It seems that The Dunes is not just the talk of Culver, but that has bled over into other areas of Marshall County. It came up in side conversations at the last One Marshall County meeting, which was interesting. Local Architect, Brent Martin, made the comment, “300 doors? That’s a small community.” That made me think. Most of the conversations in Culver revolve around that number being more than 25% of the current population of Culver. So Culver grows by about 20% with this addition. That number is 17% of the population of Argos. That number is 61% of the population of LaPaz. That number is less than 3% the population of Plymouth. It’s probably at least 6 times the population of Burr Oak! And yes, all these numbers assume that there is no more than one soul behind each of those 300 doors; an unlikely prospect.
But this is an unusual conversation. I don’t recall that kind of percentage being discussed when other developments have been planned. It’s more usual for there to be a discussion about jobs created, kids in school, etc. Few communities in our area would consider adding population a negative. I know the fact that The Paddocks and Sand Hill Farm Apartments was adding residents was never discussed as a percentage, though using the same fuzzy math, they added 6% to Culver’s population.
I’ve heard from multiple people how much this will change Culver. Many of these are people that moved here and undoubtedly created some change in the fabric of the town as well. When I look at the pie chart I included here, 20% doesn’t seem that large to me. Though most of us know the 80-20 rule, I doubt that this 20% will be that cohesive and organized.
But this is also why I’ve advocated for some additional urban planning input on this. I think the Town has done a reasonable good job in hiring appropriate legal representation. They have hired appropriate financial representation. Why not hire a consultant that will look at the land-use/infrastructure/social-fabric parts of this addition to the town? It would seem to be money well spent considering the amount of angst it is causing with current residents. It will never and has never been easy. Back in the dark ages when I was on the Culver Chamber of Commerce board, Eric Freeman, then Chamber President, and I joked that the unofficial motto for Culver was, “Change is bad, even if it’s Change for the Better.” That’s one thing that hasn’t changed…
Just a mini rant… I was a bit upset to find out that the September Plan Commission meeting was cancelled because there wasn’t anything on the agenda. (Per the Building Commissioner) I know it’s a mostly thankless job and that the pay is poor. ($0: They’re volunteers) I was still disappointed that the commission didn’t take the opportunity to catch up on some of the things that they don’t have time for because their meetings are usually busy. Here’s a short list off the top of my head:
That’s my short list… With a little thought, I’m sure I could double it, but there are hours and hours that could be spent related to the five thing above.
I give volunteers a lot of respect. I’m not going to come down hard on them for taking a breather. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t important things to do.
New public art has appeared at the corner of Lake Shore Drive and Ohio Street in the form of a painted fire hydrant. It appeared without any fanfare that I saw, so I’m guessing this wasn’t an approved installation! Ha! While I am not a big fan of the other Dalmatians in Town, this one makes me smile every time I drive by it.
I’m sure there are those out there that consider this defacing public property. That’s probably part of the reason that this was done with no fanfare. I had a former client that was known for saying, “It’s quicker and easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.”
Back in the day, my mother, Jackye Berger, was part of the Maxinkuckee Jr. Women’s Club (sic?) and as a bicentennial project, they painted many of the fire hydrants in Culver Red, White, and Blue with some of the more artistic members creating versions of Uncle Sam and Founding Fathers. I couldn’t find any original pictures from Culver’s past, but I found the FL version to the right, which is a pretty good representation. Obviously this was part of some national movement. Too bad it lost steam. It resulted in a lot of fire hydrants taking on patrons. Some were kept up for years, but I only know of one that still has the patriotic colors. With the exception of a few red & white ones downtown, the only one I know if that’s still Red, White and Blue is on the Millers Merry Manor property fronting on S.R. 10. (See below)
The Culver Crossroads Committee has an Arts Committee. They are promoting art installations and things such as the various murals going up around Culver. I wonder if this kind of blast from the past could be taken under their purview as public art…
If you know of more decorated hydrants, share them in the comments!
