The Dunes

Urban Planner

by

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.

USGS Map
  1. Existing Streets and Right of Ways – Are we planning for the additional traffic on South Main Street? I understand that this ROW will be expanded to 50′, so that’s a great first step!
  2. Existing Streets and Right of Ways – Are we addressing street alignment with existing streets that T into South Main Street? (Provisions for future street alignment was made when Garden Court was built, so Tampa Street should work.)
  3. Existing Streets and Right of Ways – Are we going to address the intersection of South Main Street and Davis Street? This is currently a dangerous intersection, which will only get works with more traffic.
  4. Existing Streets and Right of Ways – What changes in traffic patterns will result and how will they affect Davis Street, Ohio Street, Prado Street, South Main Street, Tampa Street, Tamarack Road, Wabash Street, West Shore Drive, etc.
  5. New Streets – Will they/should they align with existing streets as they meet South Main Street?
  6. New Streets – Will they/should they comply with the Complete Streets Ordinance?
  7. New Streets – Will they/should they allow for future connections to future developments, i.e. a stub street to the south in anticipation of future development on adjacent properties?
  8. New Streets – Will anything we’re planning today affect the future extension of West Shore Drive to S.R. 17 as shown in the Comprehensive Plan? Does The Dunes make this more or less appropriate.
  9. Water – Do we have sufficient water for fire sprinklers for the new apartments?
  10. Water & Sewer – It has been determined that we have capacity to add this facility, but at least with the sewer, we will be using up all of our excess capacity. Are there plans to create additional capacity for the future, i.e. What if something new is proposed that is desirable and can’t wait for a multi-year sewer plant upgrade or what if the Beste property (which is annexed, so we are required to serve it and is current for sale) initiates a new development plan?
  11. Water & Sewer – While the town and developer have determined (rightly in my opinion) that a direct street connection to S.R. 17 is not desirable, are we planning easements to extend water and sewer through The Dunes for future development to the west? That area is currently zoned Industrial and is and the area on the opposite side of S.R. 17 is slated as future industrial in the comp plan revisions. Sizing and locating those lines and that easement connection are important, though they remain best guesses.
  12. Water & Sewer – It appears to be the plan to extend water and sewer south through the new development rather than in the South Main Street Right of Way (a mistake in my opinion), so what arrangements are being made for future development to the south? Not just to the next adjacent property, but to future development on Tamarack Road and potentially down to Lost Lake? With this development and the “Toy” storage facility south of the cemetery, this is currently the edge of town seeing the most development. Are we planning appropriately to support more?
  13. Storm Water – There has not been a drainage plan shared, so all I can go by is the USGS map (above) which show this site mostly draining to the wetlands and Davis Street to the North. I would anticipate minimal issues if they use standard stormwater detention.
  14. Storm Water – The storm sewer line on Davis Street is shallow and has very low slope. Care will need to be exercised to avoid overloading this line.
  15. Storm Water – Garden Court has a detention pond that exits into a dissipation trench on the south side of the property. This was sufficient to prevent erosion and protect the farm field at the time. Provisions will be required to accommodate this if this solution is no longer appropriate. Unlike the dispute between The Riggings and Maple Ridge, this installation was approved during construction. Nevertheless, this should be accounted for in the drainage plan for The Dunes. (In my opinion, the same applied to Maple Ridge as The Riggings drainage was an existing condition.)
  16. Storm Water – There are not storm sewer inlets on the south end of South Main Street and the ones that existing on South Main Street now, drain to the line in Davis Street. Long range planning would suggest this needs to be addressed. Again, just going by the USGS, best guess is that this would drain to Lost Lake unless more extreme measures are taken. Area for some municipal detention may need to be planned.

Aesthetics

aes-thet-ics – /esˈTHediks/ – a set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in art.

  1. There have been many discussions regarding how this project will look. Garden Court cleared some of the area along the street line, but took pains to save the best of the mature trees along South Main Street. Would including a street tree plan that enhances South Main Street help with some of the concerns?
  2. There have been complaints that these will probably be (we have not seen examples) cookie cutter style houses with a minimal variety of style. This is very subjective, since some people appreciate neighborhood conformity and others do not. But including some minimal public input and input from a paid outsider (Urban Planner) may help make this more palatable.
  3. A Boulevard entrance could enhance the public face of this development and reduce the fears of existing residents. Using the easement set aside by Garden Court, there is sufficient space for this.
  4. The charrette that was completed for Culver years ago identified themes that should be considered in new developments such as the continued use of field stone. (Look at the townhouses at The Paddocks.) Has this been suggested and promoted? We literally have a Bungalow District in Culver. Has there been any suggestion that some of that theme should be continued?
  5. The landscaping will make a huge difference in how this development appears. Has there been any discussion of tree species? Sustainable Landscaping? Street Trees?

