Tag:Zoning Ordinance
Too Tired to Fight About it Further…
Tired. Just tired. At the August 19th Plan Commission Meeting there was more discussion and a vote on revisions to the Zoning Ordinance regarding Wind Energy Conversion Systems (WECS). Type in “WECS” in the search box to the right to see past posts on this subject including the definition per the Culver Zoning Ordinance. It was obvious that the Plan Commission members were whipped on this issue, as was I. This is one that I really wish they had employed an outside consultant on. I feel that they got bogged down on details as they focused on specific WECS’s rather than making general rules that could be applied to all systems. So be it.
Culver’s Zoning Boundary: The pink area shows the current extended territorial authority. The loop outside that shows the approximate limits if the Two Mile area was granted.
The main concession they made to the crowd was broadening the “protected” area, i.e., no vertical WECS’s within 2,500 feet of the L1, P1, R1, R2, C1 or C2 Zoning Districts. This extends the ban well outside the annexed area of town and effectively bans them from our current Extended Territorial Authority in several directions. I understand why they did this considering the vocal minority and their influence on the Town Council, but I’m afraid that this will kill our chances of achieving an expansion of our Extended Territorial Authority. I will beat this poor dead horse one more time here with another example:
Wherever this new restriction extends past our current Extended Territorial Authority it has no effect, i.e., if our Extended Territorial Authority is only 1,500 feet from one of the “protected” zoning districts, the additional 1,000 feet has no effect because it is in land governed by the County’s Zoning Ordinance, not Culver’s. My feeling is that anything like this… things that add restrictions that currently do not affect land within the County’s jurisdiction… will make it difficult if not impossible to extend our authority to include that area. Many outside the jurisdiction will fight any attempt to extend Culver’s jurisdiction just on principle. Why give them ammunition for the battle?
What many in the audience fail to understand about the above scenario is that there are other issues that will affect them. While we tried to mimic the County’s A-1 district when we created Culver’s, there are things there that are allowed by Special Use Permit. This means that they have to come before the BZA for approval. If those requests are under Culver’s Extended Territorial Authority, they come to Culver’s BZA. If they are under the County’s jurisdiction, they go to the County. The property owners within Culver’s jurisdiction may not even be notified, let alone have local representation.
I don’t know if I will speak to this further at the public hearing. I respect the Plan Commission and their attempts to accommodate all inspite of themselves. And we’re all tired… Just tired…
Picture source: LolSnaps.Org
Ron Cole says…
Ron Cole
In the discussion regarding WECS’s at the Culver Plan Commission last night, Plan Commission member, Ron Cole, made a very salient comment. “Just think about satellite dishes. They used to be huge at 6 and 8 foot in diameter. Look at them now. Who knows what WECS’s will look like in the future…”
Look for another post regarding this meeting coming out this coming Friday.
Picture Source: Ron Cole’s Facebook page
What’s a WECS?
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:
Two Mile Zoning Boundary
The Marshall County Plan Director, Ralph Booker, and Marshall County Building Inspector, Chuck DeWitt, have been working on a system where all of the building permits for the County can be completed through the Marshall County website using the GIS (Graphic Information System). It has been approved by the Culver Plan Commission and was approved by the Culver Town Council at their meeting on February 12th. An issue arose where throughout the County there are multiple properties that are split between a County Zoning District and the various Municipalities’ Zoning Districts. As usual, Culver is the worst case scenario with more split properties than any other Marshall County community. This is a problem since the building permit program would like to address zoning issues in building permit applications via parcel ownership. (You can see a map showing Marshall County and the zoning boundaries of all the communities here.)
By Indiana State Statute IC 36-7-4-205, municipalities are allowed to take in contiguous unincorporated areas outside of their annexed municipal limits as extended Territorial Authority via their Comprehensive Plan. This is often referred to as the “two mile zoning boundary” as that is the maximum allowed by statute. Even though it is often referenced as the Two Mile Zoning Boundary in discussions at the Culver Plan Commission, and it is labeled that way on the map on the wall, Culver has never had the entire allowed area. In the case of municipalities such as Culver which are adjacent to lakes, the municipality is allowed to take in the lake and the property surrounding it. (See comments on the clause regarding lakes excerpted to the right.)
