Karen and Jonathan have started putting out a Stellar Update newsletter. I’ve linked the March edition here or you can click the image to the right to access a PDF. The PDF includes some active links to the minutes of past meetings and other interesting things. Also, don’t forget to follow the @CulverISstellar twitter feed to see some of what’s going on with the Stellar Committee. Currently we’re working on preparing the Letter of Intent (LOI) to get us in the running. That will be going out later this month.
If you’re interested in helping out, the Stellar Committee meets at the Town Hall on the first and Third Tuesday’s of the month at 5:30pm. This past Tuesday night we discussed the Lighter Quicker Cheaper portion of our submittal. Lots of good ideas! Some may end up becoming project regardless of how Stellar progresses.
Keep an eye out here and on Twitter for more on Stellar and how you can help.
The Sand Hill Farm project that has been discussed extensively here is part of the Stellar Communities application that Culver has submitted. I would assume most of you reading this are aware that Culver has made the first cut and is one of the three finalists for the 2016 award. As part of the public education process, an article appeared in the Pilot News (see right – The continuation of the article can be viewed here.) on yesterday. Jonathan Leist, Culver Town Manager, did a nice job describing what has brought us to this point.
The Troyer Group has completed some preliminary sketches based on my preliminary vision of phasing for the project. One of those is included in the article to the right. They have also included some preliminary sketches of the potential housing which I will share here when I get the chance.
As part of this process, I appeared before the Plan Commission in May and received their blessing on annexation of the eastern half of my property. At the following Town Council Meeting, on June 12th and formally requested voluntary annexation. They agreed to this and have begun that process. There will be a public hearing on the annexation in the near future. More on that here soon too.
As my loyal lurkers know, I got run around by the Town trying to set up a special BZA meeting to hear a Special Use request on my property. I really appreciate Dan Adams and the other BZA members making the effort to be there for me! (Jerry Chavez with MCEDC had also called some favors for a abatement hearing at the County Council as well. That got cancelled.) But… That was before the Town Council chose to pull the plug on the project for 2015.
Jonathan Leist, Town Manager, was kind enough to suggest that all I needed to do was submit a letter withdrawing the application and he would appear at the meeting for me. I didn’t think that was appropriate since I had made the request. I attended the regularly scheduled BZA meeting on the 15th to thank the BZA members for the indulgence, apologize for the withdrawal and ask whether they wanted to have the special meeting on the 22nd. After some discussion it was agreed that the meeting should proceed since it had been advertised. I agreed to attend and formally withdraw my request and answer any questions posed by the public.
There were 8 people there in the audience on the 22nd which made me nervous going in. It’s unusual for people to come out in support, so I pretty much assumed they were best case coming to hear about it or not the best, coming to protest it. Based on the comments, it was a little of both. The meeting opened and I withdrew the request, but said I was there to answer any questions. This is paraphrasing at best, but here’s what was asked and answered:
Example of apartments buildings put up by Equal Development, the developer considering working with Culver on Entry Level Housing
Will there be apartments? Yes, that is why I made the request to the BZA. Current zoning, S-1, allows single family housing, but apartments are only allowed with a Special Use variance.
Who would manage the apartments and who would make sure they didn’t deteriorate? Under the scenario currently being pursued, the apartments would be subsidized through a government program and the developer would be responsible for the apartment management. There would be State inspections to make sure they would be maintained. (I’ve included a picture of a previous complex completed by the developer to the right and there are more pictures in a previous post here.)
Would you pursue annexation? I would not pursue annexation, but I would require municipal water and sewer for the apartment project and I would assume the Town would want to annex the property at some time in return for this service. Jonathan Leist also responded: The Town would want to annex the property since it is to be served by Town utilities.
How many apartment units are planned? Initially the discussions are for 24-48 units, but there could be more depending on demand. There will also be single family homes in the development as well.
There was quite a bit of further “comment” that the apartments would deteriorate over time.
There were “comments” from one adjacent business that they would fight any annexation as it would end them. It was unclear if the annexation they would fight would be annexation of their property, my property or both… Meanwhile another business looked at it as an opportunity. (Currently my property is contiguous to Town, so if I request annexation it’s unlikely that any protests would matter.)
Eventually Dan ended the meetings as the concerns became repetitive and the points were somewhat moot considering that the BZA will probably not be involved with any of the decisions. Since plans are back up for reconsideration between now and next November, any specifics are subject to change anyway.
It was good to have the discussion and hear what some of the concerns are. Better to be prepared so we can try and address them positively before we go before the various boards and commissions again. I still think the project is positive for the Town and I don’t feel there is a downside for the neighborhood. I think after hearing some of the discussion, some of those that came for information probably agree. Others may not be so easily swayed. (Any new lurkers that are interested in reading what I’ve said on these subjects in the past can click the Sand Hill Farm tag (top of post) to see thoughts about the property or the Affordable housing tag to see discussions on affordable housing. For those of you on Twitter, if you follow @eccculver I tweet out a notice of new blog posts.
I ran across this on twitter posted from the IBJ (Indianapolis Business Journal): IU researchers say 2015 is banner year for housing sales “Home sales across the state increased more than 6 percent in the one-year stretch ending June 2015 compared with the previous 12 months. In fact, buyer demand proved so strong this summer that Hoosiers bought 9,080 existing homes in June alone—the state’s second-largest one-month sales tally in the past 12 years, according to the study.” Unfortunately, as one of the commenters states, it the data looks like it was a banner year for real estate agents, not necessarily home builders…
Granted, it is mainly talking about Indy, but some of the information is salient to the housing conversation in Culver as well.
I need to write a follow up on the BZA meeting last Thursday, but there hasn’t been enough time for me to get my thoughts in order. Suffice to say for now that it was interesting.
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.
Karen and Jonathan have started putting out a Stellar Update newsletter. I’ve linked the March edition here or you can click the image to the right to access a PDF. The PDF includes some active links to the minutes of past meetings and other interesting things. Also, don’t forget to follow the @CulverISstellar twitter feed to see some of what’s going on with the Stellar Committee. Currently we’re working on preparing the Letter of Intent (LOI) to get us in the running. That will be going out later this month.
I ran across this on twitter posted from the IBJ (Indianapolis Business Journal): 
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 
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.