The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men… No matter how carefully a project is planned, something may still go wrong with it. The saying is adapted from a line in “To a Mouse,” by Robert Burns: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.”
We were involved with finding a site for Culver Garden Court. It was challenging and we were pleased when Wade McGee stepped up to work with us. Those discussions began around 2010 with Culver Garden Court being completed in 2012. The picture to the right is from the “As-Built” survey of the Culver Garden Court property, dated 2-13-12.
One of the things included in the negotiation was a provision for ongoing and future access to the remainder of Mr. McGee’s property. The quality of PDFs 12 years ago wasn’t what it is now, so this may be a little hard to see. Squint and imagine… I’ll fill in the gaps.
From North to South, Culver Garden Court is across from Tampa Street, an improved alley and Batabano Street. Since we were carving out a new lot and creating a 2 lot subdivision, we set the north property line of Culver Garden Court in line with the centerline of Tampa Street. Then we provided a 50′ wide ingress/egress easement along the north property line. There were extensive discussions with the Plan Commission and Town Council about this. Even though this put the drive of Culver Garden Court off center from Tampa Street, it would be low traffic and not an issues. It was more important to give Mr. McGee the ability to line up with Tampa Street with any future development. The ingress/egress easement would effectively allow Right-of-Way for a future street extension. Until that time, we extended the Culver Garden Court drive to the west property line for Mr. McGee to use for property access.
Given the above, I was a bit surprised to see the plans for The Dunes showing “West Tampa Street” adjacent to the Culver Garden Court Drive. This seems to be the WORST of both worlds. Now we’ll have a misaligned Street right next to a driveway. On those odd occasions where someone is sitting at the West Tampa Street stop sign and someone is sitting waiting to come out of Culver Garden Court… who has the right of way? If they’re turning, they won’t be able to see the signal when it’s on the opposite side of the car. So many issues…
I am not looped in on these things. All I’ve seen is what’s presented in public meetings. The plan to the right is not the current plan, but the most recent plan I saw, presented at the Town Council meeting on August 22nd, still shows the misalignment of Tampa Street.
As I’ve stated here before, I don’t particularly have any issues with this project; Towns are either growing or dying, so better to grow. But it is a bit frustrating when the planning of the past is ignored. I don’t fault the developer of The Dunes for this. This is clearly a Town of Culver issue. The extension of Tampa Street needs to be re-evaluated and correct alignment should be pursued. And as stated here, a fix for the South Main Street/Davis Street intersection should be considered. It’s particularly frustrating to be serving on the current comprehensive plan steering committee and see the previous comprehensive plan ignored. (Ignored may be a strong word, since as previously stated, I’m not looped in, but it seems that way.)
Plans are just plans. Plans can and often have to change. That doesn’t mean the time and effort put into past plans should be disregarded without proper consideration.
Urban Planner
October 9, 2023
Kevin Berger
Commentary, Culver
Community, Culver, government, Planning, The Dunes, Trends
Riffing off my last post, here are a few things that I think an Urban Planner or similar professional can bring to the table… In the vein of my post, “Culver Needs an Infrastructure Czar”, an Urban Planner could step back and take a holistic approach on how this affects Culver now and into the future making sure we aren’t making another two steps forward, one step back mistake. I’ve broken these things up into major headings for some organization:
Infrastructure
in-fra-struc-ture – /ˈinfrəˌstrək(t)SHər/ – the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g. buildings, roads, power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.
Aesthetics
aes-thet-ics – /esˈTHediks/ – a set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in art.
Culture
cul-ture – /ˈkəlCHər/ – the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular social group.
I feel that an outside eye is needed here. I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface of things that should be considered. Someone (or firm) that has worked with communities like ours and has experience in this type of change to smaller towns. Just like the funds being expended on outside legal advice and outside financial advice, this is place where we could benefit from planning advice. I think it could go a long way to making things better.
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