Culver

Come to Culver. We have too much stuff!

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Culver Storage

Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to give you community insight. I was having a conversation with a new friend that has acquired several properties in Culver, but isn’t as full time resident. He commented that we have storage facilities at all the entrances to Culver. It was kind of a light bulb moment for me. If you come from the north, there’s Culver Storage near the intersection of 10 & 17. If you come from the west, there’s Culver Storage Solutions at the end of Jefferson Street. If you come from the South, you have the new Executive Storage at the end of South Main Street. We have two marinas with large boat storage facilities. At a recent Redevelopment Commission meeting, a member was complaining that some of the downtown commercial buildings are being used for storage in lieu of retail. We apparently have more stuff than we have garage and closet space!

Now I wouldn’t say that storage is our only above average area. For example, we also have more gymnasiums per capita than the average community. Currently Culver Community Schools has three and plans for a Fourth and Culver Academies has three… or more, depending on your definition, i.e. basketball court or not… (Microsoft Co-Pilot says Culver Academies has 6 gymnasiums.) This kind of data is interesting, but it becomes more concerning if it begins to define us.

This is just commentary, not judgement on whether this is good or bad. But it is, sometimes, valuable to have someone from the outside remind us of what we look like. Just like the Culver Community Charrette pointing out that we had a lot of field stone accents throughout town and that it was something to embrace. Since the Charrette, the Welcome to Culver sign at 10 & 17 was built with field stone, the wall at the LSD curve was covered with field stone and several residents and businesses have incorporated field stone into their landscape walls and building facades.

Field stone facade at The Paddocks

The storage observation may not be as valuable or something that we want to expand on like the fieldstone theme, but it is something notable. If it’s not something we want to be noticed, maybe we encourage landscaping, screening or buffers. There’s a huge difference in appearance and price between the functional units on the north and the premium units on the south. If somehow this is a Culver trend, how do we embrace it and make it blend into our community?

The 2040 Vision Comprehensive Plan addressed some of these things regarding how we want to be perceived. Now we just need to take some of those goals and make them happen.

Disappointing…

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The February meeting of the Culver Plan Commission has been cancelled because “there are no agenda items”… This is a missed opportunity to tackle the myriad of suggestions from the the new (last year) Comprehensive Plan.

For Example, this would have been a great opportunity to invite Donny Ritsema from MACOG to come speak about areas of the new Comprehensive Plan that fall under the plan commission’s purview. Donny lead MACOG’s group (along with Olivia Nix) that helped coordinate the comp plan steering committee, helped organize much of the public input and produced the final plan. I’m sure he could have helped define a plan of attack and weeded through what needed addressed by the Plan Commission on their own and for some things, in concert with the Town Council or other Town entities.

I would suggest that the Comprehensive Plan should be a standing agenda item for the Plan Commission as a reminder that there are things to address. When there is a pressing agenda that takes a lot of time, then it would get passed over, but when there is a short agenda or like this month, nothing coming before them from outside, then it could be picked up and moved forward. Incremental advances are better than nothing. As always, I respect that the Plan Commission members are volunteers and appreciate the time they put in. It’s often a thankless job. The comp plan items should be easy items to move forward though. Those items have already gone through community review, plan commission review and town council adoption. Now we just need to implement them.

For some of my previous thoughts on this, see my Implementing Culver’s Comprehensive Plan post.

Leroy Bean

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Leroy William Bean

Easterday Construction lost another long time employee last week. Leroy Bean worked for Easterday Construction Company for over 43 years, His funeral was last Friday and not only featured an ECC hat hanging by the casket, but his time with Easterdays was mentioned throughout the ceremony.

Leroy’s family has had an outsized connection to Easterday Construction with not only Leroy’s long legacy, but both of his grandsons, at least four of his nephews and one great nephew working for us at one time or another. Nephew Bob continues with us and has been here with a tenure rivaling Leroy’s. He also has a similar career path, moving from truck driver and laborer, to skilled trades to job superintendent today. Listening to the impact Easterday Construction had on Leroy and his immediate family was humbling. ECC has always been a family business and that extends to employees and their families as well.

Leroy Bean’s Obituary

Leroy had an outside impact on ECC and the Culver Community. Active in several local organizations while working for ECC, he continued that through his retirement. (See the adjacent obituary.) It’s obvious that not only will he be missed by his family, but also by the ECC family and the Culver community too.

We used to do a newsletter called the Easterday Parade. in volume 1, No. 6, October 1990, there was an employee profile on Leroy. Here’s the text of that profile:

Leroy William Bean has been an employee of Easterday Construction Company since 10/01/62. Nearly 20 years ago, Leroy was hired by Russell L. Easterday as a truck drive, to work and make deliveries out of the shop. He held this position working under Cubby Bair for approximately 3 years, until the office began receiving too many complaints about Leroy from the job sites. Apparently, Leroy was such a hard worker, that the superintendents wanted to keep him on site.

