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STAFF REPORT CONCERNING US 31 ROAD IMPROVEMENT IMPACT ON HISTORIC STRUCTURES AND LANDSCAPES HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION OF SOUTH BEND & ST. JOSEPH COUNTY 20 August 2003 INTRODUCTION Highways, expressways, and freeways crisscross this country and have had an enormous impact upon the American landscape. One scholar has argued that the construction of highways over the past forty to fifty years has been one of the most prominent forces of change that has molded the American cityscape and country-scape. In addition to linking towns and cities, freeways have divided urban neighborhoods, cut through farmland and wetlands, and have broken through mountains. Not only is a freeway a strip of roadway serving utilitarian purposes, it is a mark upon the land that affects how a person sees and understands a nearby area or even a larger region. For better of for worse, a highway creates a new landscape. Add together all the miles of pavement that connect this country and one finds a substantial area directly impacted, covered over, and reshaped by ribbons of asphalt and concrete, looping access ramps and freeway bridges. With the inclusion of the center median and clearance areas on either side of the roadbed, the area of direct impact increases beyond the actual pavement. The area directly covered by concrete and asphalt and the nearby clearance strips is miniscule in comparison to the area that will actually undergo the economic, social and environmental forces resulting from the construction of a freeway. Noise, traffic, wider roads, rest stations, new development at exits, and the division of property are all connected to the construction of a highway. In many cases, what was once a rural district with two-lane roads becomes a major transportation corridor for thousands in not millions of passenger cars and commercial trucks. The profound impact of this change on the character and environment of such areas cannot be underestimated. The development of edge cites also poses a very real possibility for a much wider impact corridor than just the highway roadbed. Scholars have recently explored the construction, of edge cities -- places located near freeway exits that are mainly filled with office and retail space and devoid of housing. People tend inhabit these places from nine to five arriving in the morning for work and leaving in the afternoon to retreat to the homes. These edge cities now serve as the commercial centers of counties and towns rather than downtowns and Main Street. Downtowns and main streets once existed as vibrant multi -use places filled with offices and businesses, parklands, homes, and stored -lined streets. The emergence of edge cities to the south of South Bend should also be considered a possibility in the coming decades. Their development will impact not only the historic structures and rural landscapes in southern half of St. Joseph County, but also the economic and social outlook of the city of South Bend. Freeways weave across the country following no particular pattern and seemingly dodging some places while directly connecting to others. All the changes wrought by highways that we can now observer have occurred without prediction. With the coming construction of a new US 31, vast changes to the landscape in southern St. Joseph County are real possibilities. With smart planning and development and sensitive design, the possible negative impacts upon the social and natural environment due to the realignment and improvement of US 31 could be mitigated.