NORTHWEST (NIRPC)
John A. Swanson,
Executive Director; Steve
Strains, Director of Planning
Northwestern
Indiana Regional Planning Commission
6100 Southport
Road
Portage, IN
46368-6409
(219) 763-6060
FAX: (219) 762-1653
E-mail: jswanson@nirpc.org;
sstrains@nirpc.org; kdallmeyer@nirpc.org
Website:
www.nirpc.org
Urbanized
areas: Chicago, IL-IN, Michigan City, IN-MI;
1990 3-County Population: 711,592
2000 3-County Population: 741,468
2000 Urbanized Area Population: 618, 956
553,380 Indiana portion of Chicago Urbanized Area - Lake and
Porter Counties
65,576 Indiana portion of Michigan City Urbanized Area -
LaPorte County
The
Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NIRPC) is a fifty-three
member cooperative of local governments including representatives of the
area’s three counties, eleven cities, thirty towns and the State as prescribed
by law. New
statutory authority passed by the 2003 Indiana General Assembly and signed into
law expanded NIRPC’s membership, effective July 1, 2003.
It gave voting rights only to elected officials who represent the towns,
cities and counties in NIRPC’s jurisdiction.
INDOT and the transit operators are non-voting members, and fully
participate in the activities and discussions of the Commission/Executive Board.
NIRPC
is the designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the urbanized
areas of Northwest Indiana. In
conformance with the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1962, as amended, Indiana
Governor Otis Bowen designated NIRPC as a MPO on November 6, 1975.
State enabling legislation for the Commission, establishing multi-county
planning, coordination and development was enacted by the Indiana General
Assembly in 1965. The following
year NIRPC was organized as a two-county (Lake and Porter) transportation and
planning commission. LaPorte County
joined in 1979. The original
legislation was revised or replaced in 1969, 1971, 1973, 1981, 1983, 1992 and
2003.
The
metropolitan area boundary (MAB) for transportation planning in Northwest
Indiana includes all of the Counties of Lake, LaPorte, and Porter. As a result of Census 2000, the Northwestern Indiana area
contains two urbanized areas. The
Chicago, IL-IN urbanized area includes the urbanized area of Lake and Porter
Counties. Newly designated from
Census 2000 is the Michigan City, IN-MI urbanized area in LaPorte County.
The MAB automatically includes the area designated as non-attainment for
ozone under the Clean Air Act, which currently includes all of Lake and Porter
Counties. The MAB also encompasses
the area expected to become urbanized during the 20-year forecast period.
In 1993, NIRPC made that case for LaPorte’s inclusion in the MAB, which
was concurred with by INDOT in 1994.
The
population of the Indiana portion of the Chicago, IL-IN urbanized area exceeds
200,000 persons, and has been designated a transportation management area (TMA)
by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, in accordance with
the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) and
retained in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA
21). TMAs must comply with the
special requirements regarding congestion management systems, project selection
and certification. This designation
continues.
NIRPC is responsible for coordinating planning and development in Northwest Indiana. NIRPC's three planning domains are economic development, environmental management, and transportation. NIRPC performs a variety of functions including short and long range planning, corridor studies, traffic studies, traffic volume counting, fund allocation, technical assistance and project review, programming and development. NIRPC also staffs the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission, the Kankakee River Basin Commission, and the Marina Development Commission.
Return to listing of Indiana MPOs.
Return to MPO Council main page.