Skip to main content

ELKHART — Business, community and government leaders from all over Elkhart County are going into the Christmas holiday with visions of quality of place in their heads.

It’s understandable, with the state of Indiana’s recent decision to award $42 million in economic development funding to Regional Cities of Northern Indiana, a collaboration of Elkhart, St. Joseph and Marshall counties.

Gov. Mike Pence visited Elkhart on Tuesday, Dec. 22, to celebrate the landmark decision that leaders have hailed as a transformative and historic moment in the region’s history.

Governor Pence visits Elkhart to share congratulations for the region’s successful Development Plan application.

“The Innovate Indiana plan will contribute to the richness and quality of place (of north central Indiana) … for generations to come,” Pence told a crowd of dignitaries from Elkhart, South Bend, Goshen and Nappanee and elsewhere at the Crystal Ballroom in Elkhart.

The Regional Cities news could not come at a better time as Elkhart County prepares for the Vibrant Communities planning process.

Vibrant Communities aims to bring together residents from each of the county’s communities to evaluate the great things already happening in Elkhart, Goshen, Nappanee, Middlebury, Wakarusa, Bristol, and the unincorporated areas. From those discussions, residents will be asked to envision new programs, policies and places they would like to see developed in their hometowns.

It’s really about “how much do we love the place that we live? And what is it that makes that place something to love,” said Diana Lawson, executive director of the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said on WNIT’s “Economic Outlook” program.

The Vibrant Communities process will start with a public kickoff from 4 to 6 p.m. Jan. 26 at the Crystal Ballroom in the Lerner Theatre. Peter Kageyama, author of “For the Love of Cities” and “Love Where You Live,” will be the keynote speaker. Community-focused conversations will be planned for late February or early March.

The Regional Cities grant is expected to jumpstart a number of quality-of-place projects that will have a regional impact. In the words of one local leader, these projects will be implemented at “a sprint,” partially because of guidelines from the state that grant funds are expended within the state’s 2016-17 budget cycle.

Vibrant Communities will build off that progress, identifying additional initiatives intended to retain and attract talented young people, encourage new investment, and promote our communities as exceptional places for residents and businesses to put down roots.

Leave a Reply