The Easterday Parade Logo

Leroy went from truck driver to laborer to labor foreman under Denny LaRue to Job Superintendent. The first major project placed under his control was the Saemann Building downtown in Warsaw. This was the renovation of an old building under the Historic Preservation laws in 1982 and 1984.

While on the jobs, Leroy was shortened to Roy, which is how many of us still know him. Avon Murray, an electrician that worked for ECC in the past, did this bit of editing for him. Apparently, Avon thought Leroy was too long to remember.

Leroy was born in the Chicago area on May 7th, 1941 and grew up around Culver. Margaret, Leroy’s wife was from Winamac. They were married on July 22nd, 1961. They have lived in their current residence, in the town of Culver, for the past 22 years. They have spent loads of time and energy remodeling and recently won a civic award from the Culver beautification committee. This effort is still continuing, with Leroy spending much of this summer remodeling their kitchen with new cabinets made by “Uncle Bud” Cripe.

Leroy and Margaret have two daughters, Kim and Cheryl, both in their late twenties. They have three grandchildren, Kim’s 8-year-old son, Roy Lee, Cheryl’s 6-year-old son, Mogan and 4-year-old daughter, Amy.

Implementing Culver’s Comprehensive Plan

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Culver 2024 Comprehensive Plan

I’ve mentioned several times in previous posts that I am concerned about Culver’s lack of movement on the new Comprehensive Plan. (Here and here if you want to see a few past comments.) At the December Plan Commission meeting, they set up a work session to discuss accessory dwelling units (ADUs).

During Citizen Input, I commended them for tackling the ADUs, but reminded them that was only one of a myriad of changes suggested by the Comprehensive Plan. After the 2014 Comprehensive Plan, then Council President, Ginny Munroe, immediately formed a committee that created a Strategic Action Plan (SAP) and a Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to implement key points in the plan. This fostered the creation of an entry-level housing committee that ultimately resulted in Culver achieving Stellar Community Designation. A few of the results included, 72 new housing units in the Sand Hill Farm development, the new Damore Amphitheater in the Park by the lake, the new Cavalier Park by the school and another trail extension.

Looking from the outside, the current town council has not done much to implement the new plan. The Culver Redevelopment Commission (CRC) is making some moves toward implementation, but it really needs to start with the Plan Commission and the Town Council. Many of the recommendations will require changes to the Zoning Ordinance and that is a function of the Plan Commission.

Section 5 of the 2024 Comprehensive Plan talks about implementation and includes a Priority Action Plan. While many of the recommendations require action by the Town Council, even those should be pushed by the Plan Commission as technically, the Comprehensive Plan is a Plan Commission document, adopted by them prior to adoption by the Town Council. For the ones specific to the Plan Commission, here is a short list:

  • Page 73, review the Zoning Ordinance to see where it affects plan goals negatively and what changes should be made to foster achievement of goals. Specifically, “The Zoning Ordinance can be used with the Future Development Character Map to set a vision for how land is used at the parcel level.” The Zoning Ordinance is currently being reviewed by the Town Attorney for technical problems. This appears to be putting the cart in front of the horse, as a review of proposed outcomes should have been done first as some of the things currently under review will likely change and other things will be added.
  • Page 74, “A goal of the Priority Action Plan is to update the Culver Zoning Ordinance to enable some of the goals and strategies of the Action Priority Plan (sic) to be accomplished.” Some of the Comp Plan’s proposed use changes don’t fit neatly under the existing Zoning Ordinance. This might require changes to existing districts or even the creation of a new district. This should be done in a thoughtful process and not on a whim, with a lets-see-what-happens attitude. While the Plan Commission is not responsible for creating the CIP, their deliberation on Comp Plan goals will help set priorities for the CIP. For example, the Comp Plan talks about future development in unimproved areas. The Plan Commission will need to make Zoning Ordinance changes if they want to foster that development and from that, the Town Council will need to budget (CIP) for infrastructure improvements necessary to make that development possible.
  • Page 75, Land Exaction Tools. “An impact fee is a land exaction tool the town can use to implement public infrastructure and facility (sic) projects.” Impact Fees could be part of the Zoning Ordinance. Culver is not a booming economy where development is clamoring to happen, thus impact fees are unlikely to foster what we want to see happen, nor will they solve the problem of infrastructure costs. Conversely though, they can be a tool that impedes less desirable development, and can be waived to promote desirable development. The consideration of waiving fees can be a negotiation tactic that helps mold development to Comp Plan goals. Care should be taken to not drive away development that sees the fees and doesn’t understand the system. Care should also be taken to tread lightly and not give grounds for complaints of unequal treatment.
  • Page 76, Tax Increment Financing (TIF). While this is a function of the Redevelopment Commission (CRC), the Plan Commission should be aware of where TIF districts are set up and work with the CRC to take advantage of them. I would strongly recommend that this be part of the Building Commissioners checklist and whenever new development is considered, that the CRC be notified so they can assess how it will affect existing TIF districts and if not in a TIF district, whether expansion of the TIF to include the new development is warranted. As the Building Commissioner works most closely under the Plan Commission, the Plan Commission could request this be included in his reporting to them.
  • Page 83, A, Appendix – Action Program. While the Comp Plan pulled some specific priority goals for the Plan Commission, as listed in the first three bullet points above, it also includes ALL of the goals. This was done with the recognition that Comp Plans are meant to have a life of 5-10 years and the hope is that the priority items get completed quickly. Then the Plan Commission can pick from the remaining goals to continue improvements. That said, there are already different plan commissioners from when the plan was adopted. The Plan is a living document that needs to be flexible and if the new group of plan commissioners want to tackle different thing, there is a whole list available with documented citizen support.
Future Development Character Map from Culver 2024 Comprehensive Plan

