Culver

Culver Garden Court – Rezoning

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The Plan Commission met on its regular third Tuesday night last month.  Rezoning the newly annexed properties on the south side of Culver was on the agenda.  Unfortunately, they did not have a quorum.  The meeting was rescheduled for the following Monday (Monday of last week) and the hearing was held then. I was unable to attend the hearing as I had a scheduling conflict.  I sent a letter of support (see it here) and I understand the rezoning was passed without remonstration.
 
I was a little surprised that the Plan Commission did not follow the Comprehensive Plan recommendations which I would have interpreted to suggest this area should have been zoned R-2.  The Plan Commission did zone the northern third, which included the McGee Property and the newly subdivided Garden Court Parcel to R-2 as per the agreement with Mr. McGee, but the remaining 2/3rds were zoned R-1.  My letter cited various references in the Comp Plan, but my source on the Plan Commission said that the property owners in that section preferred R-1.
 
Unfortunately, I think this may have been a lack of understanding or foresight on their part.  The basic difference between the two zonings is the density requirements and the allowance for multi-family development under R-2.  There is very little that can be done under R-1 that can’t be done under R-2.  (See the Use Matrix in the Zoning Ordinance here).
 
A continuing theme in the Comp Plan is affordable housing.  The Comp Plan is extremely dated as it was completed over 10 years ago and the housing issue has not been corrected in the past decade.  Allowing higher densities in housing is one way that housing can be made more affordable.  Higher densities are also a goal of the green movement as it promotes more efficient use of land and infrastructure.
 
In any case, I’m pleased to see that the Plan Commission has taken the steps to upgrade the zoning in this area and plan for future development. The Town Council has taken steps to extend water and sewer to the northern third of this area.  That project will be underway this Spring and was necessary for the construction of the Culver Garden Court.  I think this is a positive step for the area and may be the first step towards seeing additional housing starts in Culver.

Happy Birthday to Bob Cooper

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Bob is celebrating a Birthday today.  He informed me today that as of this Birthday, he has been with Easterday Construction as long as he hasn’t!  Ha!  Bob has been a Superintendent for us for nearly a decade and an employee for much longer than that.  I count on him for his expertice in several fields.  Not only that, but he has been with Easterday Construction longer than I have so he knows where a lot of things are hidden.  (Easterday’s has been here since the 1920’s, so even Bob doesn’t know where everything is.  Four generations of pack rats have accumulated a lot.) 

Bob was the mystery Citizen in the Culver Citizen last week.  He’s pretty easy to recognize.  He is the third Easterday Construction employee (that I know of) to be featured.  I’ve been featured twice and Leroy Bean made an appearance as well.  (If there is another former employee that has appeared that you know of, let me know.)

Congratulations to Andrea Cook and The Midas Center

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Picture from Midas Center Reception
Attendees at The Midas Center Reception (Left to Right: Bob Wagner, Brent Martin, Kevin Berger and Marcy EckoffWagner

Congratulations to Andrea Cook and The Midas Center  on their move to their new location at 200 North Michigan Street in Plymouth.  I attended their Reception on December 17th and it was interesting to see their progress and the various people, some of them old friends, that are involved and were there to help them.

I initially connected to Andrea through her position on the Culver Redevelopment Commission.  She has become quite active in the Culver and Plymouth Communities through her business at The Midas Center as well as her two community promotion sites, iHEARTplymouth and iHEARTculver.  I have consulted with Andrea and her husband Phil on the status of the historic building they have purchased and we are working with them on a restoration project at the site.

Culver Garden Court/Bureaucracy Rant

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It seems that a day doesn’t go by that I don’t get asked about the status of the Culver Garden Court Project.  I’m not sure why I should expect this phase of the project to go any smoother since it took years of promoting the project before finding a generous property owner willing to work with Garden Court for a site.  Now that we have a site and the Town is behind the project and HUD has approved the funding, we have hit another wall of bureaucracy.

It is particularly frustrating when President Obama has been talking about expediting shovel-ready projects for the past two years.  Is this how you expedite a project???

Time line:

July 2010 – Project Funding Announced:  Generally on past projects the funding is determined and announced in the Spring, often in time for us to have an early to mid-summer start.  This year the announcement was delayed until late July.

August 1st– Garden Court, Easterday Construction and B.A. Martin Architects meet to discuss finalizing plans.   Garden Court attorney applies for the 501(c)3 status with the IRS.  (HUD requires that each Garden Court be its own, separate, 501(c)3 non-profit entity.)

August 15 – Plans complete and sent out for bid.

