SYRACUSE -ÊMost residents in the North Shore Lake Wawasee neighborhoods are in favor of maintaining Eli Lilly Road's existing route, according to petitions submitted to an ad hoc committee of area homeowners.

Two options to relocate Eli Lilly Road were initiated in September by an unnamed group of local residents, represented by an Indianapolis-based engineering firm, USI Consultants Inc.

In option A, a new road would be built from Warner to Bishop Road, just south of the railroad crossing. The existing Eli Lilly Road would be closed and the county maintenance vacated. Residents would still be able to travel on the old road, but the county would no longer maintain it. It would be privately maintained.

Under option B, a road would be constructed in the middle of Eli Lilly Road and would travel north to the railroad, stopping at Bishop Road.

In either case, part of the road would be converted to a private dead-end road, with residents along that stretch responsible for its maintenance. And while USI's clients have agreed to pay for the rerouting work, approximately 50 Eli Lilly Road residents would be asked to donate rights of way for the new road.

While the petition drive is ongoing, Syracuse attorney Richard Green, one of the impacted residents and spokesman for a North Shore Ad Hoc Committee set up to keep area homeowners abreast of new developments in the road rerouting plan, said support has surfaced among permanent and seasonal residents in the area to maintain the existing roadway as is.

Their reasons, according to the petitions, are primarily due to their belief that the existing roadway is the most convenient route to Syracuse and beyond for more than 300 homeowners in the neighborhoods of Spink Condominiums, Kanata Manayunk, Country Club Acres, Ogden Island, Venetian Isles and Sunrise Beach.

Other concerns include the current road's scenic and historic aspects, the loss of a popular jogging and walking area, the impact on emergency services and property values and the potential loss of approximately 800 trees.

The petitions will be presented to the Kosciusko County commissioners, who have the final say in rerouting or vacating county roadways when the drive is completed, Green said.

"There's a variety of reasons why people favor the status quo, from concerns about the loss of an aesthetic asset to qualms about the effects on emergency services," said Green. "Whatever those reasons are, it is clear that most of the people who use that road as their main link with Syracuse and points beyond are in favor of leaving things the way they have been for more than 100 years."

The plan to move Eli Lilly Road was first announced in September to the county commissioners and approximately 50 residents of Eli Lilly Road by USI Consultants Inc.

Only when newspaper articles were published in early November was the rest of the community informed of the plan to reroute the road.

In addition to Green, members of the ad hoc committee are Dr. Randal Cory, Kim Cripe, Joseph DeVittorio, Sherman Goldenberg, Dr. Stephen Lantz, Bill McCabe, V. Richard Miller and Albert Wimmer, Ph.D. [[In-content Ad]]