When they’re completed, the two new public parking lots on Grant Ave. and East Indiana Ave. will provide approximately 100 new spaces in Downtown Chesterton.
Assistant Town Engineer Matt Gavelek took the Town Council on a virtual tour of those two lots at its meeting Monday night, Sept. 23, as engineering consultant DVG Team Inc. continues to finalize their design:
*The Grant Ave. parking lot, at the southwest corner of Grant Ave. and North Calumet Road, will have 59 spaces “very close to the Downtown,” with two entrances off Grant Ave. offset to the west “to avoid any additional congestion” at the intersection for North Calumet Road, Gavelek said. It will be completely fenced with a buffer of trees along its southern edge and lighting will be installed for nighttime parking, directed “to shine down, not out, so it doesn’t disrupt the neighbors.”
*The second parking lot will be constructed on the site of the old house at 130 E. Indiana Ave. and have 38 spaces, with a one-way loop controlled by directional signage and lane markings, Gavelek said. The entrance will be aligned with West Indiana Ave., on the west side of South Calumet Road, while the perpendicular parking spaces adjacent to The Flower Cart and Chesterton Toys will be preserved. Both lighting and a surveillance camera will be installed.
Gavelek added that each new parking lot will be built in accordance with Town Standards.
President Jim Ton, R-1st, did make one suggestion: That, for visitors parking in the Grant Ave. lot, a “RR Crossing Ahead” sign be erected in the municipal right-of-way north of the Norfolk Southern tracks.
“I think that would be nice advance notice: Stop, Look, and Listen,” Ton said.