September 1 – Prices in.  Budget met.  Easterday Construction is ready to go!  No 501(c)3 status.  Can’t close on property.

September 15 – HUD would REALLY like to have this project close before their year end of September 30th.  Can they help expedite the 501(c)3 approval with the IRS?  No.

September 30 – HUD year end passes.  No 501(c)3 status.  Project can’t close.

October 31 – Another month passed.  No 501(c)3 status.  Project can’t close.

November 30 – Another month passed.  No 501(c)3 status.  Project can’t close. 

December 10 – We had been nursing hopes of still starting but Winter hits with a vengeance.  Even with a closing, we would not be able to start, but… No 501(c)3 status.  Project can’t close. 

Present – As of this time, nothing has changed.

This project is not funded with “stimulus” money.  This project falls under HUD’s regular budget.  Washington is talking about expediting projects and they can’t even get their regular projects out the door in a timely fashion!  Is it any wonder that stimulus money remains unspent 2+ years after it was budgeted?

There are a lot of good people involved with Garden Court Projects.  The people at the local level are extremely dedicated to making these projects above and beyond the norm and the genuinely care about their elderly clientele.  The Open House for the LaPaz Garden Court we just finished was heartwarming as usual, seeing all of those involved come together in the celebration of a new facility.  The new residents were there to help celebrate and seemed thrilled with their new home.  And it is a home.  Garden Court strives to make it so.

My understanding is that the initial hold up with HUD’s funding was not at the local (Indianapolis) level.  The people at HUD in Indy have been wonderful to work with on the last couple of projects.  They seem to particularly like Garden Court projects and make a point to introducing the Garden Court representatives to their superiors at HUD when we are there for closings.  Our site inspector for LaPaz Garden Court, Vera Atha, was knowledgeable and showed genuine interest in how the final product would serve the elderly residents.  This hasn’t always been the case and it was refreshing!  We were pleased to hear that we will be working with her again on the Culver project.

The hold up with the IRS is puzzling.  As mentioned above, every one of the Garden Court properties is its own 501(c)3 corporation , so this isn’t something new nor is it an unfamiliar entity making the request.  The Garden Court attorney has done this in the past, so there should be no issues with paperwork.  To the best of my knowledge there hasn’t even been a request for additional information.  We are assuming that now that we are into the holidays, it is unlikely that there will be any movement on this until after the first of the year.

To repeat, President Obama wants to expedite shovel-ready projects!  How much more shovel-ready can you get???  To paraphrase the MasterCard Commercials:

  1. Project Funding in place?  Check!
  2. Property under contract?  Check!
  3. Plans complete?  Check!
  4. Municipality requirements met?  Check!
  5. Budget met? Check!
  6. Contractor ready to start?  Check and double CHECK!
  7. One piece of paper from the IRS that is currently holding up the entire project?  PRICELESS!

Complete Streets

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H.B. 1182, legislation defining Complete Streets for Indiana streets and highways, passed the Indiana House but didn’t make it through the Senate earlier this year.  This Bill followed a national trend to look at streets in a more holistic fashion, taking into account pedestrians, bicycles and public transportation, rather than just the minimalist approach of expediting the transit of cars from point A to point B.  The Complete Streets ideal also looks at issues concerning stormwater control and optimizaton of pavement.

Culver recently received a grant for renovations to Main Street as it runs through the downtown business district.  My understanding is that plans are underway to facilitate these improvements.  I spoke to Town Manager, Michael Doss, and he did not believe that the Complete Streets standards would apply.  (That was shortly after the grant was obtained and now his remarks appear sage-like as the legislation failed to move forward.)  Some of the proposed standards may be of value though and hopefully will be considered by the designer.  Improvements that make the downtown business district more pedestrian and cyclist friendly should be helpful.  We also have a continuing stormwater issue in Culver that could be improved by changes to impervious surfaces in the downtown.  Corrections to the existing stormwater system as well as other infrastructure should be considered as part of this project.  It would be prudent to make sure that we’re not tearing up the new street in a couple of years to correct underlying problems.

Culver does not have a lot of new road construction planned, so opportunities to employ this type of design is limited.  Now that the review of the the Culver Zoning Ordinance is coming to a close, it might be time to revisit the Subdivision Ordinance.  That document has not been updated in decades.  The Culver Comprehensive Plan is also past due for a review.  Some of the new research and trends should be considered for implementation in our planning documents.  Even without updates to these planning documents, there is the potential for doing this type of design through PUD’s under the current ordinance –  something I would hope to accomplish with Sand Hill Farm.