at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture.
The final report is designed to serve as a roadmap for city leadership to follow in order to “reestablish the city’s building culture.”
HCRI Director Marianne Cusato says the development of the plan was a community-based process.
“We were invited in to work with members of the community and the city staff and the mayor to help facilitate a process to understand what do they want for downtown Gary? What is their vision of the place that they would like to to build?”
The Housing and Community Regeneration Initiative is billed as a “think-and-do tank” that works with municipalities and nonprofits within a 100-mile radius of South Bend to work on economic development vision and strategies around the built environment.
“It’s a very collaborative process where we’re trying to understand what the experience of place that the community wants, looking at economic realities to to make a proposal that is economically viable, that can actually be achieved,” Cusato said.
The report unveiled Tuesday focuses on six key areas: historic preservation and blight reversal strategies; zoning code and regulatory framework; urban intervention proposals; street design proposals; architectural identity and design standards; and pre-approved template plans.
Cusato said updating the city’s zoning code is one item that’s currently being addressed in order to remove existing barriers to development.
“Right now it’s illegal to build on a lot of the vacant lots because you have minimum frontage requirements that are wider than typical lot widths,” she said. “So [we’re] looking at ways to reduce the regulation barriers, and then really looking at where can growth be catalytic? Where can we build not just one building, but a building that leads to another, which leads to another?”
The Notre Dame team noted that more medium-scale development and a focus on infill housing in existing neighborhoods will help build momentum for the city.
“You need the early wins to be felt, and because there’s so much that needs to be rebuilt, being really intentional about where the early development happens will lead, will have a higher probability of leading to more development.”
Some of the potential projects noted in the report include preserving the bell tower at the now vacant City Methodist Church building and redeveloping the area into what would be known as City Renaissance Park, which could create an open space that includes a public plaza area between the bell tower and the Hotel Gary building.
The city is also looking to develop a proposed multimodal transit station, which would connect to I-90 for motorists, the South Shore Line for visitors coming by train, and a new system of local buses.
Other ideas include a Gary Walk of Fame that would honor celebrities, politicians, scientists and other notable Gary natives.
When asked about the potential to accomplish the vision plan’s goals, Cusato said now is the time.
“There’s a renewed understanding that downtowns are very special places that people want to be at a level that we haven’t seen,” she said. “We’re also realizing that not only is it something that people want, it is something we can achieve. And that makes this moment special. I think it’s a unique time where where the demand is is meeting up with the ability to deliver.”
During the process of developing the plan, Cusato said the primary theme of the feedback her team received from the community was one of identity. She said people want to overcome what she said is an outdated stigma from the 1990s.
“Overcoming that and creating a place where people can gather, where people will want to gather, and that can really physically heal the city which is scarred and also emotionally heal a place that has so much life in it despite appearance,” she said. “That’s something that was really capturing that, finding a way to create a place that honors what has the heritage that came before and really reaches to the future.”
Gary Mayor Eddie Melton said the city is writing its comeback story.
“The team from the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture has listened to and learned from our community and produced a vision that feels like home,” Melton said in written remarks. “We are looking forward to beginning the plan’s implementation as soon as possible, and reigniting a culture of thoughtful building and investment in downtown Gary.”
You can connect to the full report by clicking here.