The first Valparaiso City Council meeting of the new year got underway Monday night, January 12th, 2026 with a council workshop by Houseal Lavigne, an urban planning, design, and geospatial firm out of Chicago. Houseal Lavigne will be working on Valpo Vision 2050 which will give Valparaiso a new Comprehensive Plan and Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). The Comprehensive plan is the city’s desired direction for future land use and development, where and how Valpo should grow. The UDO is the implementation of that desired direction, laying out the regulations of what kind of land uses are permitted in specific zoning districts and sets objective design and development requirements, like density, parking, signage, and landscape.
The Council workshop consisted of several questions, the first was to list five issues or concerns confronting Valparaiso. Public safety at schools was the top concern followed by controlled development and affordable housing. Other questions put to the council were, what projects would you like to see to help improve Valpo, and what is Valpo’s greatest asset. These answers were written on worksheets and submitted to Houseal Lavigne. Mayor Costas began the workshop by saying “This is an important undertaking because it plays a role in directing our planning and growth for the next 2 or 3 decades. So it is really important to get lots of citizen input.” The process will take about two years with multiple public forums and questionnaires.
With the new year also comes Council reorganization with the selection of Council Officers, Council appointments, and Council Liaisons. The Council officers are as follows:
Council President Ellen Kapitan; Vice President Emilie Hunt; Redevelopment Commission Barb Domer and Diana Reed; Investigation and Reconciliation Committee Robert Cotton; Plan
Commission Ellen Kapitan; Shared Ethics Advisory Commission: Barb Domer; and Human Relations Council: Emilie Hunt. Recommended appointments are: Economic Development Commission: Aaron Stoich; Human Relations Council: Ezra Burke, Diane Chillan, Joseph Francis, Danell Hinderlong, Aisha McDonald, and Jack Tippold. Council Liaisons are as follows: Valpo Schools: Emilie Hunt; Valpo Parks: Diana Reed; Utilities Peter Anderson, Engineering and code enforcement Robert Cotton; Public Safety Jack Pupillo; Public Works and Safety: Barb Domer; Traffic and Safety: Ellen Kapitan; Transportation: Barb Domer; Historic Preservation Commission: Barb Domer; Town and Gown: Barb Domer and Ellen Kapitan. The reorganization passed 5 to 1 with Robert Cotton being the sole no vote.
There were two resolutions and three ordinances before the Council. Resolution No. 1, 2026 the first resolution of the year, is a yearly resolution to authorize temporary loans to tax supported funds from the rainy day fund. So, if the Parks Department is running low on funds before the June tax draw, this resolution allows a temporary loan from the rainy day fund to be paid back before the end of the year. Resolution No. 1, 2026 passed 7 to 0.
Resolution No. 2 and Ordinance No. 1, 2026 both deal with tightening up the regulations and amending the City’s Municipal Code concerning Industrial sewer pretreatment. Both of these were continued till the next Council meeting for public hearing and final vote. The City has 44 industrial users of which 4 are considered significant. These changes were proposed in 2011 and have taken 15 years for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to go through and approve. Councilman Jack Pupillo commented on the USEPA document submission time line and noted that it took over two and a half years to get a response from the USEPA for a virtual meeting requested in 2021, then asked “what happened.” Steve Poulos, head of Valpo Utilities responded “This has been a battle for 15 years as far as getting responses to not only correspondences, not only emails, but responses to questions and finally finalizing the documents.” Mayor Costas chimed in by saying “I don’t think surprising responsive is one of their cores, like ours.”
Ordinance No. 1 2026 concerns fund appropriation for a cold storage building for Public Works. Cold storage just means covered from elements but not heated. This will be for equipment and such for road maintenance. The last ordinance before council appropriated funds for the opioid settlement distribution. It was carried to the next meeting for final vote.
The Environmental Advisory Board gave their first annual report on what they have been working on the last year and Kevin Nuppnau gave a Valpo REC update. Kevin Nuppnau will be stepping down as the Head Of Valpo Parks at the end of January to pursue a nonprofit position.
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