It's TOO Tall

It's too tall.

The proposed Chauncey Annex rezoning described in Ordinance #46-2025 is too tall.             

The APC describes building heights in "Block 21" of the West Lafayette Downtown Plan as anywhere from 3 to 10 stories.

Which would make this 15 story proposal somewhere between 5 and 12 stories too tall.

That's a lot.

I was surprised to see that this proposal in its current form made it onto the November 3rd. council agenda.

I would have thought that someone early on would have made clear to the developer and their attorney that this proposal was not to plan. That such a massing of buildings on State St. was not acceptable. That given the history of the controversies around downtown development the City Council was unlikely to pass such a proposal. That we have learned there is always some other project which will follow this.

Most of you will be familiar with the story. Purdue changed its business model and West Lafayette was blindsided. (It was not all that long ago that Director of Develpoment Chandler Poole was walking what was then "The Village" plotting a revival of its history.)

So, Nick Deboer, sitting in what is now Nick Schenkel's chair, would yell "the rents are too (damn) high". He argued that we needed to build as many commercial dormitories as big as we can as quickly as we can. Then I would argue, sitting for eight years in what is now Larry Leverenz's chair, that this place has little or no character and we ought to preserve what we have.

There was a compromise inside the Democratic caucus and with the Mayor as the State Street Project unfolded.

We would "go ugly early" south of State Street. Build "Trump Tower" if needed; just as long as Purdue's student pilots won't hit it!  Perhaps we would get lucky; preserve Tommy Johnston Park and then finagle some other green space.

North of Fowler, we would work to preserve a multi-generational near campus residential neighborhood.

BETWEEN STATE AND FOWLER THE BUILDINGS WOULD STEP DOWN.

The transition would allow for the Sullivan bank, Morton School, old fire station #1 and the new library to be seen. A festival space could be imagined. We would have an architectural buffer between the two residential scales. I would argue that is still desirable.

Let me also remind the council that it has shortened buildings before. The developer does have the ability to reduce the height and modify density.

Does anyone remember "Boiler Cribs"? It was set to tower over Mackey Arena on Northwestern Ave. Nobody liked that idea. It would be downsized and become The Fuse. The Muinzer Building at the corner of Northwestern and State was to loom over the Miller Building. It got smaller. A large apartment project was proposed for the corner of Northwestern (Allen St.) and West Stadium. It never happened. 

You also need to be alert to the fact that developers in every generation find some blandishment that would allow them to proceed without changing the scale of their project.

First there was the promise of some incredible ground floor retail. Then the thought was that some new construction might not be just another student dormitory, but rather up-scale apartments for the elusive young urban professionals. Most recently high rises would be built with apartments "below market value." Now we have "below market value's" cousin, the appealing promise of "affordable housing".

These are not philanthropies. So it will important to determine what index is being used, which federal programs might be involved, and what state and local incentives are anticipated to make the rent controls profitable and durable. Unless "affordable housing" means only what the developer determines to be "below market value."

Mayor Easter is certainly correct to note that building size and "affordable housing" are separate issues. One ought not to be used to extort the other.

Finally, there is also the matter of the city's reputation regarding zoning/planning. It took a hit when one administration's SK Hynix site "a" suddenly lost favor with the next administration. Is the city reliable when it comes to urban planning?

This zoning change will be back before the council in December.

It will still be too tall.


 

Prelude to ADU: 2011

 

Prelude to ADU: 2011

 

At the January 6^th. city council meeting, Zachary Baiel noted that in light of Ordinance #01-2025, which would permit accessory dwelling units (ADU) in West Lafayette, it would be useful to look at planning documents for New Chauncey from 2013. Resolution #07-2013 amended the Tippecanoe County Zoning Plan to incorporate the New Chauncey Neighborhood Plan . Ordinance #19-2013 set up The Historic Preservation Commission, as well established the boundary of the one city (versus national) historic district, New Chauncey.

