The Town of Culver is preparing to annex several acres of land following a voluntary petition filed by the landowner.
Annexation was considered during Tuesday night’s Town Council meeting where the 13 acres is concerned. The land is situated in the 500 block of West Jefferson Street in Culver. The town now has a lengthy process to undergo prior to finalization.
The state of Indiana recently altered rules surrounding annexation. Culver Town Manager Jonathan Leist says there is another parcel to be annexed, but the state-level changes created some difficulties for the town.
“It didn’t have a 1/8th border if you took the whole property,” says Leist. “So dividing it in half got it to that 1/8th.”
Previous annexation discussions have addressed similar regulatory concerns in the recent past when Culver considered annexing land to the town’s Northwest.
The ordinance was on first reading, Tuesday night. Before heading to a third and final reading, annexation of the land must be cleared by several of the Town of Culver’s departments. That kicks off other steps that must also be taken such as the development of a fiscal plan to bring municipal utilities to the site of the land.
Leist says two other pieces of property are now isolated from the rest of Union Township, being surrounded by the Town of Culver.
“Ideally they would, but we wouldn’t be doing it 100-percent voluntarily at this point,” says Leist.
If everything goes to plan, annexing the land is expected to take effect on August 27th. Town Council members referred to the annexation as being part of the “Sandhill Project.”
The Culver Town Council voted to approve the annexation on first reading, unanimously.
