LMEC Watershed Stakeholders Meeting
I attended the Lake Maxinkuckee Environmental Council’s (LMEC) Stakeholders Meeting last Friday at The Railroad Depot in the Culver Town Park. Here’s the purpose of the meeting as lifted from the LMEC website:
“The LMEC has been working on updating the Lake Maxinkuckee watershed management plan since completing all of the goals possible, in late 2011. It is our intent to incorporate into the 2015 update, all the water quality data, avian research material, and invasive species information collected by LMEC since January 2005 as well as the new research data that will be supplied by the United States Geological Survey in March of 2015. We will be ready to involve the citizens of Culver and the surrounding community to collect any new goals that they may view as vital in protecting the lake and its watershed on Friday, June 26th, 2015 at the Depot beginning at 5:30 p.m. We ask everyone to join us there. LMEC will provide a general overview of the past ten years, addressing both the successes and the failures in regards to the 2005 WMP goals; then open the floor to everyone so that we may collect new information for going forward another ten years. LMEC will have a facilitator on hand to lead the meeting and ensure a smooth flow of information gathering. These goals and objectives, along with an action plan, will then be shared for final comments and published in October of 2015. Copies of the updated WMP will be disseminated to the Town of Culver, the Culver Academies’ Huffington Library, the Culver/Union Township Public Library, IDEM, and IDNR. The new WMP will function as the current WMP did, as the LMEC’s working document. It will provide us with our goals and objectives going forward, thereby allowing us to continue with our work to protect this great natural resource we have in our midst, Lake Maxinkuckee.”
Marabeth Levitt at the podium with a slide of Lake Maxinkuckee’s watershed and tributaries in the background.
The presentation was made by Kathy Clark, LMEF Executive Director; Marabeth Levett, Fund President; and Eric March, Council Member. All did a nice job and represented the organization well. The meeting was well attended with approximately 30 people in the audience. The majority of the Environmental Council was there and the Environmental Fund was represented by Marabeth and myself.
It was a good meeting, though I think it fell a little short of its intended goal – collecting new information. After the presentation there were lots of good questions and discussion, but very little input regarding new programs. I think this is less a repudiation the meeting’s success and more an endorsement of LMEC’s forethought and pursuit of what’s best for the Lake. New ideas are hard to come by when the group has run down almost all of the possibilities.
While most of the questions and concerns were ones I had heard before, it was reassuring to hear various council members speak to those issues knowledgeably and with authority. Updates were given on weed control and weed beds in Lake Maxinkuckee, Hydrilla control at Lake Manitou, Zebra Mussels cycles and the return of native freshwater mollusks, fishing status, efforts to establish eco zones and buoys set by depth rather than distance from shore to reduce turbidity. (All of which I would suggest be added to the LMEC website under an FAQ page.) Kudos to the group for handling things well.
The only area where I got a sense that the attendees felt LMEC was falling short was on education. There was a strong push for educating new lake residents as well as the various transient users of the lake. LMEC will need to reevaluate their current programs and determine if changes are warranted. Perception is reality in these cases, so the current programs should be reviewed. There was strong support for more things like the recent flashcard rings and possibly the expansion of that program to transient users.
If you’re not already a supporter of the Lake Maxinkuckee Environmental Fund and appreciate their work, there is a quick and easy link on the website where you can make a contribution here. The Fund is in the middle of their yearly fundraising and would benefit from your help.
Entry Level Housing Sample
Earlier this month Bill Hollingsworth, an Affordable Housing Developer, made a presentation to some of the key leaders involved in Culver’s Entry Level Housing Task Force. The presentation was a combination of education for the Task Force members as well as an introduction to his company and the work he has completed in this arena. He is currently working on a building rehabilitation project for an artist enclave which he was able to fit under the Affordable Housing umbrella.
As part of his presentation, he included some pictures of a new construction Affordable Housing project. I thought I would share those pictures here. The Affordable Housing moniker has some negative connotations. This helped dispel that concern with the task force.
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- Site Sign
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- Parking
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- Balconies
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- Stairs
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- Office
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- Business Center
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- Kitchen
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- Laundry
The Sand Hill Farm property is under consideration for this project. It would require a PUD zoning in order to complete a project similar to what is shown here, but I think it would be a welcome addition to Culver’s housing stock. At this point Mr. Holllingsworth has made an initial contact and has shown interest in pursuing this project. The task force is hoping to leverage this into additional market based housing as well.
Zoning Irony…
Charley Creek Inn – Proposed Expansion
I just returned from Wabash where I made a presentation to obtain a “Certificate of Appropriateness“. This was required before I could obtain a Demolition Permit necessary to remove a deteriorating old building. I was required to submit floor plans, elevations and a perspective rendering of the proposed new construction. How ironic that on the way back to the office I listened to a NPR piece on Houston, Texas where they don’t even have Zoning!
Sand Hill Farm Update
Sand Hill Farm
There have been several status changes to Sand Hill Farm this Spring. The first was the retirement of the County drainage easement through the property. It was replaced by a new easement to the Town of Culver. This was part of the agreement with the Town that saw the relocation of the storm drain from running diagonally across the property to a new location along the property line. This also included removal of a large area of brush and scrub trees which generally improved the property. The second was the inclusion of Sand Hill Farm in the talks regarding Entry Level Housing for Culver. I have served on Culver’s Task Force looking into this issue and helped with the Request For Proposals (RFP) that went out to developers earlier this month. I have been contacted by one developer who has shown interest. We shall see how it proceeds from here. The goal of the RFP is to explore opportunities to obtain an Affordable Housing project that can be parlayed into additional market rate housing through an additional portion of the property.