Further emphasizing the need to look at the existing Zoning Ordinance, one of the things highlighted in the Future Development Character Map, Page 58, (right) was the creation of “Entertainment Corridors”. These were designated for Lake Shore Drive, Main Street and Jefferson Street. This was an acknowledgement of Culver’s Tourist and second home resident focus. In the discussion of these corridors, the conversation revolved around walkability, mixed use (commercial/residential) and diversification of our economy for year-round attractions.

Bringing these corridors to fruition, could be handled several ways, through modifications to existing districts, creation of new districts or through some form of overlay district. All will require more in-depth analysis and some rezoning to make them happen. This mixed use focus, could allow changes preventing problems such as were created with the rezoning of 303 Main Street. There is a definition of this district on Page 59 of the Comprehensive Plan, but not to the level of a Zoning District.

The Future Development Character Plan also looks at expansion of the “Employment Center” which would be Commercial/Industrial in the current ordinance and an expansion of the “Regional Commercial” area, which would be C2 under the current ordinance. The Plan Commission should contemplate how they want to foster these community goals.

In any case, there is a lot that should be on the Plan Commissions plate and rather than letting these things languish, they should start to tackle them. If they can break these down and address them in pieces, they’ll make progress. As the old saw goes, “How do you eat an elephant? – One bite at a time…”

More thoughts on Culver Lights

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This post tangentially, convolutedly, connects to the recent Hello Darkness post on sign lights. At least it connects for me, the way my mind works…

Welcome to Culver Sign at intersection of 10 & 17

The Culver Charrette that was done in 1998 promoted the idea of continuing themes in Culver. One of them was the use of field stone. The Culver Chamber of Commerce embraced this with the field stone and limestone Welcome to Culver sign at the intersection of 10 & 17 as well as covering the wall at the Lake Shore Drive curve across from The Original Root Beer Stand with field stone. Some development in Culver has embraced this and some hasn’t, but it’s nice when it happens. Sand Hill Farm used this in the entrance sign at Jefferson Street and The Paddocks embraced it as an accent on the townhouses in that project.

Another theme that the Charrette suggested was “Utilize a uniform decorative lighting standard throughout the linkages in Town.” This was done along Lake Shore Drive and Main Street. It was continued part of the way out on Jefferson Street with the trail. It was also recommended as part of the Complete Streets discussion. (I couldn’t find the Complete Streets Ordinance on the Town of Culver website, but Kevin Danti, Town Manager, was kind enough to share a copy with me.)

While the lights were installed to follow the bike and walking trail out Jefferson Street to Sand Hill Blvd, neither the lights or complete streets designs were used in the last street Culver put in, Cavalier Drive. The lights were not used along the trail as it goes south from the downtown area of Main Street out to the Masonic Cemetery. I assume per these standards, Resolution 2018-007, Sec. 3(b), will be applied in The Dunes subdivision, though I am not privy to the negotiations on that project infrastructure. They could well have been waived as they were for Cavalier Drive.

Culver Community Charrette – 1998

I think the consistent themes suggested by the charrette, add to Culver’s character and contribute to Culver being a memorable destination. The lights are not inexpensive, but their ability to be functional and add charm should not be ignored. As with the lighted signs at the edges of town, it would be good to consider a phased spending plan that adds these fixtures to all the main entrance streets. I would also suggest that they be included along the new trails as they go through town as well, since the trails are part of Culver’s destination marketing. They would make the trails more accessible, safe, and using these lights create a more walkable scale than where there are the taller utility pole mounted fixtures.

The lights contribute to the character of Culver that sets us apart. What we locally take for granted, makes us standout to visitors…