 

Both are worth looking at, particularly if you are new to our city government.

 

But the debate as to whether or not a multi-class, multi-generational near campus neighborhood was tenable began in earnest in 2011. The catalyst was the (re)location of Seng-Liang Wang (“Wong”) Hall to the east side of Northwestern Ave. Originally planned for Discovery Park in Sept. 2008 (five other sites were considered), Wang Hall was moved to Northwestern Ave. across from the MSEE building and beside the Northwestern Ave. parking garage.

 

In addition to the construction of this electrical and computing engineering building, the original plan called for the demolition of the corner McDonald’s and imagined a row of town homes along Grant St. The project completion date was originally set for the fall of 2010.

The announcement of the relocated and expanded hall, plus its commercial and residential components, surprised and frightened the residents of New Chauncey and Hills & Dales. Its construction was contested.

 

Over the years Purdue’s near campus neighbors had been told that the university had no intention of ever jumping Northwestern Ave. Informally, at cocktail parties and on the golf course, senior members of the Purdue administration scoffed at the idea. Why would Purdue invade an old residential neighborhood which housed so many members of its faculty and staff? There was so much empty Purdue land to the west.

 

The Wang Hall project blew past a city request (mine) in 2009 for a land use plan for New Chauncey. Demolition had already begun (Phi Kappa Tau) by January 2011 when we learned the extent of the Purdue Research Foundation’s plans for the Hayes Triangle Project.

 

Determined neighbors lead PRF to engage a facilitator for a Wang Hall/ New Chauncey Neighborhood conversation. Under the direction of Indianapolis architect Jim Schellinger (Jim ran for governor as a Democrat, and was Secretary of Commerce for Eric Holcomb, a Republican), the process began in May of 2011.

 

Besides Schellinger and his CSO (the Wang Hall architects) staff, Chandler Poole (City Director of Development), Joe Hornett, (President of the Purdue Research Foundation), Sallie Fahey and Ryan O’Gara (Area Plan Commission), Peter Bunder (WL City Council District #2) and Carl Griffin (New Chauncey Neighborhood Association) were involved in the discussions. It was always stuffy in the Northwestern parking garage’s meeting room.

 

 

Collaboration, compromise, and understanding were the stated aims. Both Hornett and Schellinger, with connections to Notre Dame, admired the University District Development Corporation used by Notre Dame and the City of South Bend.

 

 

The target was to buy and renovate 50 existing houses. By August of 2011 by-laws for a 501(c)3 awkwardly named “New Chauncey Rebound” had been drafted by PRF. The foundation promised an initial matching grant. New Chauncey was folded into the village TIF (tax increment financing) District. This would enable some additional funding from the city RedevelopmentCommission.

 

The nascent land use plan had two initial victories. Shane O’Malley was unable to demolish 401 N. Salisbury St. Mark Munzier’s 10 story “Boiler Cribs” bumped up against this discussion, and was cut in half so as not to dwarf Mackey Arena. It became the Fuse, and won approval because of the appeal of a CVS and a Fresh Market.

 

But soon President France Cordova would be on her way out. So would Joe Hornett. So would Chandler Poole. Everybody would move on as Mitch Daniels moved in. West Lafayette annexed lands to the west in 2013. Purdue would become part of the city. There would a joint project all along State St. beginning in 2014. The New Chauncey project disappeared.

 

It joined a list of failures. Mayor Sonya Margerum and Katy Bunder approached President Martin Jischke directly looking for support. New Chauncey Housing Inc., after a strong start, collapsed. New Chauncey Rebound never was. The West Lafayette Enrichment Foundation, a creature of the city Redevelopment Commission, has managed only to approve its by-laws in the last 18 months.

 

But here is the rough compromise worked out along the way as the 13 story and 15 story and 16 story high rises went up in what was once the village. Build whatever you want up and down State St. Purdue cannot or will not manage its enrollment. Urban density is desirable. But along Northwestern Ave. and north of Fowler, there will be rules. New Chauncey gets to keep its density and its identity.

