Public Presentation of City of East Chicago Downtown Action Agenda

On Monday, September 9, 2013, downtown experts HyettPalma will unveil the East Chicago Downtown Action Agenda prepared as part of the Indiana Downtown® program offered by the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns (IACT). The Public Meeting will take place directly after the East Chicago Common Council Meeting at 7p.m. located on the second floor of City Hall, 4525 Indianapolis Blvd. East Chicago, Indiana.

Over the past few months, the Mayor’s Office and the Downtown Process Committee, formed to oversee the project, have been working toward this day by collecting background data on downtown and arranging a series of meetings. HyettPalma has spent this time analyzing the collected data, moderating the meetings, and examining downtown, its businesses, its trade area, and its competition. This process effectively involved hundreds of individuals, including local officials, business leaders, community leaders, and residents.

The Downtown Action Agenda is an aggressive course of action to be implemented over a five-year period by a public private partnership. The course of action was specifically tailored to capture downtown’s market opportunities and attain the community’s downtown vision. The result: a healthier and more viable downtown.

Mayor Anthony Copeland stated, “Our Downtown Action Agenda will not be another study or plan, but an action-oriented strategy that we can begin implementing immediately. The Downtown Action Agenda will be our guide to focus on a whole range of downtown issues, such as business retention and attraction, physical improvements, traffic, parking, marketing, and much more. We are all anxious to hear the results and to begin working diligently in downtown area. We hope everyone will join us at the public meeting.”

The public presentation of the Downtown Action Agenda is open to the public and will be held from 7pm - 8pm at City Hall 4525 Indianapolis Blvd. in East Chicago. Indiana Downtown® is offered by the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns in partnership with HyettPalma, Inc. Indiana Downtown® is based on the highly successful America Downtown® technical assistance program, which was created in 1992 by the National League of Cities and HyettPalma. IACT is the first state league in the U.S. to replicate that program and offer it at the state level. For more information, contact the Kathy Brown, Office of Economic Development at 219-391-8205.