Culture

cul-ture – /ˈkəlCHər/ – the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular social group.

  1. What steps can be taken to see a rotation and integration of existing residents into this new facility? One benefit would be to free up larger homes currently occupied by empty-nesters for new families in town.
  2. What steps can be taken to integrate the new residents into the fabric of Culver? Much like Job Fairs, a Club Fair might be appropriate, introducing new residents to existing groups such as Kiwanis, Lions Club, the various Churches, etc. All of them are hungry for new members.
  3. When the two developments at Sand Hill Farm were starting out, the Visitor’s Center created baskets with things to introduce new residents to Culver. Much like the old Welcome Wagon, this was a good first step. There’s no good way to judge how successful this was, but the residents were grateful and probably found out about the offerings of local businesses that they otherwise might not have know about.
  4. One obstacle to integration is the general design of subdivisions like this. They tend to create enclaves and turn their backs to the surrounding communities. This design works and sells, but it changes things. As proposed, the new homes will have backyards facing South Main Street. The backs of these houses will be facing the fronts of their neighbors on the east side of the street. This is far from welcoming. What can be done to help with this?
  5. Are there other communities going through this kind of change that are comparable? What can we do to emulate their successes and avoid their mistakes. Carmel and Fishers have subdivisions like this going in right and left, but we’re feeling the difference of this in Culver, a rural community. How do we make this better?

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.

Scale

by

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…

Culver Plan Commission September MIA?

by

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:

  • The Comprehensive Plan – Most of the Plan Commission has not been involved in the production of the new comp plan, having delegated it to Culver Crossroads. Only one Plan Commission member has been an active Culver Crossroads participant. While the production has been delegated, passing of the plan will still fall on them and this would have been a good time to familiarize themselves with the current draft before the required public meetings. As it stands, they are going to have trouble answering public input questions, since they are not familiar with the new document or the decision making process that went into it.
  • The Solar Ordinance – They have discussed the need to move this forward quickly as the moratorium passed by the Town Council has left property owners in limbo. This would have been a good time to start assembling names of potential subcommittee members.
  • The Zoning Ordinance – We have been talking about cleaning up the mistakes from the last go around for several years. Just taking a section at a time in slow meetings would move this forward.
  • The Dunes – This too will be coming before the Plan Commission as a subdivision request. The planning for this is an important function of the commission.
    • Related to The Dunes, we are about to start the process of establishing the biggest subdivision (that I know of) since Culver established zoning in the 50’s. I don’t know when the last time the Subdivision Ordinance was updated, but it has been more than 20 years. It references old standards and doesn’t include things like the Complete Streets Ordinance, which was passed 4 or 5 years ago.
  • Beste Property – The Planned Unit Development zoning district for these parcels has been undone and the property has gone back to its previous zoning designation, S-1. There has been discussion that there should be a change to this, since the property has been annexed. The property is on the market, so giving some guidance to future buyers would be appropriate.

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.

Best Laid Plans… Culver Addition

by

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.”

Culver Garden Court

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.

Image from the last (2014)
Culver Comprehensive Plan

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.

Davis Street/South Main Street Intersection

by

In my previous post, Culver needs an Infrastructure Czar, I discussed whether The Dunes development was an opportunity to improve the Davis Street/South Main Street intersection in Culver. I flippantly said there must be at least 6 options for improving that intersection, while offering a round-about as one of them. I decided to make that a creative challenge to myself and sketched up a few additional options here with some thoughts to go along with them.

Crude round-about sketch

The original sketch of a round-about remains an interesting solution. Considering the increased traffic from The Dunes, this might be a way of calming that traffic. It also provides a better way to access the dunes rather than dumping all of those vehicles out onto the narrow street that is South Main at an offset intersection to Tampa Street. (Not only is the offset from Tampa problematic, the adjacent drive for Garden Court that runs parallel to the new street will be problematic as well.)

As stated before, this improves existing intersection issues and preserves the proposed developer units. While this doesn’t eliminate the S-curve as South Main Street transitions through Davis Street, it does lengthen it. That would make it a little safer. It brings South Ohio Street in with a cleaner connection as well. It may also encourage some of the boat trailer traffic to find alternate routes rather than coming through the downtown area.

This does take a fair amount of buffer property away from The Dunes, but the traffic calming should be a reasonable trade-off.

