Rachel Blakeman, Community Research Institute director at Purdue University Fort Wayne, was the featured speaker at the sixth annual Barn and Business Breakfast held at Grace College Thursday, March 5. InkFreeNews photo by Dan Spalding.

WINONA LAKE – A speaker at this year’s Barn and Business Breakfast urged Kosciusko County to approve a new comprehensive land-use plan.

Rachel Blakeman, Community Research Institute Director at Purdue University Fort Wayne, offered insights and recommendations for maintaining and strengthening Kosciusko County’s agricultural dominance during an address at the sixth annual Barn and Business Breakfast held at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center Thursday morning.

Kosciusko County, she said, works from a perspective of strength, noting that Kosciusko County ranks fourth in the state for the total market value of agricultural products sold and accounts for 3 percent of the state’s agricultural sales, according to 2017 U.S. Census figures.

“It’s a really impressive mark,” Blakeman told several hundred guests at the breakfast, which was hosted by Kosciusko County Foundation.

“Agriculture is bringing new dollars into your economy and you should feel really good about that,” she said.

Blakeman also recapped recommendations presented through Small Cities Big Futures, a study of Warsaw and eight other “peer” cities that are similar in size but have large corporate environments. Along with Warsaw, those other midwestern peer cities included the Indiana towns of Batesville and Columbus as well as Lancaster, Ohio, Benton Harbor, Mich., Midland, Mich., Bloomington, Ill.; Peoria, Ill. and Findlay, Ohio.

Compared to the others, Kosciusko County’s 2.7 percent unemployment rate ranked as the best, she pointed out.

“You are in an enviable position,” she said.

Blakeman recapped some of the 19 recommendations that are part of the Small Cities Big Futures initiative, and emphasized the need for an updated county land-use plan to ensure that land use works for all partners.

“We need ag to be at the table,” Blakeman said in reference to entities who are assembling the updated plan.

Kosciusko County is already working to update its land-use plan, which has not been updated in 24 years.

The interests of agriculture will be especially important as the city of Warsaw and the county address the growing need for housing, she said.

“There’s this natural conflict of the need for more housing and agriculture. And how do we make sure that those two are aligned properly? You do that with planning and not wishful thinking,” she said.

The need for more affordable housing is a theme heard across much of northern Indiana, Blakeman said.

Warsaw and the county will soon unveil a new housing strategy that will lead to the development of more affordable housing that will focus on numerous target areas over a five to 10-year time period.

“We want to make sure that when you’re looking at all those recommendations when you’re putting those together, we want to be very clear that these are not Warsaw-exclusive recommendations,” Blakeman said.

Large screens were used to highlight numerous statistics and insights at the Barn and Business Breakfast at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center Thursday. InkFreeNews photo by Dan Spalding.