Rants
Marshall County Vision (Culver Thoughts)
I was very pleased with the turn out Saturday for MCEDC’s presentation on Marshall County Vision. There was good participation and good support. When the discussion turned to Regional Cities, I didn’t see much enthusiasm. That concerns me. Whenever I speak to anyone about Culver’s place in Regional Cities I get one of two responses (Or sometimes a combination of both.):
- We don’t have enough information to do anything yet.
- We don’t have much chance of getting any of the money. What little comes to Marshall County will go to Plymouth.
First off, we should acknowledge how fortunate we are. Out of seven regions, we were selected as one of the top three. Then it was decided to award to the top three in lieu of just the top two as originally planned. The scuttlebutt is that we were number three and And then think about Kosciusko County. They are probably kicking themselves right now. They were invited to be part of our region, but instead decided they would be better served being part of the Fort Wayne Region. Now instead of being one of four Counties dividing up $42 million they are one of thirteen!
But Marshall County and the Marshall County communities needs to get off our collective butts and start figuring out how we can benefit from this. We are starting out at a disadvantage. The other two Counties in our region, St. Joseph and Elkhart, have dedicated staff that are working on this. The cities of South Bend, Mishawaka and Elkhart have City Engineers that they can dedicate to this. Marshall County doesn’t have the equivalent staff put on this. We’re going to have to overcome that in order to move things forward if we don’t want negative attitude #2 above to come to fruition.
As far as the lack of information goes, everyone in the three winning regions is in the same boat. Are they just sitting and waiting? The Fort Wayne region has CEDIT. (Remember how we’re one of the few counties in northern Indiana that doesn’t have CEDIT?) They are down at the State House lobbying for the ability to raise their CEDIT in order to have the extra funds needed to fully fund their matching $42 million. It doesn’t sound like they’re sitting on the sidelines waiting for more information…
My thought process is that “planning” costs very little. The County needs to convene a meeting with the communities and work through prioritizing their projects. Rather than working on these tasks individually, we can maybe pool resources and make the most of what we have. Additional “shell buildings” are included for several communities. How about we sit down and look at Plymouth’s shell building as a model. Do we want to duplicate that? Probably not. So what do we want to change? We can talk to land owners and try and tie down sites. We can get contractor estimates. None of that costs money, but any of that time spent now would move things ahead. Ditto for the Entrepreneurial Hubs. We could be determining locations. Talking to other communities that have them and figuring out the good and bad. Getting contractor estimates. This thinking could apply to all of the projects on the original submittal.
Culver is on the list for both of the above items plus a few more. Jerry Chavez and MCEDC thinks Culver may have the best opportunities to advance these things. Opportunity is knocking. Or as Jerry is fond of saying, “The economic development train is passing right by us. It’s our obligation to flag down that train. It’s not going to stop here of it’s own volition.”
State of the Union – Two Empty Seats
I wrote about my distaste for the State of the Union address last year at this time in a post here. This year is shaping up to be no less the embarrassing spectacle. Listening to the Sunday morning news shows yesterday, I heard that President Obama is planning to leave two seats empty, to which I say, “Good Start!” Maybe if they were all empty this sham would be recognized for what it is and it would be the last one we had to endure.
The quote to the right is from an article by Kevin D. Williamson, written for the National Review, titled Great Caesar’s Ghost. If you’re interested in reading it, I’ve linked it here. It’s a couple of years old, but still worthwhile.
Extra Territorial Boundary Update
There has been some recent debate about Building Permit Fees in Culver. Two things have prompted this: The first being the new County Online Building Permit system and the second being the low reimbursement fee Culver pays the County Building Inspector.
Culver has a Building Commissioner to review zoning requirements and issue building permits. Our Building Commissioner does not have the proper certifications to do building inspections so we have relied on the County Building Inspector to do building inspections. Several years ago a fee to the County of $50 per permit was set for projects that required building inspections. Building inspections are required on any construction involving new or changes to structural, mechanical or electrical systems. Since that time, some of the larger home projects and commercial projects at Culver Academies have resulted in multiple trips (sometimes dozens) by the County Inspector. Obviously the $50 fee did not cover the costs. The County came to Culver asking for several revisions to the way Culver issues permits so as to bring the fees in line with the County fees and to make it more standardized so that the building permit process could be automated across the entire county.