Option #1 – Broaden South Main S-curve

The first additional option strictly reworks Ohio/Davis/Main without any changes to The Dunes layout or proposed street connection. The main advantage to this revision is further stretching out the Main Street S-curve as it transitions though Davis Street. Davis Street would still connect on the west curve, but it’s a broader curve with better site distance. If some additional right-of-way (ROW) could be purchased from 535 South Main Street to broaden that curve too, then all the better.

This again cuts into the buffer area for The Dunes, but would not affect their marketable area. The benefit to the Town would be significant.

Option #2 Doesn’t improve the S-curve, but it does eliminate the west connection between Davis Street and South Main Street. This brings South Ohio Street further south and connects into South Main Street south of the S-curve. This would provide a cleaner intersection.

Option #2 – Extend South Ohio Street

The pavement for Davis Street from South Main Street could be removed, but the ROW would need to remain for the water, sewer and storm lines that pass through there. This issue will be the same on any realignment of South Main Street. There may need to be enlarged ROW to accommodate the existing utilities, but the pavement could be removed and the areas could be landscaped. There would be private utilities, such as electric, gas, phone & cable to consider as well.

Again, if some additional right-of-way (ROW) could be purchased from 535 South Main Street to broaden that curve as shown in the previous option, then the S-curve could be improved as well.

Option #3 – Extend South Ohio Street to Prado Street

Option #3 is basically Option #2 repeated, but with the extension of South Ohio Street further south, so as it is returned to connect to Main Street, it lines up with Prado Street. It is generally good practice to align intersections, but as seen throughout Culver, good practice wasn’t always followed in the past. The same comment as above regarding obtaining ROW from 535 South Main Street applies.

This option is more onerous for the developer of The Dunes, as it severely reduces the buffer they have established between the development and the streets.

The other piece of interest here is the possibility of creating a pocket park here. This has been a Comprehensive Plan goal in the last two Comp Plans and has come up as the current plan is being reviewed. This could tie into future plans the Town has for 530 South Ohio Street, the demolished restaurant site on the corner of Ohio & Davis. This would increase their options on that site.

Option #4 – Purchase 535 South Main Street

Option #4 contemplates the Town purchasing 535 South Main Street. This would allow a complete rework and softening of the South Main Street S-curve and would roll additional Town-owned property into 530 South Ohio Street increasing options. (The same curve improvement could be accomplished by purchasing 604 South Main Street, but I would perceive this as less beneficial and more disruptive. Plus it does not provide the benefit of expanding the Town’s existing property at 530 South Ohio Street.)

This could be done as part of any of the options listed above with much the same benefits. Softening that curve would make that intersection much safer and if combined with the round-about option or Option #1, it would vastly improve the traffic flow and safety in this area.

The connection to Davis Street is somewhat problematic in this option, but could be helped by narrowing Davis Street and making it one way east from South Main Street to Obispo Street. This would change traffic patterns as Davis is feeder street, but it would only directly affect three homes with driveways on this section. This would allow for additional green space between the street and trail for this section as well. This would be similar to the recent change of East Washington Street to One-Way.

Option #5, the 6th and final option in this exercise, is to just toss in 4 stops signs and put the brakes on South Main Street. While this is the least effective in any attempt to improve traffic flow, it would be the most economical and provide added safety. For those of you that say changing the existing pattern would lead to accidents, this decision was made a number of years ago at the transition from North Main Street to Lake Shore Drive. It’s not particularly ancient history when North Main Street did not have a stop sign and just “curved” into Lake Shore Drive, while Lake Shore Drive did not have a stop sign for west bound traffic at that intersection. Never an issue for locals, this peculiar pattern lead to a couple of fender benders for out-of-towners, prompting the full stop requirement for the connection of the two main drags…

The point of this exercise, as a continuation of my last post, is that there are always options that should be considered. And along with the options, there should be every effort made to discern the potential unintended consequences. This is often not best handled locally, but better done with the assistance of professionals in their respective fields.

Edit 11-15-22: Oops! It was pointed out to me that the round-about concept appeared on page 97 of the current comprehensive plan! Geez, as many times as I’ve been through that plan, you’d think I would have remembered it! (see right) This is a more elegant drawing and shows some of the benefit I suggested. It is also suggesting that the eastern curve be abandoned in favor of a three-way stop intersection with crosswalks. This was suggested before development of The Dunes property was considered, so it does not show the forth round-about connection for that street which I still think would be prudent.

Alternatively, the comp plan suggests straightening Davis Street and creating two distinct T-intersections with three-way stops in lieu of the S-curves.