Thank you Barb and Connie for your community service. Easterday Construction Co., Inc. was glad to help. On a personal note, it was fun to drive by each day and see the changes as well as to see who I might recognize out there helping. Congratulations to all involved for the successful effort.
I’ve been watching all the hullabaloo about golf carts in town. It’s obviously a State-wide issue as the legislature has taken it up and clarified things. (Is that possible?) In the case of Culver and Lake Maxinkuckee, golf carts can be used within the Town of Culver as long as they meet minimum safety requirements and are registered with the Town. This puts 3/4’s of the Lake and a large portion of the Culver Academies on the wrong side of the law when it comes to operating golf carts on public streets and highways.
The new State Law really hasn’t changed anything for the residents outside the Town. It was and remains illegal to operate golf carts on public right-a-ways. The new Law clarified the rights of Cities and Towns to license golf carts for use on their streets if they chose to to so. Culver’s Golf Cart Ordinance is available for review on the town website here.
It’s unbelievable how passionate people are on this issue! I find it somewhat unfathomable that so many people are willing to send their children out in these vehicles to compete for right-a-way with cars, trucks, SUV’s and Semi’s. I’m sure some of these same people check out Consumer’s Reports for crash test ratings before buying a car. How would a golf cart rate in a collision with a car? To paraphrase a classic movie line, “Child Restraints? We don’t need no stinkin’ child restraints!”
But that’s not why I’m typing at you today. Tongue firmly in cheek, I propose that the Culver Town Council is missing a wonderful opportunity to Annex the Lake! This has always been a divisive issue. The Town always feels that they are providing services to property owners that don’t support them through taxes. The Lake residents feel that they are already under too much Town control without representation. Are golf carts the vehicle that would allow Culver to annex the Lake? I say, “Full speed ahead!” Heck, it’s only a golf cart… What is that, like, maybe 20 mph?
At least one current Town Council Member, Lynn Overmyer, has a golf cart and uses it around town regularly. I would suggest that she run for re-election on a Golf Cart Platform. Admittedly a precarious position where she would have to balance many issues… but could this be the issue that unites the Lake, Town and Academies? I’m picturing Lance driving the cart while Lynn expounds on the virtues of community in a rousing oratory from the bag rack… like off the back of a train, Herbert Hoover style…
Personally, I think we should think big on this. Our Man Mitch would like the State to do away with the townships. Let’s be a progressive community and form our own smaller version of Indianapolis’s uni-gov by absorbing all of Union Township while we’re at it. There’s only a thin ribbon of area to the south and west between Culver’s Zoning boundary and the County Line anyway. Burr Oak and Hibbard will become suburbs! Culver will once again have train service. Our boundaries will encompass a river and a couple of additional lakes. (They’re small, but they’ll look good in the brochure text.) We’ll pick up a connection to another state highway (110) and bring us within spitting distance of State Road 8.
Oh, sure… There are naysayers that will bring up issues like water and sewer as well as police protection. Those are just details. Our Senators are voting 1,200 page bills into Law without reading them, so we shouldn’t get caught up in the details when we can vote for… wait for it… “Change”!
Oops! I slipped off my original soap box onto an adjacent one. Sorry. We were talking about golf carts. Annex the Lake! Annex the Lake!
There are lots of good reasons for pursuing additional annexation. Unfortunately, good reasons aren’t often good enough. The Town is pursuing annexation on South Main Street, but one property owner is threatening to oppose it. Why? No apparent reason. The property is already within Culver’s zoning boundary and any tax increase would be minimal since the property is undeveloped. Since part of the package is the extension of water and sewer to this area, the annexation would only enhance the property and increase the value. Apparently those aren’t things worth consideration.
Towns are either growing or dying. There is no staying the same. Culver needs to plan for growth and pursue it diligently. The golf cart debate is kind of silly. Annexing the Lake should remain on the table for consideration.
Water conservation is not a huge issue in our area, but we’re hearing about it more and more on a national level. California Governer Scharzeneggar declared a goal of a 20 percent reduction in water use state-wide by 2012. California currently purchases water from Arizona, but with the continual development expansion in Arizona, particularly in arid areas such as Pheonix, the need for fresh water is a growing issue in the Southwest. How does that affect us in Northern Indiana?
Pocket Towns (copyrighted) are a concept I ran across in an article in the January 2009 issue of Professional Builder Magazine. (Read Article Here.) They are high density housing on smaller lots (less than 3000 sf). The homes are pushed to the front and have as little as 5′ side setbacks. Living space varies from 950 sf to 2400 sf with a mix of one and two story homes. Read more about them on BSB’s website here.
Becky and I were in Tampa a couple of weeks ago. Becky had a conference and I tagged along. I didn’t see the new pocket town neighborhood discussed in the article, but I saw some of the old Tampa neighborhoods that it was modeled after. Somewhat narrow brick streets with granite curbs.
(I’m still trying to figure out how granite curbs were affordable in central Florida at the turn of the century when there wouldn’t be a quarry within hundreds, if not a thousand miles.) At the end of the block was a library and a service station. Across that intersection were small shops and a neighborhood grocery store.
These homes were built on an alley system with no garages or off street parking on the front. Parking was allowed on one or both sides of the street, but the streets were pretty narrow when there were cars parked on both sides. Having an alley also allows for utilities to be moved to the back side of the property. Optimally they would all be buried, but that is usually cost prohibitive and rarely seen in older neighborhoods. Some of the homes had parking in the rear or even a garage accessed from the alley.
Part of the Green initiative is a move towards smaller homes and more efficient use of the landscape. The USGBC gives points toward LEED certification for efficient use of land. Notice the return of the front porch which I discussed here previously.
The streets themselves were interesting too. In our area, the recommended construction for brick streets have the streets crowned towards a concrete curb and gutter. This allows storm water to run on the concrete gutter in lieu of across the brick where the brick surface would be eroded and the sand between the brick would be washed away. Florida is so flat and sandy that very little of the water runs off anyway, so the gutter line isn’t as important. The brick streets act as a solid driving surface yet a somewhat pervious surface to absorb storm runoff.
