June 10, 2020 Virtual Public Open House
The South Shore Line held an online Virtual Public Open House on Wednesday, June 10, 2020 that had over 300 participants. The focus of the event was to share current project design information concerning parking, stations, and more. During the Virtual Open House, the Double Track Northwest Indiana team answered questions about the project.
To access the video recording of the meeting visit: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/4781425732497045520
Click here to access the presentation shown at meeting.
The presentation and recording of the webinar are also available at:
Michigan City Public Library
100 E 4th Street
Michigan City, IN 46360
Gary Public Library
The Gary Public Library and Cultural Center, 220 W. 5th Avenue is currently open with limited capacity and service.
3 hard copies of the presentation will be available for viewing at the library¹s Reference Desk during library hours. Library hours are listed at www.garypubliclibrary.org.
As always, should you have questions about the project, email doubletracknwi@nictd.com.
Thank you to everyone who participated, and to everyone supporting this exciting regional project.
Past Real Estate Open Houses
The South Shore Line is held two open houses for potentially impacted property owners for the Double Track Northwest Indiana Project. At these open houses, property owners spoke with a representative of real estate firm Beam, Longest & Neff (BLN), the firm that is managing real estate acquisition for the project. Property owners were invited to attend and to also bring any pertinent information about their property that would affect the project or real estate acquisition process. The dates included:
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
1pm-6pm CST
Michigan City - City Hall
EOC Room (lower level)
100 E. Michigan Blvd.
Michigan City, IN
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
1pm-6pm CST
Marshall J. Garden Center for the Arts
Miller Beach Arts & Creative District
540 S. Lake Street
Gary, IN
El distrito de transporte de cercanías de Indiana del norte tendrá dos casas abiertas que le permitirán, el dueñode la propiedad, tener una discusión con un representante en lo que respecta al proyecto de Doble vía A continuación se muestra la información para las fechas y ubicaciones de las casas abiertas:
Fecha: Tuesday, March 3, 2020
1pm-6pm CST
Ubicación:
City Hall
100 E Michigan Ave
Michigan City, IN 46360
Fecha: Wednesday, March 4, 2020
1pm-6pm CST
Ubicación:
Marshall J. Gardner Center for the Arts
540 S. Lake Street
Gary, IN 46403
Click here for a sample of the letter sent to property owners.
Real Estate Acquisition
As part of its extensive planning for the Double Track NWI Project, the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) has determined that it may be necessary to acquire certain properties to implement the project.
NICTD will follow the guidelines of the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970, as amended, along with state regulations. What this means is that NICTD will seek fair and cooperative agreements for property acquisitions.
If a property purchase is required, the acquisition process would generally be as follows:
- NICTD would contact the real property owner or owner’s representative to explain the acquisition process, including the right to accompany the appraiser during inspection of the property, and would provide the owner with a written notice of NICTD’s intent to acquire the property. (Consultant Beam, Longest and Neff, is currently preparing independent appraisals of affected properties.)
- NICTD would provide the owner with a written offer of the approved estimate of just compensation for the real property to be acquired and a summary statement of the basis for the offer.
- NICTD would give the property owner an opportunity to consider the offer for at least 30 days.
- NICTD would conduct negotiations without any attempt to coerce the property owner into reaching an agreement.
- NICTD would provide the property owner or tenant with at least 90 days’ written notice to vacate the property before NICTD takes possession.
- If negotiations with property owners are not successful, NICTD may acquire the property through eminent domain. If eminent domain is necessary, NICTD would follow the procedures set forth under state laws including Indiana Eminent Domain (Indiana Code § 32-24) and Relocation Assistance (Indiana Code § 8-23-17).
The earliest time that property acquisition would begin is January 2020, and it would continue through all of 2020, and potentially into early 2021.
The NICTD real estate team can be reached by submitting a comment through the contact form: https://www.doubletrack-nwi.com/contact
Past Public Meetings and Hearings
Thank you to everyone who attended the public meetings and hearings for this Project, including the three public workshops, which were held on October 3, 4, and 5, 2016 in Gary, Porter and Michigan City and the two hearings, which were held on October 10 and 11, 2017 in Gary and Michigan City. We also thank everyone who submitted formal public comments during the public comment window that ran from September 21,2017 through October 23,2017.
The South Shore Line (SSL) welcomes your input and ideas as part of the Double Track NWI project. Your input plays an integral role in the project. Even though the formal comment period is now closed, the South Shore Line welcomes your comments at any time (they will not be part of the formal record for the Environmental Assessment, however). To comment, click here.
You can also get involved by:
- Joining our mailing list to receive project updates and newsletters
- Submitting an online comment form
- Watching for media coverage, mailers or email notifications about project updates
- Joining the conversation on Facebook and Twitter
- You can also request a meeting or presentation to your group at any time by calling NICTD, at (219) 850.4457.
An Environmental Assessment (EA) and Section 4(f) Evaluation was prepared to analyze the effects of the proposed project on the human and natural environments in accordance with federal requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, and Section 4(f) of the U.S. Department of Transportation Act of 1966. All interested parties were invited to review the EA, attend the Open House Public Hearing, and provide comment on the DT-NWI project. The hearings were conducted in an open house format.
October 2017
Public Hearing Information Boards
Public Hearing Handout
Public Hearing PowerPoint Presentation
October 2016
Exhibit Boards - October 2016
Workshop Handout - October 2016
Workshop Presentation - October 2016
Environmental Map Book - October 2016 - Please note this is a large file and may take a couple moments to load.
Click here to enter online meeting.
Click here to view video.
