The Valparaiso City Council met Monday night December 8th at 6:00pm for the only council meeting of December, 2025. There has traditionally only been one council meeting in December due to the Christmas holiday. The meeting went for just under an hour and a half with a presentation by the Mayor’s Youth Council, two ordinances, and two items under other business.
The Mayor’s Youth Council began the meeting by awarding Nora Burk, a Valparaiso student, with this year’s Rising Star Award. Nora was selected because she “exudes benevolence, leadership and perseverance.” She is involved in various activities such as Student Lead, K-Kids Programs, tutoring her classmates, making dog toys for the animal shelter and blankets for those in need, all while maintaining straight A’s herself. “Valparaiso is lucky to have such an inspiring youth member in our city who will encourage others to do the same.”
The first ordinance before council for second reading, public hearing and final vote was Ordinance No. 21, 2025. This is the ordinance that would change the zoning of the Banta Center from Public Space to Urban Residential in preparation for its sale to the Welter family. One of the contingencies of the sale is that the historic building not be demolished, to what extent the exterior is preserved spurred some debate amongst the council. During public comment on this ordinance there was a letter read from a member of the Valparaiso Historic Preservation Committee expressing concern for the building’s collegiate gothic style of exterior architecture being drastically changed in converting the structure into housing.
Councilman Robert Cotton wanted to “leverage” the council’s vote on the zoning change to “add standards or conditions to the zoning change.” Councilwoman Diana Reed responded by saying “I think the Historic Preservation Committee can work with the Welters at any given time. What I don’t want to do is put constraints on something because we did have other people that inquired (about this property), but because of the restrictions that were already in place they could not meet those restrictions. I do not want to do anything that is going to hinder the sale of this building because right now we have a good plan in place. If by chance we start putting additional restrictions that the Welters were not in agreement with and then they decide not to purchase, we’re back to where we were with a building we cannot preserve ourselves.” The ordinance passed 7 to 0.
The second ordinance on the agenda was also a second reading with public comment and final vote. Ordinance No. 23, 2025 just appropriated funds for the city’s bond payment and passed 7-0.
There were two items under other business on the agenda. First was an update on the Valparaiso REC project. This is the project that will convert the old McGill factory into an indoor community recreation center. The contract for the development is being finalized and cleaning out the building will be the first phase of this development with an open house and public input to follow in the near future.
Next there were some council members who wanted to comment on the potential redistricting happening in Indiana. Concern was expressed that the new proposed map splits Valparaiso between two districts and weakens our collective voice as a city. Councilwoman Emilie Hunt asked if any council members had spoken to Indiana House Representative Ed
Soliday before he voted in favor of redistricting. Mayor Jon Costas replied and encapsulated the council’s concerns “I’ve been in regular contact with Representative Soliday and I’ve talked with Ed Charbonneau (state Senator, district 5) on this issue, and I am not a fan of this because I don’t think its a good idea to change the rules in the middle of the game, and I’ve been very public about that. It is difficult when other states are doing the same thing, and so it’s kind of what’s been called by some people a race to the bottom.” Redistricting passed the Indiana state House and will go before the Indiana Senate this week. Councilwoman Barbara Domer, who attended the council meeting via zoom because she was in Indianapolis speaking to state legislators on this topic, along with other council members, encouraged citizens to reach out to
our district’s state Senator Ed Charbonneau with concerns.
The next City Council meeting will be January 12th, 6:00pm at City Hall.
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