The City of Hammond invites residents and interested persons to a community workshop taking place on Thursday, October 27th at 6:00 p.m. at Kenwood School, 6416 Hohman, Door A, regarding new station area development in the West Lake Extension of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD). The meeting will be facilitated by Farr Associates, a nationally-renowned planning and architecture firm based in Chicago. The workshop will discuss transit-oriented-development surrounding the two new train stations in Hammond. The workshop will NOT include discussions surrounding the West Lake Extension, track alignment and design or results of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement due out later this year.
NICTD and the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority (RDA) recently won a competitive grant to study station area design associated with the West Lake Extension of NICTD commuter rail service. A big part of this planning process is community engagement. Residents and interested persons are invited to attend this public meeting.
- Participants will be asked their opinions in a number of ways, including:
- Electronic preference polling
- Dots-on-spots-style presentation boards
- FAQ’s
- Links to the website
- Question and Answer Session
- Dots-on-spots gives the opportunity to place colored dots on boards and maps prepared by the consultant to identify where they currently live/work/play in the surrounding area.
- The consultant will provide a brief presentation that frames the scope and purpose of the public meeting, addressing common questions/misconceptions upfront, and guiding residents through image preference polling. During the presentation, we will collect questions on index cards from participants to be read and answered at the end of the presentation.
Community involvement is a significant factor in the outcome of the station area designs. This workshop is not a typical “stand and deliver” presentation. Public participation is encouraged. Thank you and we hope to see you there!