Two candidates are running for West Lafayette City Council District 6: Democratic incumbent candidate Kathy Parker and Republican challenger James Waters. Waters did not respond to our request to complete a survey.
Kathy Parker, 55, is the Director of Carreer Development and Advising at the Lafayette Adult Resource Academy. Parker was first elected in 2019.
Editors' note: Candidate responses were edited for style and grammar, and any numbers used were checked for accuracy. When a statement required more clarification or could not be independently verified, WBAA reached out to candidates before publication. Those instances, and those candidate responses, are noted throughout in editors’ notes.
KATHY PARKER
What are the top concerns that your district’s constituents have shared with you, and what are the issues that you foresee affecting them most in the next two to three years?
Short-term rentals, environmental sustainability, and road closures are the top three complaints I hear from constituents. With major new businesses moving to West Lafayette and rising Purdue enrollment, our city is growing quickly, which means we need to be planning for and implementing infrastructure updates, sustainable housing policies and adherence to the Climate Action Plan. Improvements on roads and trails are not fun to endure, but they are necessary growing pains that will be worth the hassle in the long run.
Housing has become a major issue in Greater Lafayette — both in terms of the number of affordable units and the conditions of units within the city. What do you believe the council should do, if anything, to address these problems?
We are fortunate that West Lafayette maintains a rental housing inspection program and the overwhelming majority of our landlords are in compliance with providing safe, healthy living conditions. Landlords not in compliance should face repercussions that will force them to properly care for their properties because everyone deserves safe, healthy housing. Affordability and availability of housing are also concerns, and the city council should support city staff in their efforts to implement policies that will increase housing options for permanent residents within the city. Continued contact with Purdue should be supported since unrestrained growth at Purdue impacts the city. It is helpful that Purdue is building additional options to house their students.
The Lebanon LEAP industrial district could pipe as much as 100 million gallons of water per day from Tippecanoe County. What is your perspective on a potential pipeline and what, if anything, do you think should be done about it at the local level?
The planning for the LEAP district has been going on for many years, but the recent talk of piping 100 million gallons of water daily from the Teays Aquifer has been discussed under a shroud of secrecy. Residents of Tippecanoe County and elected officials have been omitted from discussions* and the result is overwhelming distrust. If there were a guarantee that the water supply in Tippecanoe County would be left unharmed then I would feel slightly better. The fact is however, there is no guarantee; there has been an abysmal lack of communication, and I see no reason to trust the IEDC's proposed pipeline idea. It seems like our only hope is for everyone in the county to start showing up at every opportunity to voice concerns and urge restraint. Letters, petitions, public meetings, trips to Indianapolis to meet with policy makers, etc... are all means to let those with power know our thoughts and hopefully, we can stop reckless development that will harm our community.
*Editor's note: Both local leaders and state representatives in Tippecanoe County have met with Indiana Economic Development Corporation officials at various points throughout the process. However, IEDC officials have only sparingly made themselves available to the public.
The Greater Lafayette region is moving forward with implementing a climate action plan. What steps do you think the city should be taking to address local environmental concerns, and what is your perspective on the steps recommended in the regional plan?
West Lafayette has been addressing environmental concerns for many years. Recently, the city became a member of Solar United Neighbors, encouraging homeowners to go solar and providing education about what is needed to do so. West Lafayette Utility Director Dave Henderson has overseen the combined sewer overflow project, which will prevent polluting overflow of the sewer into the Wabash River during heavy rain events and is scheduled for completion by the end of this year. West Lafayette hired our first Climate Resiliency and Sustainability Officer at the beginning of 2023 and West Lafayette, Lafayette and the county are collaborating to incorporate environmentally sustainable materials into new buildings. I would like to see Purdue University retire their coal plant, which is the biggest polluter in the county, but first we will need to have some viable alternatives. I would also like to revisit restrictions on wind energy to see how we might incorporate more wind into our energy portfolio.
Companies are investing in large-scale developments in the Greater Lafayette area, part of a so-called “hard tech corridor” leading to Indianapolis. Some residents have raised concerns about how rapid growth could change the character of the region. How would you like to see growth throughout the region managed?
Particular attention should be paid first to the availability of natural resources. With Skywater already moving to West Lafayette and in need of excess water, it could be disastrous to have a similar, yet significantly larger, facility 30 miles away where they lack sufficient water and would need to pipe an exorbitant amount daily from Tippecanoe County, thereby depleting our own water requirements. I would like to see safeguards protecting the region from unmitigated building: as our region grows, there should always be land set aside for parks and greenspace, which improve the quality of life for residents. I would love for the whole county to conceive a Greenspace Plan like West Lafayette did. Maintaining neighborhood character needs consideration as well. APC staff recently proposed a form based overlay for an older, more rural neighborhood of Tippecanoe County, where new housing architecture would look more like the existing design. Growth is coming but care can be taken to protect both greenspace and neighborhood architecture.
