Culver

What’s a WECS?

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Depiction of the large scale WECS’s that the Concerned Citizens protested at the County Level

Representatives from the Concerned Property Owners of Marshall County requested that Culver change their zoning ordinance regarding WECS’s and as a result, the Culver Plan Commission held a Public Hearing on an ordinance change at their August 2013 meeting.   (WECS is the acronym for Wind Energy Conversion Systems and applies to any device that takes wind energy and converts it to usable forms of energy.)  The initial request was for Culver to match the County’s zoning requirements which currently bans commercial WECS’s and allows residential systems with a Special Use Permit in selective zoning districts.  Unfortunately audience members requested that the ordinance be tweaked to further restrict residential systems as well.  At that time I spoke up and reminded the Plan Commission that they had recently created an A1 – Agricultural District with the intention of mirroring Marshall County’s A1 district.  This was done to eliminate discrepancy protests to extending our Territorial Authority.   The Commission agreed with my argument but still had some reservation so they decided to table the issue.

At the September Culver Plan Commission meeting the topic came up again. Russ Mason, Building Commissioner, had conversations with some farmers and had made some minor tweaks to the height restrictions for WECS’s.  Audience members also spoke up and protested the allowance of WECS’s in residential areas even under the special use requirements.  I again spoke up with two points:

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Marshall County Economic Development For the Future (cont.)

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Last Wednesday I attended the third MCEDC Economic Development For the Future Meeting at Swan Lake.  Culver was represented at this meeting by Bill Githens, Dave Schoeff and Ginny Munroe.  This meeting had a “report card” kind of feel.  In the previous two meetings we talked about what MCEDC needed in order to help the communities and about a list of goals for each of the communities.  At this meeting we listed all of those goals along with all of the associated action steps on poster boards and asked the communities to report on their progress.  All of them were able to point to some of the good things they have done and areas where work was needed.  A couple even added additional goals to their list.

Culver Objectives 8-13Culver’s list was one of the longest, but that is partly due to me being an activist, as you can see from my comp plan map   The Culver list is shown at the right and you can blow it up to see what is on it (feel free to step up and accomplish anything on there you would like to!)

This meeting was the first that Ginny had attended and it was interesting to hear her comments on how it energized her. Seeing how other community representatives were stepping up and taking ownership on projects was an important goal for MCEDC in these meetings. We hope to instill some civic pride and civic competition and we seem to be achieving some success.

We have already scheduled a follow up meeting for the fourth quarter of 2013 and hope to build on the successes we have seen so far.  This program is already paying back with some exciting dividends.

Affordable Housing

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On Saturday, I sat in on another focus group meeting on the Culver Comprehensive Plan.  This one was specific to the Lake Maxinkuckee Environmental Council and Fund.  It was a fairly good discussion and several achievable goals were added to the consultant’s list for the plan.  I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more discussion about why goals from the previous plan weren’t met and how to achieve that, but overall I thought it was positive.

The Dream of “Affordable Housing”

As with every single Culver meeting on the Comprehensive Plan that I’ve attended, the subject of affordable housing came up.  This is such a nebulous term that is thrown around with people at the table talking about houses currently available in town for $70,000, others talking about the $125,000 to $250,000 range and also the eco-friendly housing project that has been floated around which is looking at the $250,000 range.  To help me get a handle on it, I asked a banker friend to break it down.  (This is all in big fat round numbers, so don’t get too picky on my math, please!)

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Comp Plan Mapping Tool

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My map
Kevin’s map

If you haven’t done so yet, check out the mapping tool at the Culver Comprehensive Plan site here.  The one I did (see right)  looks like it’s pretty diseased!  Others have done them and only put one or two things on there that were of most importance to them.

Each dot and symbol on the map to the right has a different meaning and text associated with it.  If you go to the site, you can look at any of the maps that have been created by others and read the comments they have made.  Make your own map.  If all you do is reiterate what someone else has said, you will add weight to that issue.  If you have specific goals or comments, this is the place to get them heard.  Developing a new Comprehensive Plan is a team sport.  Get on the team!

Donated Roofing

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Culver LIttle League Dugout with "Easterday Green" Metal Roof
Culver LIttle League Dugout with “Easterday Green” Metal Roof

If you haven’t noticed, the Culver Little League has new dugouts.  Last week we donated some Butler Manufacturing Company VSR roof panels for the project.  This is a commercial standing seam roof panel, though the volunteers basically installed it as a simple screw down.  It still looks pretty good and it’s Easterday Green!  Ha!  The panels have a 70% Kynar finish so they should give them years of service.  We were pleased to be able to donate this material to the little league.  We have been supporters for decades.