 

I am happy to see the  West Lafayette Historic Preservation Commission defend that same point in its recent letter to our city council on the subject of auxiliary dwellings. 

 

This Was Fun.

This year’s usual holiday party conversational gambit went something like this; "So Peter, what are you going to do now that you are off of city council?" "Will you miss it?" "Did you enjoy it?"

I did. This was fun.

My sixteen years on the West Lafayette City Council, my eight years as President, were fun.

Admittedly, that's not what is usually said at the end of a political career; even a minor one. I am supposed to say something about the rewards of public service, salute my colleagues, and praise my constituents. Consider it done.

But this was fun. That’s a surprise.

Professionally, my “day job” was as a mainline Protestant minister. That is not a growth industry. It uses a language of contraction, of diminution, and tries to make that failure praiseworthy. When a group gets smaller, it gets more idiosyncratic.

These sixteen years in city government were all about expansion, achievement. New institutions, new people, new geography were drawn into a conversation about our public life. That’s energizing. That’s fun.

I sat through months of land use planning for New Chauncey (my council district) and for the Levee district next door. Along the way I could say “let’s not put an apartment there”.  Then, okay, we won’t. I could say “let’s put that road there”; and then we put it there.

 Amazing.

 

I spent four years pushing historic preservation forward in West Lafayette. For ten years now we have protected historic homes and civic places. We have preserved our architecture, but even better we have preserved the memory of a time when the university was not a business or an industry, but a mentoring community. Faculty and students once lived together for the betterment of each other and Indiana society.

This makes a better sermon on campus ministry than any I ever preached in church.

I moved the city environmental commission out of the mayor’s office and in to city ordinance. There are car chargers out front at city hall now, and a sustainability officer at the water reclamation plant. Huge, expensive underground reservoirs keep dung and muck out of the Wabash River.

 Huh. How about that?

I felt like I won an election myself when three women I helped recruit were elected to city council this November. I like this next generation. This feels like success.

All the while these past years people like Mayor John Dennis (Katy is still trying to figure out what he meant when he told me at his council send-off  “I love you man!”) and the Development Director of our “Eagleton”, Erik Carlson, were optimistic, affable; funny. Successful."Look what you did!", I said.  No, they said; “Look what we did.”

Nice.

This was fun. Emotionally, I needed this.

To our new Madam Mayor and this new, young council, I hope you have fun too.

 

Next Person Up

 

 

No, I’m not running for West Lafayette City Council this year.

There; I didn’t step on the lead!

 

I have been serving West Lafayette’s Second District for the last 16 years. For half of that time I have served as President of city council.

I have made the case, successfully I think, that a multi-class, multi-generational, near campus neighborhood is worth preserving in a college town. Older homes on smaller urban lots should allow first time home buyers, even those who come here without a pricey contract in a STEM field, a way into our housing market, and so a way into the services this special community provides. This in spite of the challenges we face from those who see houses not as homes but as commodities.

A near campus neighborhood also serves as a reminder that before the university was a corporation, it was a community. I am proud of the residential land use plan that was developed by the APC for New Chauncey. I am glad that the city’s story will be preserved because of the historic preservation ordinance I authored.

 

It’s really been fun.

The city’s growth over these last four terms has been exciting. My professional career was lived as a mainline Protestant minister. That’s not a growth industry. Personally, it has been wonderful to be involved in projects filled with optimism, power, hope.

But John Dennis is leaving.

In a parking lot conversation this past year the mayor said, “You know why you and I have managed to get along all this time? We’re both irreverent.” I think he was right; though if “irreverent” were a race John would probably have lapped me. Even more colorful in private than he was in public, the mayor could look out his window in Margerum City Hall (a great name) and be honestly astonished at what this community has become. I liked his style. Also, John didn’t veto my most important stuff. Phew.

