Culver
Destination 2040 – Culver Comp Plan
If you recall from some of my past posts here and on Twitter, I have been encouraging Culver to update the Comprehensive Plan. I began pushing for this as we were finishing up Stellar as I thought Stellar had put in motion so much of the 2014 plan, that it was time to consider what was next. I had thought 2020 Vision for Culver was an excellent name for the Comprehensive Plan at that time. Then the pandemic disrupted all of our lives. There would have been no reasonable way to hold public input session and other things needed to move a new Comp Plan forward.
Over the past year, Culver’s Town Manager, Ginny Munroe, has created Culver Crossroads, mimicking the model of Marshall County Crossroads which successfully garnered the county Stellar designation. One of the goals with this is to keep the people in Culver that made Stellar happen, together. They are resources that can help Culver do more great things. Since planning is a big part of this, the idea of updating the Comp Plan resurfaced and is now underway with the guidance of MACOG.
One of the first things they are doing as part of public outreach is to ask community members to send a post card from the future. “Imagine you’re living in Culver in 2040, and you would like to send a post card from the future to yourself today. Use this template postcard to write a brief message or draw your vision describing what Culver looks like in 2040, what’s changed from today, and what you like to do for fun or highlight a destination places in Culver.” The postcard format is a little limiting, but it’s a good way to start people thinking and there will be plenty of opportunities to give additional input in the future. I’m more of a planning guy, so that’s where my comments went. For those of you that are interested, this is my card:
Nothing new here and some of this falls under things yet to accomplish from the 2014 Comp Plan, but they are things that I think are important and would move Culver forward with more connectivity and a more diverse economy. (Lately I’ve been accused of being negative. Others will judge that, but my intention is to be pragmatic. That said, you don’t see a lot of pragmatic cheerleaders. Ha!)
If you are interested in filling out a card, they are available at the Town Hall. I’m sure Ginny is gathering any email input she receives, so that would be another way to be heard.
Comprehensive Plans are generally updated every 5 to 15 years. Active and forward thinking communities are doing them at the low end of that scale because they’re moving things forward. Less active communities complete plans when they have to and then shelve them, never acting on them. The more participation the Town gets, the more likely they are to follow through with the plans. Be sure to step up and provide your input. This is probably only second to elections in how you are able to influence the direction of Culver for the Future. Keep an eye on the Town of Culver website as I’m sure there will be more information there soon.
Culver Crossroads
Last year Culver started a new initiative to replicate the positive steps taken by Marshall County Crossroads with a local version, Culver Crossroads. I have agreed to be involved in several capacities, serving on the Steering Committee & Business Development Committee. There’s the possibility that there will also be a Housing Committee that I would serve on as well. Housing has initially been put under Quality of Life. I’m not sure if that’s going to work or not. I agree the goals are similar, but housing may take some specific focus. In any case, another year, another committee! Lets see if we can make things better.
Lost Opportunity
This is a bit of a mini rant today. I’m not sure who it is directed at, but I’m disappointed with the Culver Redevelopment Commission (CRC) and the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC). And probably others for not making things happen and holding MCEDC accountable. For a bit of context for those that don’t know, I was one of the original board members that started MCEDC. For that reason, I feel like its creation is a bit of a legacy thing for me. That’s why I feel bad seeing it in decline over the last several years.
I was pleased when the CRC added funds to support MCEDC a few years back, though I was never a fan of the laundry list approach, where the CRC dictated a list of things that must be done in order to receive those funds. In my opinion it would be better to keep MCEDC nimble and able to address the most pressing needs across the county rather than be encumbered by enumerated requirements. (How this began is understandable, as it was the result of the former MCEDC director’s broken promises.)
This year the MCEDC director met with the CRC to discuss the contract early in the first quarter of the year. An initial conversation was had regarding what should be included with MCEDC to come back with a contract. This never happened.
This is poor performance on the part of MCEDC. An inexcusable and disrespectful performance. But unfortunately, it appears that CRC is looking at this as a cost savings, rather than a lost opportunity. While I didn’t like the way the contract was written, it did provide MCEDC with funds and Culver with MCEDC’s attention.
I’m concerned with MCEDC’s poor performance. I have seen this played out in other communities; not just Culver. I hope the MCEDC board is able to turn this around. MCEDC has been an asset to Marshall County and the communities within it. It is important that it becomes that asset again.
Trash Surrounds
A few years ago we posted pictures of this pool surround fence we saw in Wabash, IN. We liked it and decided to rework it as dumpster surrounds at Sand Hill Farm. Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery, you know… We have used this for the dumpster surround for Sand Hill Farm Apartments and then again at The Paddocks.
