The Culver Town Council has taken the first steps toward changing the community’s zoning ordinance.
During Tuesday night’s Town Council meeting, an ordinance amendment was proposed making a few immediate changes to the ordinance. The Culver Plan Commission has worked for months through a committee to update Culver’s zoning ordinance.
Building Commissioner Russ Mason says the committee’s work is ongoing.
“Their intent is to go through the whole ordinance and look at it and reformat it so its more standardized like other towns in the county are,” says Mason.
A few immediate changes were required before the entire ordinance is replaced with a new ordinance, mostly to eliminate liability risk.
The Culver Town Council considered some changes to definitions, but also considered a change to the planning process. A technical review committee is being setup to manage construction, drainage, and aesthetic concerns before engineering plans for any development reach the plan commission. Following approval by those two bodies, any development would then go to the Culver Town Council for final approval.
The Town of Culver started the process to update its zoning ordinance – which is six years old – and to improve a few of the benefits of an updated ordinance, including making the document easier to understand and more searchable.
Town Council President Ginny Bess Munroe says she likes the idea of the technical review committee.
“I like the idea of the technical review committee because you’re going to answer questions for us, or have done some of the work of figuring out the issues before it ever gets to the point of presentation because I always feel that’s what’s lacking,” says Munroe.
Those involved with the process expect replacing the full ordinance will take months.
The Culver Town Council approved the ordinance amendment Tuesday night on first reading. It will come back for final approval in the coming meetings.
