Tag:Neighborhoods
Culver’s Matrix
No, Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are not dodging slow-motion bullets on the streets of Culver ala The Matrix. It’s nothing that exciting. The matrix I’m referring to is the one that appears in Chapter 3, Section 3.0 – Authorized Uses in the Culver Zoning Ordiance. It was the topic of discussion at the last Zoning Ordinance Review Committee Meeting on January 21, 2009.
The Zoning Ordinance matrix specifies the district in which a defined property use is allowed. Just to pick the first one from the list, “Apartment Units” are allowed in the R-2, C-1 & C-2 districts as well as by Special Use in the S-1 and L-1 districts if specifically approved by the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA). The matrix was set up as the first line of defense against district creep and spot zoning, which are considered bad things in Zoning Ordinances such as ours and the ones ours was patterned after. Under our ordinance, where often R-2 is adjacent to R-1, you can have an apartment building (R-2 use) adjacent to a single family home (R-1 or R-2 use), but if that apartment building would want to expand across that line, they would need to go through public hearings at the Plan Commission and then at the Town Council in order to rezone the property to R-2. This can be a tedious process and with the required advertising and required number of meetings generally takes 4-6 months.
Sand Hill Farm – Front Porch
The New Urbanism movement has mourned the loss of the front porch for some time. Part of the premise of this is that the rise of the car, caused the demise of the porch. Older homes in older neighborhoods were close to the sidewalk and a front porch was a place to sit and talk to your neighbors as they walked by. Subdivisions of the seventies began moving the home away from the street, added a long driveway where cars could park and the porch shrank to be nothing but a stoop where guests stood waiting to be allowed entrance to the home. Large wrap around porches were replaced with double garage doors as a main feature on the front of the home. The car as your way out of the neighborhood became more important than the porch as a connection to the neighborhood.
