Housing boom and schools? (Hammond, Schererville: new house, neighborhoods, buying)

[Sweetsixxess16]

I am seeing so much new construction going on in Crown Point, St. John and Schererville, subdivisions are going crazy, which is awesome. But I'm curious if there are any plans to restructure or make accommodations in the schools for the influx of children. We are in Crown Point schools and am seeing class sizes rise and less time for kids. Class sizes reaching over 30 kids in a class.
I'm looking into getting involved and attending village or school meetings but haven't heard anything about what they will do with our growing areas.
Anyone have any insight?

[iidreamtheaterii]

Hanover has already experienced the pinch points of overcrowding having to move the 5th grades of Lincoln Elementary and Jane Ball Elementary over to the newer Middle School this next school year. To my knowledge they will still be isolated from the middle classes, however I know there are 3 new subdivisions in Cedar Lake alone that will continue to flood Jane Ball alone.


I know St. John's portion that sends kids to Lincoln Elementary continues to grow at a rapid pace with the Gates still building, and the subdivisions off of Calumet Avenue not seeing any signs of slowing down.


There is a LOT of farmland down Calumet that is ripe for development. With the new Illiana Christian High School, it's even more solidified that the farms will turn to subdivisions slowly but surely. I can honestly see another Commercial development needed in the middle between 133rd and Exchange to break it up. This may be quite a few years down the road, but it seems inevitable.


Southern Lake County is definitely on the BOOM!

[CGab]

My kids are in Lake Central. One at Kolling and one at Clark. Kolling is at capacity and I think that is one of the main reasons why The Preserve in St. John; which is a new development, is having the kids there go to Bibich and Kahler even though they would have technically gone to Kolling and Clark. All of Lake Central middle schools also start at 5th grade like Hanover will be doing. They do a great job at isolating the 5th graders from the rest of the grades and ease them in. Even though Kolling is at capacity, I don't feel the student/teacher ratio is all that bad. My daughter is in 4th and has 25 kids in her class. At Clark it's about the same.

There are a lot of new subdivisions planned in the area which will bring more and more families with children. It's definitely something the school boards in the area will have to consider going forward. Either by building new schools or adding to existing. As for now though the class sizes seem to be ok. We came from Plainfield, Illinois which also had a very large population surge between 2003-2010. The class sizes still didn't get over 27; however, they did have to build more schools to accommodate which also means more staff and more money needed to operate.

[ColdAilment]

Originally Posted by Sweetsixxess16

I am seeing so much new construction going on in Crown Point, St. John and Schererville, subdivisions are going crazy, which is awesome. But I'm curious if there are any plans to restructure or make accommodations in the schools for the influx of children. We are in Crown Point schools and am seeing class sizes rise and less time for kids. Class sizes reaching over 30 kids in a class.
I'm looking into getting involved and attending village or school meetings but haven't heard anything about what they will do with our growing areas.
Anyone have any insight?

Are the old cities of Lake County seen an urban boom at all? It would be nice to see new life and construction in Hammond, Munster, Crown Point, etc, new construction outside of the run of the mill subdivisions.

[CGab]

Originally Posted by ColdAilment

Are the old cities of Lake County seen an urban boom at all? It would be nice to see new life and construction in Hammond, Munster, Crown Point, etc, new construction outside of the run of the mill subdivisions.

Is there any land left to build in Hammond or Munster? I think those towns are pretty much built out unless you're talking about demoing older homes and rebuilding new one's on site? Crown Point still has room to build.

[Ned B]

Munster is only really seeing new construction on the few empty lots that are left in a couple developments in the SW quadrant and peppered among the other older parts. And even that is happening slow since those remaining lots are pretty darn pricey. Lots begin at 100k and go as high as over 300k for Park West or the couple left undeveloped in Hill and Vale Estates. The rest of Munster is pretty well built-out with only a few exceptions (like maybe someday the rest of Castle Drive will be built and developed). There have been very few teardowns as well, I think because the numbers just don't work. You would have a hard time buying a ranch for 2-300k, building a house for 3-400k and being able to sell it for more than the sum of those two costs.

Munster probably won't see any additional development/redevelopment unless potential property values get so high that developers and the wealthy can justify teardowns.

Hammond has seen next to no new construction lately in recent decades for a related reason. There were a few small subdivisions developed in the 1990s, and there are two developments currently planned in Robertsdale, but in general it's just not possible yet to build a new house and then have it be worth what was put into it in most of the city. Although there are a fair number of empty lots or small houses with very little worth that could be replaced. Hammond will need to focus on improving the general value of its existing housing stock and neighborhoods before we will see much construction. I think it will need to focus near the areas that have been able to maintain reasonable housing values, such as Forest Avenue/S Hohman, Robertsdale, and the blocks around Purdue, and I really think like other urban areas, it depends greatly on city image and marketing. Somehow Hammond has to make itself hip and desirable for younger people of reasonable income, who may have an interest in arts, or the grittiness of real urban areas, or something similar. And then slowly the schools and property values may improve to the point that more middle income families consider it a viable option.

[artemis]

Cedar Lake is ok as long as you stay in Center Township. I do not recommend Hanover Township schools.