Valpo Council approves new Midwood Terrace annexation despite concerns

Chicago Tribune

06-07-2025

The Valparaiso City Council approved annexation for an 80-acre parcel in rural Center Township as part of a project led by Lake Acquisitions, Inc. and Prairie Development, LLC.
The council passed the annexation 5-2, with councilmen Jack Pupillo, 4th district, and Peter Anderson, 5th district, voting in opposition.
The area is currently zoned Medium Density Single-Family (R2) in this unincorporated area of fields in Porter County, and the petitioners have also been granted their request to change the zoning for the property as Urban Residential (UR) and General Residential (GR) which will allow for multi-family townhouse structures. But that rezone has current homeowners in adjacent neighborhoods concerned about additional traffic and an oversaturation of addresses.
The Porter County Plan Commission previously approved the new subdivision primary plat by developer Olthof Homes. The approximately 80-acre property is made up of four parcels located in the northwest corner of CR 175 West and CR 500 North.
The annexation vote and discussion started last month at the Valparaiso City Council's June 9 meeting with a first reading, discussion and public input and continued with a second public hearing and final vote of Resolution No. 6 and Ordinance No. 11 at the June 23 meeting.
Valparaiso City Planner Bob Thompson and Kevin Pauzer, an architect and project representative with Olthof Homes, gave a detailed presentation at both of the meetings.
Following concerns raised by both council members and members of the public on June 9 about the housing density planned for the development, Olthof Homes scaled back some of the structures to allow for more parking and green space. The revised project will have 147 single-family homes, an additional 18 larger single-family home units, and 126 townhouses.
'The developer has already reached out to Valparaiso Superintendent Dr. (Jim) McCall about this planned community and the impact and need for schools, and the superintendent does not have a problem with any of it, and just asked to be kept informed,' Thompson said.
Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas said he too spoke to McCall and the new community did not present any problems. However, McCall said it is likely in the future a new elementary school would likely be built in the same area to parallel population growth.
Phil Page, who lives near the proposed development, spoke at the June 23 meeting about 'too much traffic along 500 North.'
'I like to jog in that area and it's already dangerous with the amount of traffic flow,' Page said.
'Even with the concessions made by the developer for few homes, this is still too urban for that area. I understand that Olthof Homes wants to make money by selling as many homes as possible. The single-family homes are fine, but not the townhouses.'
Mike Pratscher, who also lives in the area, said he is worried about Olthof's history in other communities for creating developments with poor drainage.
'I share the concerns of others about drainage problems after I discovered Olthof has paid more than 100 fines to the town of Chesterton from October 2020 to March 2022 because of poor stormwater management for the Springdale subdivision,' Pratcher said.
'I'm also (worried) that some of these townhomes will eventually become rentals which leads to increased crime rate.'
Valparaiso City Council Member Barbara Domer (D-3) said this development is needed to give more residents more choices of houses.
'In my review process, I looked at the higher density concerns and based on what a previous housing consultant to the city advised, looking at census and data resources, there are roughly 1,000 households in our city that are looking within the city to advance their household needs,' Domer said.
'I refer to this as 'our missing middle,' for affordable housing for those ready to move within our city for a new type of housing for their growing needs.'
Pupillo and Anderson countered that the inclusion of townhouses in the development make the planned neighborhood too dense 'without enough concessions being made, besides dropping the five units in the revised plan.'
Costas said he recognized 'change is hard' and 'our borders are growing.'
'Having a variety of housing options with our expanding borders of Valparaiso is a good thing,' Costas said.
'I've seen with my experiences over the years, the quality of life still remains and we work through the issues. For many of you speaking here tonight, I can recall when your subdivisions were proposed and there were those who spoke out against it. Had we listened, you wouldn't be living where you are now. In this area, there are very large lots and various size spaces in developments like Peppercreek. We need to make sure we have housing for everyone.'