The original stained cedar would have been a little bit of overkill and a little too much to maintain for dumpster surrounds, so we reworked the basic design to frame it with treated lumber. We maintained the galvanized corrugated metal panels for the main screen.
In the original, as a pool surround, more care was needed for details to assure no sharp edges were exposed to the bare skin you would find around a pool. Trash dumpsters are a little more forgiving and we were mostly interested in the exterior look. We also knew that maintenance would be an issue, so we looked at reducing areas to collect debris and ways of making it easier to clean, like providing space beneath the panels.
Depending on how the wood weathers, we may or may not go back and stain the treated lumber next year. For now, it is a clean look and creates a more pleasing screen than the chain link and vinyl ribbon you see so often. The green of the treated lumber actually goes with the greens used on the buildings and the overall farm theme.
New Comp Plan for Culver
For the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to get Culver to consider a Comprehensive Plan update. There are a few reasons for this:
- It’s just good practice. Most of the time it is recommended that a town’s comprehensive plan is reviewed and updated every five years with a new one completed every ten to fifteen years. Culver’s current comp plan was completed in 2014. I really thought we should have done this in 2020 since we could have called it Culver’s 20/20 vision, but last year was, um, challenging, to say the least. I bet there would have been good Zoom participation just out of boredom though!
- Stellar… The two Stellar Strategic Action Plans that brought us Stellar designation used the 2014 comp plan as a jumping off point. (As they should have.) For that reason, most of the readily achievable goals and even a few aspirational goals have been met or at least advanced. No sense sitting our our laurels. What are the next things we need to achieve?
- Future grants will require an updated comprehensive plan. The Stellar program required a comp plan no more than five years old. Other grant opportunities may hinge on that as well. If that’s the case, a comp plan can’t be updated overnight.
- Our community has changed physically. We’ve added the housing at Sand Hill Farm. There are 72 new residences there since the last comp plan and many of those are new faces in Culver. The Maple Ridge housing was not here in 2014. More than a few infill lots have seen homes constructed, while we have lost the trailer park, the City Tavern building, the Evil Czech building and the Boetsma property has been partially destroyed by fire. We have annexed new property on the northwest side of town. We have accepted the East Shore Sewer Corporation into Culver’s wastewater system.
- Our Community leadership has changed. Ginny Munroe has stepped down from the Town Council. Her leadership in spearheading the Stellar effort was invaluable. Tammy Shaffer stepped out of town leadership after being an important part of the Town Council and Redevelopment Commission. Pete Peterson, a long time Plan Commission stalwart has retired and sadly, some community leaders like Ralph Winters have passed away… New people have stepped up to replace them and their voices need to be represented in a new comp plan.
- Building Commissioner Chuck DeWitt has asked the Plan Commission to start a monthly review of the Comprehensive Plan in advance of an update or new plan. The Plan Commission will take up a couple of chapters a month. As always, the Plan Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals are seeing new challenges to the Zoning Ordinance, which is based on the goals and aspirations of the Comprehensive Plan. We have new types of development occurring, such as the RV storage facilities planned at the end of Main Street, which will involve another annexation. These things need to be addressed in the comp plan.
Some things on my agenda?
- I was disappointed that Culver didn’t work harder to obtain our allowed 2 mile extraterritorial boundary. We were already sorely below the allowable area, but since the last comp plan, we have annexed land to the north and west and we’re about to annex land to the south. There has been no expansion of our extraterritorial boundary with this growth.
- Since I served on the previous Comprehensive Plan Committee, I have become more in tune to housing and housing needs. The video below is an example of how we could adjust our zoning requirements to allow new and different affordable housing. Should we be a bit more progressive, consider new urbanism and other non-traditional zoning options?
- Little was done to advance zoning changes to reflect the land use planning included in the last comp plan. We need to be more proactive.
- More education is needed on the use of the comp plan. (Part of this is due to the change over talked about above, so there are new people involved.) The Plan Commission has done better with it’s referencing of the comp plan, but it is still not regularly referred to by the Town Council when decisions are being made regarding infrastructure. It is still too common to see projects that address today’s needs without addressing future potential. The sewer lines at Sand Hill Farm were not extended nor at the correct depth for future growth in the area. Can we do better with the annexation and infrastructure extensions we’re getting ready to do to the south? When the (now defunct) PUD was created for housing on the west side, the comp plan’s goal of extending Academy Road to S.R. 17 was ignored. (The developer should have been required to plan for it on his property and Culver could have worked on the remaining pieces needed as development progressed in the future.)
I was pleased to hear that the Plan Commission is starting the discussion. A revised comp plan will lead to a zoning ordinance update, a new strategic plan and hopefully a new list of accomplishments for Culver to start working on. Jim Dicke once told me, “Towns are growing or dying. There is no way to remain the same.” Culver is on a growth trajectory. We need to keep that going!
