Indiana Dunes Administrative History

Dunes Expansion Hearings Continue

P. L. 94—549, signed by President Ford on October 18, 1976, amended the 1966 organic act in several substantial ways. The 1976 bill added more than 3,700 acres to the national lakeshore, raised the land acquisition ceiling to $60,812,100, and extended the lakeshore boundaries 300 feet into Lake Michigan. It repealed the suspension of the Secretary's authority on condemnation and established a maximum of twenty years for rights of retained use and occupancy, excluding the Markowitz Ditch area. The Advisory Commission found its membership expanded from seven to eleven members. Congress asked for the submission of a new General Management Plan by October 1, 1979, and in the interim fixed the park's development ceiling at $8.5 million. It authorized the acquisition of the Crescent Dune area within a two—year period, favored a cooperative agreement for the protection of "Crossing A," and prevented acquisition of portions of Unit 1—E (solid waste disposal areas) unless their reclamation came at no cost to the government. The 1976 act called for the Park Service to conduct feasibility studies on three proposed additions (III—A/Beverly Shores Island; II—A/NIPSCO "greenbelt"; and III—C Beverly Shores Parkway) to be submitted to Congress by July 1, 1977. [44]

Since 1971, bills to rename the park the "Paul H. Douglas Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore" confused and slowed down the process of lakeshore expansion legislation. With the initiation of the Carter Administration in 1977, the renaming issue resurfaced with the Advisory Commission yet again recommending against it in favor of a visitor center or auditorium named after Douglas. [45] Representative Sid Yates led the movement in the House to rename the national lakeshore, introducing an amendment to the National Park Service Omnibus Bill in July 1978 which was later removed during the House and Senate conference committee hearings. Separate bills calling for the redesignation were introduced. As early as 1977, the House Interior Committee called for naming a unit of the park and an environmental education center for Paul Douglas. Congressman Floyd Fithian favored following the formula used at Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park where the unit was dedicated to the memory of former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in recognition of his outstanding contributions there. The Save the Dunes Council worried that until the controversy was resolved, expansion legislation to absorb areas omitted from Douglas' earlier bills would most likely not be passed. [46]

In January 1978, Superintendent Whitehouse met with Service and Department officials in Washington, D.C., to formulate a position on expansion and brief the legislative staff of the Indiana Congressional Delegation. The official stance was strictly "hands off"; the Department would only offer recommendations because it was up to Congress ultimately to decide. The following month, Indiana Senators Birch Bayh and Richard Lugar, sponsors of S. 2560, proposed the addition of 800 acres, including the Beverly Shores Island, NIPSCO greenbelt, and Beverly Shores Parkway (a fifty—six-acre parcel surrounding U.S. 12). The bill reinstated the homeowners provisions of the 1966 act, including exemption from condemnation and the twenty—five—year use and occupancy rights. It also provided life estates, granted the government the right of first refusal on any land purchases within the lakeshore, authorized $250,000 for a transportation access study, and raised the development ceiling to $10.5 million. [47]

Expansion plans were further clouded on May 23, 1978, when Indiana Congressman Adam Benjamin introduced a bill to build a $25 million marina adjacent to Gary's Marquette Park. Backed by Gary's mayor and business community, the Park Service—owned and operated marina would provide complete harbor facilities for the national lakeshore. Benjamin's bill stipulated that the state highway would be extended to service the marina and that the Advisory Commission would be expanded by two to include additional representatives from Gary and Michigan City. The marina was the brainchild of Gary's mayor, Richard Hatcher. Alarmed by his city's economic decline, Hatcher believed the marina would rejuvenate Gary's dying downtown. From the start, however, Interior Appropriations Committee Chairman Sid Yates opposed it. On the marina question, the Department advised Congress to defer the matter until the completion of the General Management Plan. [48]

In August 1978 hearings before the Senate and House subcommittees, Park Service Deputy Director Ira Hutchison testified on S. 2560 and its counterpart, H.R. 11110, sponsored by Floyd Fithian. Hutchison recommended deferral of action on Indiana Dunes during 1978 while the Alaska parks bill took shape "to avoid assuming commitments and making promises that we may not be able to meet financially." Hutchison advised against the NIPSCO greenbelt addition because its principal value as a buffer against industrial development was already being served, as witness to the NIPSCO agreement to clean up the fly ash ponds. Preservation and/or restoration of the heavily impacted area would also be very difficult. Liberalizing homeowners' rights was also discouraged by Hutchison who asked that the condemnation authority not be abridged. He declared: "in view of the relatively small size of this park unit and number of potential visitors it must accommodate, it would be unwise and unfair for all concerned were Congress to reestablish the practice of permanent inholdings." [49]

None of the aforementioned bills were reported out of committee before Congress adjourned on October 15, 1978. [50] The new bills, S. 599 and H.R. 1742 dropped immediate acquisition of the ninety-acre NIPSCO greenbelt because of Senator Richard Lugar's opposition. Lugar heeded NIPSCO's concerns that acquisition would jeopardize the construction of Bailly I, a point refuted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Nevertheless, the greenbelt could be acquired after 1985 when the plant would be on—line. Additionally, before acquisition, the Park Service would have to prepare plans for restoration of the area. [51]

In May 1979, Deputy Director Ira Hutchison testified yet again on the bills. Hutchison deferred to Congress on the issue of dedicating the lakeshore to the memory of Senator Paul Douglas. Hutchison repeated the Service's support for the U.S. 12 parkway to protect the principal access route from commercialization. Significantly, for the first time the Service favored the inclusion of the Beverly Shores Island. [52]

In a 1979 meeting with Save the Dunes Council Executive Director Charlotte Read and Illinois Democratic Representative Sid Yates, Congressman Phillip Burton (Democrat—California), chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Parks and Insular Affairs, scrutinized a map of proposed expansion areas parcel by parcel. Burton was especially interested in an open area adjacent to Beverly Shores which Read explained was a golf course being considered for a new housing development. Burton expressed his intention to include the tract in the expansion bill. Read discovered that in the subsequent drafting of the new provision, the former golf course was earmarked to become a campground, supposedly to alleviate the heavy pressures on the Dunes State Park campground. [53]

Another round of hearings came in September. The following month the House passed the expansion bill, but the Senate failed to act on it by the conclusion of 1979. [54]