I think it’s a good place for me to stop too.

I don’t believe government should be a gerontocracy. (My apologies to Joe Biden and Mitch Daniels.)

I could serve the people of my district well for the next four years. But if I could find someone who could do this work energetically for the next 8, or 12, or 16 years, that would be better. I did this thing.

There should be someone who can do the next thing.

My wife and kids worry that I’ll be sad if I can’t feel important. Oh, probably a little. I also got our council salaries up; I think I’ll miss the extra cash.

But here’s a story. A few weeks ago my one year old grandson and I were bonding over a great game of “swap the pacifier”. I pulled his “paci” out of his mouth, he pulled my “paci” out of my mouth, laughed, and put it in his and I put his in mine. I pulled his “paci” out of his mouth, he pulled my “paci” out of my mouth, laughed, and put it in his and I put his in mine. Or sometimes he threw it over the back of the couch and laughed hysterically as I retrieved it.

 As I was going out the door he looked at me, and his eyes lit up, and he smiled, and he started, enthusiastically, out loud, to go over his list of important people names.“DADA”. . . . “MAMA”. . .   “NANA” (that’s his sister).  So, I think he was saying, “look gramps, I don’t quite have a name for you yet, but I am sure you belong in this tight little group of people who mean something good to me. Let’s do this again.” That made me feel very important. I wanted to slap him on the back and buy him a beer.

Katy and I don’t anticipate moving anywhere; not with one daughter in Indianapolis and the other in Chicago. We are still sure to have our opinions about how the place is being run. But as a retired couple, we won’t have to go to all those meetings. I’ll be interested to see what the folks half my age do.

 

 

Renew New Chauncey

After the pandemic, it is probably time for us to renew the New Chauncey Neighborhood Association. 

 

The upcoming redistricting in advance of the 2023 city election is an important issue for us,

as we try and maintain New Chauncey as a "community of interest" that should be noted by the city council.

 

Issues like noise, trash, occupancy, and code enforcement were once discussed on a regular basis with city officials. We need to do that again.

 

Have we gained anything from the urbanization of Chauncey Village? 

 

I suspect he arrival of "short term rentals" and their regulation would be another likely conversation topic.

 

We need to be aware of the evolving "West Lafayette Enrichment Corporation", a 501-3c

that could serve as "the Entity" we have often imagined helping to fund neighborhood revitalization.

We need to develop an organizational structure that can be identified both by our neighbors and city government.

 

Toward this end, Jean Sullivan and I have booked "The Bean" in Margerum City Hall for

Tuesday June 14th. at 7:00pm. for a meeting we are calling the "New Chauncey Neighborhood Association Reboot".

 

We hope to see you there.

No, It Isn't Time To End the Student Housing Moratorium.

Verve: Wood & Chauncey

4Up: Vine & Fowler

Monterey: Wood & Pierce

Is it time to end the student housing moratorium? No.

For the last decade Purdue has outsourced dormitory development to the City of West Lafayette. Now that Purdue will once again begin building dormitories of its own, we need to have a further conversation about the size and terms of that "contract".

Purdue's record enrollment numbers have continued to surprise us. Massive builds have taken place, yet rents continue to increase. The city is trying to manage urban in-fill without reliable information from the work's obvious beneficiary. There are practical financial challenges. "Master leases" signed by Purdue with local rental corporations and used by Purdue to manage student overflow then make those buildings "not-for-profit", cutting into our tax base. We receive no payments in lieu of those unpaid taxes.

There is little compensatory involvement in the near campus neighborhood or in the larger interests of the community.

After Wang Hall left its original home in Purdue's Discovery Park (fall 2010) and jumped across Northwestern Ave., the university and the Purdue Research Foundation used the language of "university districts" to describe possible cooperation between the university, the city, and the historic near campus neighborhood (New Chauncey) that made up the majority of my city council district.

