About 150 homes and businesses are in the way of the South Shore Line's Double Track Northwest Indiana project.

Affected property owners in the Michigan City area were invited to a real estate workshop Tuesday.

“I don’t really want to lose my property, but if it's going to be done, I wish they'd do it now, I mean, instead of waiting. You know, like I said, I bought another house last year because I thought this was going to be done last year,” Michigan City resident Edward Hill said. “And I hate rushing.”

The property the railroad plans on purchasing is mainly along 11th Street, where the train tracks run right down the middle of the road and share that road with cars, bikes and pedestrians.

Hill’s home was built in 1902 and has been in the family since 1975.

Laurie and Larry Clemons also attended the seminar. They’ve lived in their home for about 12 years.

“We bought the house behind us and moved our daughter and grandkids in there, so it kind of, you know, my brother and sister-in-law had the house catty-corner across the street, and my best friend had the house down the alley, so it's kind of became a little neighborhood, kind of a village-type thing,” Laurie Clemons said.

“I don’t really want to move,” Larry Clemons added. “I’m 72 years old, and I’m not looking forward. I was hoping this would be my last place.”

While St. Mary the Immaculate Conception Church isn’t on the property acquisition list, there are concerns about the tracks getting closer to the building.

“The only fear that I have with the new project is that as it comes closer to the current church. The church currently is 90 years old, and so I’m just a little concerned about the structural integrity and the vibration and what impact that that would have on the structure of the church,” Rev. Kevin Huber said.

Huber says tracks that are now just 15 to 20 feet away from the rectory door will move about 5 feet closer due to double tracking.

When the project is complete in 2024, cars and trains will still share 11th Street, although the addition of a second set of tracks will leave automobile traffic restricted to one direction in one lane.

Double tracking is designed to cut the length of a train trip between Chicago and destinations in northwest Indiana.