Culver

Can Culver Think Outside the Box?

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I was pretty disappointed in the Culver Town Council at their last meeting where they addressed the wind turbine ordinance presented to them by the Plan Commission.  It will probably cost Culver any opportunity to expand their Extended Territorial Zoning Boundary, but as so often happens, the voice of the few has outweighed the apathy of the many.  So be it.  But that’s not what this post is about.  This post is about Water Towers!

During the above discussion, Ginny Munroe, Town Council President, expressed a comparison between wind turbines and the town water towers.  She complained that she considers the town water towers necessary evils that are blights on the Culver skyline.  But what is Culver doing about it?  Apparently nothing, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have some thoughts.  Ha!  I’m not an engineer, so I’m not saying any of these would work, but here are some ideas Culver could explore:

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Pocket Neighborhoods

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I had written a blog post a couple of years ago about Pocket Towns.  Recently Brent Martin of SRKM Architects sent me a link discussing Pocket Neighborhoods by a different architectural firm with a similar concept.  Brent alluded to this as a possible Affordable Housing solution for Culver.  As with my previous blog post, I can see this having potential in Culver and for Sand Hill Farm.  Currently there is a similar concept, though not an attempt at Affordable Housing, winding its way through a PUD approval at the Culver Plan Commission.  It is a development under consideration on the north side of town that I’m watching with interest.  The PUD framework would allow for the necessary zoning adaptations, but does require a commercial element.  I think the PUD under current consideration is stretching that concept, but technically meets it.  I think it can be done more effectively though.

I continue to think the pocket neighborhood idea is intriguing and while I do not see this working for a large development, I do see how it can be a part of a larger development and could be adapted to an Affordable Housing model.  Below is a sketch from the Pocket Neighborhood website that shows the concept.  Very interesting.

 

 

Picture sources:  Pocket Neighborhoods

Living in a Box!

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Shipping Container Home

As the song goes, “I’m Living in a Box”.  Maybe this is an answer to Culver’s Affordable Housing Crisis?  I ran across this on the Viralands site.  I’ve seen several different versions of Shipping Container Construction, many of them designed as affordable housing, including some that are multi-story which I showed here before. I think this is one of the more attractive ones though.  There are more pictures at the site here.

Currently this would not fly under Culver’s Zoning Ordinance without a variance since the square footage would be too small.  It would probably also spark a spirited discussion with the County Building Inspector since it wouldn’t fit neatly into current building codes.  It is an interesting concept though and at the stated $2,000 for a used shipping container, it would be hard to beat that price for the shell of your new home.  This would have to be some of the ultimate recycling as well, so it’s definitely green!

Picture Source:  Viralands

Warts and All

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Yei-Yei's Game Room Sign 2I haven’t been posting as often as I would like the last few weeks as I’ve been working on getting another project up in our portfolio.  (Not to mention dealing with the holidays, Will and Kathy’s retirement, etc.)  Yei-Yei’s  Game Room is a project that we’ve been working on since the summer of 2013.  We expect it to wrap up this Spring.  The project is unique.  It is an underground game room with two bowling lanes as the center piece.  The challenges of the underground structure adjacent to a lake with the associated waterproofing along with learning a plethora of bowling alley minutia were something out of the ordinary.  Anyway, I thought I would include the link to the draft here for anyone who wants to watch the creation and editing process as it goes.  I don’t want my lurkers to get bored!

I’m attempting to create some slide shows to illustrate some of the sequencing like I did with the Logansport Library page.  I did a slide show for the stairs there.  (I’m always amazed when I see how many pictures I’ve taken and yet don’t have the one I want.)  There is an issue with the program where it doesn’t like more than one slide show on a page, so I’m attempting a work-around on that.

If you go there and find errors, feel free to let me know.  I’m still considering it a draft until I put it in the portfolio link structure so you can find it from the main website menu.

Marshall County Job Growth

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Job Numbers - Pilot News 12-20-14Culver government has taken a long break over the November/December holidays.  I know the holidays are tough for scheduling meetings, we are having some changing of the guard on various boards and commissions, and we haven’t found a new Town Manager yet.  <sigh!>  Acknowledging all that, business is moving forward.  The article to the right cites “2,153 new jobs expected state wide over the next few years.”  That number doesn’t seem as big when you consider that Marshall County businesses are projecting the addition of 500 jobs THIS YEAR!  Aggressive Manufacturing Innovations (AMI) is mentioned here adding 250 jobs in 2015.  In Culver, Elkay is projected the need for 100 new employees during their tax abatement hearing last year.

Culver’s To-Do list includes the following:

  1. Complete an Action Plan.  This was discussed at the Comprehensive Plan Implementation Meeting last fall.  This would be the first step in defining steps to implement the Comprehensive Plan, which leads to To-Do list #2;
  2. Complete a Capital Improvement Plan (CIP).  This would put dollar amounts on the Action items so that things can be further prioritized and necessary funds can be budgeted.
  3. Address the Housing issue.  The Town Council made promises to Elkay that they would form a Task Force and address the issues, but so far, the Task Force has yet to meet.  I did attend the Affordable Housing Summit in Chicago which was a useful first step, but we’ve yet to have a meeting where I can relate what I learned.  (Which is fading fast in my limited memory!)

Next week the Culver Town Council will convene with the new board members, elect leadership and begin making their appointments to the subsidiary boards and commissions.  Taking the next steps to kick off the Affordable Housing Task Force and hold an Action Plan meeting can’t happen too quickly after that.  Time is of the Essence…

Image Source:  Scan from Pilot News 12-20-14