During the September to December period of 1991 the Michigan City Urban Enterprise Zone policy board participated in a strategic planning process.  Coming out of that process was a series of recommended projects, actions, objectives, goals, and visions for continued social, physical, and economic development of the zone.  The Zone lies entirely within the City of Michigan City.  The Board recommended implementation of three programs:  the neighborhood social services center, neighborhood leadership training, and formation of a community development corporation.  These projects are described in detail in Section IV.

Achieving the recommended actions, the projects adopted by the UEZ Board, and the other initiatives is a tall order.  Change from the status quo is difficult to achieve and time consuming to carry out.  Turnover from the old to the new requires up to five years and that it takes up to seven years (five plus two years) for changes to be institutionalized.  Therefore, it is important for the UEA to:
 

1. Support and play active roles in the ongoing community strategic planning process.
2. Extend its horizon to a five-year planning and programming period in anticipation of extending the UEZ's life into the 21st century.
3. Expand its economic development function into providing better technical information and technically justified project priorities.
4. Insist on environmentally sound development consistent with the proposed capital improvements program.
5. Require comparison to these strategic planning visions, objectives, and actions when determining project priorities.
6. Monitor progress towards project implementation and report on that progress.

These activities will help achieve improved neighborhood development, housing stock, and social development of the UEZ during the 1990's.

Task forces recommended 204 specific actions.  These actions not only respond to the problems faced by residents and businesses located in the UEZ, their implementation would help achieve the objectives of the task forces.

Participation in the task force meetings was considered broadly representative of the UEZ and a reflection of the importance placed on encouraging people to come to them and to the extent to which participants felt it was a worthwhile experience.  Total attendance at the November 7 task force meetings was 73 of whom 37, or 51 percent, were from the UEZ.  Total attendance at the November 16 task force meetings was 69 of whom 33, or 48 percent, were from the UEZ.  Continuity of participation was also important as discussion picked up from the previous meeting, minimizing repetitiveness and maximizing substantive dialogue.  Some 65 percent of attendees at the second meeting had attended the first meeting.  At the October 17 and November 14 town meetings, 50 UEZ residents and businesses were represented, about one-half of the attendees.  Participation was stimulated by media coverage of the strategic planning process through local radio and newspaper coverage which spread the results to persons who did not attend the meetings comprising the process.

Michigan City's location overlooking Lake Michigan, superior east-west highway and railroad service capacities, and accessibility to nearby Chicago have given it a competitive advantage resulting in growth and development.  Manufacturing industries located along these transportation corridors and along Trail Creek.  Principal industries include steel, heating and transportation equipment, textiles, instrumentation, printing, and construction.  During the 1980's, the increase in services and trade jobs was offset by the loss of manufacturing jobs.

During the 1980's Michigan City lost 8.2 percent of its population.  As the average household size declined, the number of the City's households and housing units increased in spite of the loss of population.  The preponderance of this increase was of multi-family units as demand for them increased and drove rents up over seven percent while homeowner values fell by over 12 percent.

In general, services are equally available in and outside the UEZ.  Disparities in their delivery are most often attributable to variations in demand and in accessibility like in any other city.  However, because of relatively low incomes and education levels, UEZ residents have a disproportionate share of social, health, and housing problems.  This strategic plan is directed at ameliorating those problems.