What is the fruit of government policies designed to react to development by building infrastructure to support that development? Runaway sprawl and increasing demands on taxpayers to underwrite the infrastructure costs of development which would not exist except for that underwriting.
Runaway development has already started in the county. The overpasses and roads leading to SR37 were upgraded, at a combined cost to taxpayers of over fifty-million dollars, a decade ago. Those upgrades were undertaken in order to relieve congestion in the area. However, instead of relieving that congestion, they have instead spurred development to move from within the city's central district and from the older east-side sprawl to the west side.
The net result is that the west side roads and the major automotive artery that is SR37 are once again becoming congested. Worse, as they congest, they pull business from other areas. The "College Mall" area is now beginning an economic decline as more and more retailers move to the west side to take advantage of the public infrastructure subsidies. Subsidies in the form of the road improvements and the four-lane highway.
The result is preordained. As is obvious to anyone who has travelled along US50 from SR37 into downtown Bedford, anyone who has travelled along US50 from downtown Seymour to I65, and to anyone who has visited Bloomington's west side. Sprawl follows roads follows sprawl and it all is done at taxpayer expense.
The following article appeared in the Indianapolis Star. It provides a chilling look into what our county will be a decade hence.
By Dan McFeely
Indianapolis Star
July 26, 2001
KOKOMO, Ind. -- Driving through Kokomo used to be a breeze.
U.S. 31 was a two-lane bypass, built during the late 1940s to give travelers an easy way around the city's bustling downtown. But with the advent of shopping malls in the early 1960s, things started to change along this quiet highway.
As in other cities like Bloomington and Fort Wayne, a once-effective bypass turned into a business and commercial magnet. Downtown areas were abandoned by residents and businesses attracted by the peace and quiet of the suburbs, and congestion followed on previously wide-open highways.
"When I moved here in 1963, that mall over there was a cabbage patch," said Bob Meyer, 77, who still lives along the U.S. 31 Bypass off a frontage road. "And there was nothing over there."
Today, in a rather bizarre mix of zoning, Meyer and his neighbors share a corridor that includes several national chain restaurants, malls and shopping centers, Howard Community Hospital and two major automotive factories. All of which draw an estimated 50,000 vehicles a day, each one fighting its way through 15 stoplights on one of the most congested stretches of highway in Indiana.
"This is downtown Kokomo," said Meyer.
Not really. The true downtown Kokomo is a few miles to the west, struggling for rebirth after a slow death during the suburban boom.
For now, the heart of this city is in the bypass. Which would be fine, were it not for the thousands of travelers who have no business in Kokomo but have no alternative but to use the bypass.
State highway officials have launched a $2.5 million environmental study to find a way to fix that problem in Howard County. It's part of the much larger study being done along U.S. 31 from South Bend to Indianapolis, a trip state officials want to make quicker and more hassle-free.
In Kokomo, state engineers will be looking at several options, but for the most part the debate will surround two scenarios:
It will take the state about three years to decide what to do. There will be many public meetings during the process.
But state Transportation Department Commissioner Cristine Klika already has declared that the 15 stoplights must go.
On April 14, 1976, 24 years after the highway opened, the first two traffic signals were installed at the intersections with Lincoln and Morgan streets.
Three more lights would go up in the 1970s, followed by 10 more in the '80s.
"If you're looking to get somewhere in a hurry, you might as well figure you're going to get bogged down in Kokomo," said Terry Fox, a sales manager from Indianapolis who uses U.S. 31 at least twice a month.
Fox says it takes him anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes to fight his way through the seven-mile area, even on the weekends when he travels to University of Notre Dame football games.
"The lights are not timed, and the speed limit (45 mph) is too low," he said. "Sometimes I sit through four light changes before making it through an intersection."
Another complication: Rush hour in Kokomo is hard to define.
A certain number of cars are probably headed toward or away from Indianapolis-area jobs and attractions during the typical morning and afternoon rush hours. But then there are the "off-peak" shift changes at Delphi Automotive Systems (on the east side of the road) and the DaimlerChrysler transmission plant (across the street on the west side), not to mention the steady stream of traffic in and out of the hospital.
Rick Hamilton, director of development for the city of Kokomo, said it's surprising but true that local traffic far outnumbers out-of-town travelers on the bypass. That's why local business leaders are concerned about the state's plan to convert the bypass to a limited-access highway.
"Most of us in Kokomo realize that this is no longer a bypass," said Hamilton. "Trying to return it to a bypass is probably not a good idea."
Instead, they prefer a new bypass that could be built in the mostly rural area east of the city, with three or four interchanges leading into Kokomo.
Walking his dog along Imperial Drive, a pebble's toss from the four-lane divided highway, Bob Meyer ponders the options.
"They may have to go east with a new highway, but then you're talking about (moving) people and their homes," he said. "I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that we keep getting more and more cars out here."
The Association of Monroe County Taxpayers
PO Box 3066
Bloomington, IN 47402
http://www.assmotax.org