Culver Town Council votes on Dunes Subdivision

After nearly 90 minutes of discussion, questions and answers along with a public hearing, the Culver Town Council voted on the Dunes Subdivision project Wednesday night.

The Dunes project will run along the west side of South Main Street, beginning at Davis Street, and running south past Wabash Street to the line of evergreens adjacent to the cemetery.  The project will wrap around the Culver Garden Court community on the west side of South Main Street at Tampa Street.  The developer for The Dunes is Culver Equities, LLC.  Culver Equities is managed by Alan Collins and includes landowner Wade McGee among the company stakeholders.

Current plans include 132 apartment units located in 8 buildings, 48 single-family homes with both rental and some to buy, 28 rental duplex units, and 20 senior living apartments with the possibility of an additional 73 homes.

Town Council president Bill Cleavenger opened the public dialogue and with a packed house asked comments to be limited to 3 minutes.  A total of 18 individuals made comments, discussed their concerns, voiced their support for the project, asked questions and made statements both for and against the development.  Following the public dialogue, Cleavenger asked the Dunes Project attorney Burke Richeson and Attorney Snyder to answer some of the questions which included density, access to State Road 17, rental costs, TIF funding, and capacities of the town’s water and sewer facilities.

The Culver Town Council passed a motion to accept the dedication of public right-of-ways and easements with a 3 to 2 vote.  The next motion was to approve the site plan and that also passed with a 3 to 3 vote.   Members voting against the Dunes residential development were Bill Githens and Dana Neer.  Both commented that they would be supportive if the project was reduced back to the initial plan of about 140 units.  Those in favor were Bill Cleavenger, Ginny Munroe and Sally Ricciardi.