My understanding is the premise of this statute dates back to the growth spurt Indiana and the rest of the nation experienced after World War II. Often that growth occurred in the fringe areas around municipalities in a chaotic manner. In most cases there was no county zoning at the time, so Indiana and other states granted their municipalities the extended territorial authority to apply zoning standards to the fringe areas. This extended authority varied by state and I found examples of it extending from 1 to 4 miles outside municipal boundaries. In the case of Indiana, most counties have zoning ordinances now, but the extended boundary is still used by communities to control the area of imminent growth at their perimeter. Imminent growth around Culver is probably something that I’ll hear arguments about. In this case “imminent” needs to be judged by the life of our community, not by our short personal lifetimes. Imminent for Culver should be looked at through the lens of the future, looking forward 2o or even 50 years.
At the time the current zoning boundary was created, Culver was actually pretty progressive and was one of the first communities in Marshall County to establish a Plan Commission and a Zoning District. According to Pete Trone and Bobbie Ruhnow, my planning and zoning historical references, Culver took partial advantage of the territorial authority allowed and included Lake Maxinkuckee in its zoning district. The Plan Commission did not take in the full two miles at the time because they didn’t want to clash with the farm community. Since there was no County zoning at that time, there were no restrictions placed on the farmers outside the municipal limits. In most areas the lines were drawn along section lines or from intersections without regard for parcel lines. Thus the “problem” with the split parcels. This issue exists mainly on the west and north. Parcels were generally used to draw the line around the lake, so the east and south boundaries are clearer. You can see a detailed map of Culver’s zoning boundaries here.
Culver’s Zoning Boundary
The pink area shows the current extended authority. The loop outside that shows the approximate limits if the Two Mile area was granted.
In meetings with the Culver Plan Commission, it has been presented that the GIS system at the County is based on the parcel lines and since the zoning boundary lines around Culver do not follow parcel lines, the transitions between zoning boundaries are too difficult to determine. Admittedly, I am no expert in the nuts & bolts of the County GIS system. I am confused though how this can be such a difficult issue when the system currently shows soils maps, flood zones, etc. which bisect parcels and cross parcel lines with curvilinear representation. The current plan is being promoted as “fair” because it takes the majority of the split parcels and puts them completely under Culver jurisdiction if more than 50% is currently under Culver jurisdiction. If less than 50% is currently in Culver jurisdiction the entire parcel will be placed under Marshall County jurisdiction. While this is ostensibly “fair”, fairness is not the reason for the two mile boundary. The two mile zoning boundary is provided for by the State so that a municipality can control its destiny. Theoretically municipalities will continue to grow. Culver should plan to grow! In economic terms, communities are either growing or dying. There is no Status Quo!
Potential Culver Zoning Boundary
There area in pink is roughly drawn two miles out from radii at the extents of the Town boundary
Culver currently does not have the full two miles allowed in any direction. So why are we giving up control of any of our current area? Wouldn’t a more prudent solution to the GIS “problem” be to give all of the split parcels over to Culver’s control? While I’m not opposed to following parcel lines for convenience, I don’t think that should mean that we lose any parcel that crosses the current line. With a two mile extended authority our boundary would look more like the drawing to the right. If we take in every parcel that is split by the current boundary, we would still be well within the two mile limit. If that’s not acceptable, then I think the current boundary line should remain as is. As per my reference to the soils and flood plain layers, I think the GIS is versatile enough to illustrate those things. If there’s a discrepancy; bring it to the Plan Commission for a determination.
* Thanks to Pete Trone and Bobbie Ruhnow – both provided historical reference and valuable input to my research.
Culver Firemen’s Memorial Update
For those of you that followed my posts on the Firemen’s Memorial here and here, I hope you liked the design I suggested. (See the picture to the right.) Unfortunately, I have to report that the firemen have apparently chosen to go a different direction. At least I assume that’s what’s happening at the northeast corner of Lake Shore Drive and Slate Street… I found out about this the same way you did, i.e. I didn’t know they were going a different route until I saw it under construction.
I wish them the best as always, but it’s unfortunate they have chosen to build a less than permanent structure skinned with faux cut stone rather than following the guidance of the Culver Community Charrette as I suggested. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and time will tell as to whether this becomes the cherished landmark I intended with my design.
