After Gov. Mike Pence signed House Enrolled Act 1386 into law last Thursday, alcohol will be more easily accessible at the Indiana Dunes State Park.
Dunes Action, a coalition opposing the Pavilion building project at the Dunes, argues the bill allows the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to get around local alcohol authorities.
Among other permit changes, HEA 1386 allows the DNR to secure alcohol licenses for its projects.
“People who go to that beach and love that beach are against that,” Dunes Action co-founder Jim Sweeney said. “There’s a lot of people who have concerns about alcohol being allowed.”
The DNR’s statement argues the alcohol permit will let them work with local authorities to “manage the service and consumption of alcohol, thereby also managing and controlling issues of safety to the public.”
The DNR is refurbishing a historic pavilion into a banquet hall, a project that Porter County locals don’t all support.
Sweeney said the issue lies in the use of public land, supported by Indiana taxpayers, to build a private, for-profit business.
Dunes Action’s goals, according to its webpage, are to halt construction of the Pavilion Project, keep alcohol out of the park and generate alternative park projects in the public interest.
The alcohol license is just the latest step Pavilion Partners LLC and the DNR took to build the Pavilion, Sweeney said.
“That battle is over and they won that round,” Sweeney said.
Pavilion Partners LLC, the group working with the DNR to build the Pavilion, had previously applied for a permit from the Porter County Alcohol and Tobacco Commission and were denied in October.
Steve Patterson, the vice president of Res Publica Group, said in an email on behalf of Pavilion Partners that the Indiana DNR has not yet used HEA 1386 to secure a liquor license for the project.
The LLC’s appeal of the local alcohol board’s decision is still pending.
However, HEA 1386 overrides the Porter County board’s authority and grants the DNR the license without local approval, Sweeney said.
“There’s a lot of opposition to it,” he said.
Dunes Action delivered a petition opposing the Pavilion project to Pence on Feb. 29.
Sweeney said about one quarter of those who signed specifically opposed bringing alcohol to the Pavilion.
Phil Bloom, the Director of the Division of Communications for the DNR, said in an email HEA 1386’s effect goes beyond local concerns.
“DNR State Parks attract 15-16 million visitors annually,” Bloom said. “We have infrastructure, utilities, lodging, security, and so on. In essence, they are at times small towns where we are making decisions at that local level.”
Bloom said DNR visitors come from all over the state, country and world, not just from the local community near the parks.
“We’re not breaking new ground,” he said. “The new law places DNR on equal footing with other public and private entities that work directly with the state ATC to obtain alcohol permits.”
The DNR has alcohol permits for seven State Park inns, Bloom said, and will review all 24 state parks to determine which others would benefit from catering services, based on sales projections, and alcohol sales. Those decisions will be submitted to the state ATC.
Bloom said HEA 1386 will allow the DNR to respond efficiently to state park customer expectations, especially those concerning events like receptions and meetings.
“The DNR recognizes and shares the public safety concerns that the service and consumption of alcohol can bring,” Bloom said in the email.
Bloom also said in the email that HEA 1386 will apply to all 24 state park properties managed by the DNR’s Division of State Parks, not just the Pavilion project at the Dunes.
“While it may lead to alcoholic beverage service for the renovated pavilion at Indiana Dunes, it does not open up that park to alcohol,” Bloom said. “It will still be illegal for visitors to BYOB to Dunes State Park, especially on the park’s beach, the campground or any other area of the park that is off-limits to alcohol. That does not change with this legislation.”
Bloom said he did not have any financial projections for alcohol sale revenue.
Any revenue would go toward operational costs on the DNR’s properties.
Hoosier Environmental Council Executive Director Jesse Kharbanda said HEA 1386 blocks locals from “determining the destiny of a park that is an essential part of the community.”
“You, the locals, don’t have a say in your local state park,” Kharbanda said.
He argued it’s “not really in keeping with local democracy” to move the project forward after the huge Dunes Action response and the denials from local alcohol boards.
Selling alcohol on DNR property could also affect business in surrounding bars and restaurants, Kharbanda said.
“If you’re opening the door to increased alcohol, you’re essentially undermining the local economy,” he said.
Kharbanda said concerns about pollution had also been raised, but not in the sense of physical waste.
The Pavilion itself and the activity within it will increase noise and light pollution in the Dunes, he said.
“People looked at the Dune States Park as this quiet, pristine park, and now that identity is going to change,” Kharbanda said. “People care about the current environmental character of the park.”
Sweeney said some locals are concerned about safety in the Dunes if alcohol is sold in the Pavilion to people who then go out to the water.
Alcohol at Indiana Dunes State Park has not always been banned.
It wasn’t until 1990 that alcohol within the premises was banned and heavy fines were imposed on violators.
“Here we are now, 25 years later, and they’re trying to bring it back in,” Sweeney said.
According to the DNR’s website, alcohol will still be banned everywhere on the beach and in the park, aside from the Pavilion.
Alcohol is available near beaches at three other DNR-managed properties, Bloom said in an email — Brookville Lake, Monroe Lake and Pokagon State Park.
As alcohol possession and consumption will still be banned from the beach at the Dunes, he said the DNR didn’t expect any changes resulting from alcohol service at the Pavilion restaurant.
However, Bloom said the DNR has discussed security with Pavilion Partners and will work with them to provide any additions.
There will still be time for Dunes Action to plead its case to other state organizations, Sweeney said.
Sweeney said the DNR has used grants from the Land and Water Conservation Fund in the past, and will thus have to comply with that organization’s project guidelines.
The use of state part land will also require the approval of the National Park Service.
“There’s going to be an opportunity for us to demand that the DNR justify why the project is where they have it,” Sweeney said.
