By Carol Anders Correspondent
PLYMOUTH — The Plymouth Redevelopment Commission has been seeking opinions and input for several months over what design for the retail portion of the South Gateway Project would be best for all.
Among those opinions were the owners of three businesses located on the west side of Michigan Street. They were asked to look at five drawings submitted by Ratio Architects.

 A meeting for interested parties was held Tuesday with the hopes of getting a consensus. Present at the meeting were the owners of Homemade To Go, Plymouth Party Pack and River Dogs; Plymouth Mayor Mark Senter; Plymouth Street Department Superintendent Jim Marquardt; Plymouth City Attorney Nelson Chipman; Plymouth Clerk-Treasurer Toni Hutchings; Project Team member Brent Martin; Redevelopment President Don Wendel; and Ratio Architects representative John Jackson.
When none of the five designs met with the overall approval of the business owners or members of the Redevelopment Board, a decision was made to “do nothing.”
At the meeting, Wendel said, “It does kind of leave our board in a tough spot – a tough position. There are definitely different ideas on how to handle it.”
The members present voted unanimously to suspend that portion of the project pending approval from both INDOT (Indiana Department of Transportation) and MACOG (Michiana Area Council of Government).
Wendell asked Martin to contact both INDOT and MACOG to make sure deleting the retail portion would not interfere with the INDOT administered grant that is helping to fund the overall project.
One of the designs offered included building a sidewalk flush with the existing parking lots in front of the three businesses along Michigan Street. Audience member and City Council member Mike Delp questioned whether the liability for the city would change if a sidewalk were constructed.
He said, “That’s what concerns me is safety.”
Another plan from Ratio would have allowed ang-led parking in the city’s right-of-way.
Katie and Tom Kain, owners of Plymouth Party Pack, continued to express their opinion that angled parking would hurt their business since their customers are used to the convenience of parking right in front of their store. They contend that safety has never been a problem since they purchased the store in 2001 or for Tom’s father, Dave Kain, who owned the business from 1991 until 2001.
Katie Kain said, “There has never been an accident.”
At the Redevelopment meeting, Tom Kain said, “We do not want to lose control of our parking.”
The new proprietor of River Dogs welcomed angled parking. Betty Boras said angled parking would make their business seem more like a part of the downtown.
Wendel suggested that the retail portion could be dealt with in another phase of the overall project.
He said, “Maybe someone will come up with a better idea.”