For various reasons, Culver has chosen to not just raise the fees to cover the additional expenses, but to jump the fees well above those in the County and surrounding area. Where the County has a flat fee for a commercial building, Culver has a fee based on square footage and value which could easily double or quadruple the fee the same building would cost in the county. The same applies to residential projects. This is hard to justify within the Town limits, but almost impossible to justify in the Extra Territorial Boundary where there are no municipal utilities, roads or other services.
As discussed here before, I thought it was in Culver’s best interest to expand their Extra Territorial Boundary to the maximum allowed by law. I fought it when the Town gave up areas due to the new County Online Permitting. I gave up the fight when Culver didn’t follow the County’s Wind Turbine Ordinance for the Extra Territorial Boundary. (Too Tired to Fight About it Further…) Now this latest overreach could jeopardize the Extra Territorial Boundary we currently have. If the County feels the Town is taking advantage of landowners in the Extra Territorial Boundary, they could rescind Culver’s control over this area. Instead of providing a service this could be considered a case of taxation without representation.
This issue will be before the Town Council tomorrow night. It has already been before the Plan Commission where it was passed. I will probably not speak tomorrow night since I already did at the Plan Commission. My points there were the following:
- The fees aren’t justified. While Culver should be able to recoup costs involved with having a Building Commissioner and the costs to reimburse the County for the time spent by the Building Commissioner, Building Permit fees should not be a money making venture. The arguments I’ve heard that the Contractors will just pass on these costs to the owners and in the case of large commercial customers and Lake homeowners that “They can afford it.” don’t justify it. Building Permit fees are supposed to be a fee for services, not an admittance fee.
- It seems ironic that Culver has formed an Entry Level Housing Task Force charged with trying to bring some affordable housing to Culver while they contemplate raising fees on building construction. Granted, the building permit fee is a small percentage of the cost of a new home, but so is the water tap fee and the sewer tap fee and the stormwater control requirements and the green space requirements, etc., etc., etc. All of those small percentages that the Town increases are on top of all the new Building Code requirements and other impact fees that affect the cost of a home. I’m not saying that any of these aren’t necessary or don’t make the home better, but they all contribute to pushing the cost of a home out of reach of the average young family in Culver.
It will be an interesting meeting tomorrow night. I understand the troops have been rallied against this. I think what started as a reasonable response to outside costs have taken an unfortunate turn. We’ll see how it shakes out.
Picture Source: colliergov.net
Comic Source: studious-catz.com
Entry Level Housing Update
Jeff Kenney’s Culver Citizen article on the Entry Level Housing decision by the Town Council popped up on The Pilot News website over the weekend. (You can find The Pilot News version here or the Culver Citizen version in a previous post here.) Unfortunately in the interim, the Council rescinded the decision to move forward this year and instead chose to delay our application until next year. Thus like the wispy home I’ve shown multiple times in the past (see left), affordable housing in Culver has slipped from our grasp until at least 2017. (Wow, that was one of the sappiest sentences I’ve written in a long time!)
I can’t help but be frustrated by this. First because we had been working towards the grant deadline of November 2nd for the last 9 months. Second, after the decision on September 22nd (the meeting in the Citizen article) I was asked to rush around to get the necessary items lined up which included a special Culver BZA Hearing and a tax abatement hearing with the County Council. Both of which had been arranged prior to finding out that the plug had been pulled. (The final piece was completed at 4:55 against a 5:00 deadline. No stress there!)
The abatement hearing has been cancelled. The developer has been told to cool his heels. No follow-up meeting for the Entry Level Housing Task Force has been scheduled. The only thing that is continuing forward is the BZA Hearing. If the BZA is still willing, I plan to go ahead with that hearing. I am thinking that it can’t hurt to vet the location ahead of time. All the neighboring property owners have been alerted.
I hope our development partner hangs with us. I hope we don’t lose opportunities with our target audiences. I hope the grant availability is there next year. I hope the County Council is still supportive next year. I hope any changes in the Council following the election doesn’t realign the will of our leadership. I hope the subsequent changes in the appointed boards and commissions doesn’t change their will to move forward. That’s six “hopes” we now have in trade for the momentum we previously had. Let me throw in one more for lucky seven and say I hope all this works out.
Image Source: www.homeloanstoday.com
Image Source: Unknown (found on Pinterest)
