Plan moves forward

Portland officials are preparing to move forward with aspects of the Ball State University revitalization plan that was developed last year.

Mayor Randy Geesaman said the revitalization steering committee will select signs to install at the west, north and south main entrances to the city and that the city is working on a more detailed redevelopment plan. He will also discuss with Indiana Department of Transportation officials whether Portland can add a sign on the eastern entrance into the city on Indiana 26.

A proposal of entryway signs, designed by Display Craft of Portland, will be presented to the revitalization steering committee at its next meeting, which has yet to be scheduled. The proposal includes two potential designs, a concrete monument design for north and south on U.S. 27, and a post and panel sign for the west entrance to the city on Indiana 67.

“I’d like to have them up by the end of the summer,” Geesaman said.

The city is also considering pursuing contracts with three development firms, R and B Architects, Arcee Engineers and Cushman and Wakefield. The firms would work together to create an official redevelopment plan for the city, incorporating ideas from the Ball State study, to qualify for Office of Community and Rural Affairs grant funding.

Bill Bradley, executive director of the Jay County Development Corporation, said the planning stage is a requirement to qualify for the grant funding.

“The first step in the process is to go through the OCRA planning process. That’s the first step in making those grants available,” Bradley said. “They’ve done it successfully in other communities. They’ll be a good group, there’s some synergy between them and they’ve worked together before.”

He specifically mentioned his interest in Cushman and Wakefield, which specializes in identifying the economic usefulness of buildings and envisioning possible businesses in each.

Geesaman said the firms, along with director of community development Ami Huffman, will be able to identify state and federal funding sources to help fund the creation of new gathering spaces, install way-finding signs and possibly assist in funding renovation of downtown buildings.

“Now we have the developers, the contacts for the end-users, plus one of the parties has done over 1,000 historic buildings,” Geesaman said. “We have all those partners together … What they’ve done is taken the Ball State study and said ‘OK, which one of these are we going to implement going forward.’”

Portland redevelopment commission will meet 8 a.m. July 6 to discuss moving forward on the planning process and hiring one of the firms.

Should the planning stage be approved, Geesaman estimates it would take 12 to 18 months for the firms to complete work on a detailed redevelopment plan and for the city to seek state grant funding.

The final Dec. 8 proposal from Ball State urban planning students urged the city to make improvements that could attract millennials to move to Portland. Some of those included new signs at the main entryways to the city, improving facades throughout the downtown area, working to attract retail business and creating new gathering spaces that would include small parks and benches in Portland’s downtown.