With the failure of New Chauncey Housing, a new investment vehicle for the neighborhood was necessary. In 2011 "New Chauncey Rebound" (aka "the entity")  was proposed in a memorandum of understanding signed by Joe Hornett (PRF), Chandler Poole (West Lafayette's Director of Development), and Dr. Carl Griffin (New Chauncey Neighborhood Association.) By-laws were drafted. CSO architects (Jim Schellinger had been central to the negotiations around Wang Hall) were happy to work on a "Targeted Redevelopment Plan and Development Standards for the Historic New Chauncey Neighborhood." Call it an overlay zone.

Soon though France Cordova, Chandler Poole, and Joe Hornett would all be gone. Historic preservation (2011-13) and a land use plan for New Chauncey (2009 -13) would continue to be nudged along by the city council toward their final forms. But attention was turning elsewhere. By 2013 the State St. Project became the focus of the Purdue/West Lafayette relationship. Then there were the high rises. By 2018/19 Campus Edge, the Rise, and the Hub had altered the downtown skyline. The hope behind their construction went something like this; assuming a predictable growth in the Purdue student population, dramatically increasing the supply of rental units should reduce rental costs, and help the near campus neighborhoods stabilize.

That plan didn't work. Not for renters. Not for the neighbors. In a hole? Stop digging.

We will never see an Indiana version of "Save Berkeley" vs. U. Cal. Berkeley. Indiana lacks the environmental laws a neighborhood like New Chauncey could use to accuse a university of essentially polluting neighborhoods by admitting more students than the city can handle. Even if there were, it is hard to imagine plaintiffs winning in an Indiana court as they did in California.

We haven't found a way within state historic preservation law to keep Von's and Harry's Chocolate Shop from being taken out by higher taxes on properties with skyrocketing assessments. There is no green space. Having struggled with rental corporations and "kiddie condos", we now wrestle with the new problem of out-of-state investors and "air bnbs".

The possibility of a "West Lafayette Enrichment Corporation" floated by the city is interesting. This "Entity", this 5013c, would be welcomed. As soon as the "memorandum of understanding" for "the entity" is signed, as soon as its by-laws are in place, and the instant someone gives it its first $50,000, I think I could vote for new development.

But not this week.

 

Conversion Therapy

 

Admittedly, I’m not sure what led David Sanders and James Blanco to author Ordinance #31-21 banning conversion therapy in West Lafayette. It would have made more sense in 2021 when there was at least a doomed bill before the Indiana state legislature to ban the practice. Councilor Shannon Kang, who identifies as queer, may have provided the answer when she said that any day is a good day to be against conversion therapy.

 

Councilor Dr. Jeff Brown wanted a definition of conversion therapy. Let's try this: Conversion therapy is any attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression and is “premised on the belief that a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity, including gender expression, can and should be changed or suppressed when they do not fall under what other actors in a given setting and time perceive as the desirable norm, in particular when the person is lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or gender diverse.” - UN/NBC 6/20/20.  However, because the practice has come under increasing scrutiny, providers frequently change their terminology to avoid detection. Here are some examples: (https://www.glaad.org/conversiontherapy )

• Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE)

• Sexual Attraction Fluidity Exploration in Therapy (SAFE-T)

• Eliminating, reducing or decreasing frequency or intensity of unwanted Same-Sex Attraction (SSA)

• Reparative therapy

• Sexual reorientation efforts

• Ex-gay ministry

• Promoting healthy sexuality

• Addressing sexual addictions and disorders

• Sexuality counseling

• Encouraging relational and sexual wholeness

• Healing sexual brokenness

Conversion "therapy" is usually associated with evangelical Christian groups. But in 2015, the New Jersey Superior Court ruled against a Jewish “conversion” organization, finding it liable for violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. The Global Interfaith Commission on LGBT+ Lives, backed by 370 key figures from 35 countries, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland David Rosen and former Irish President Mary McAleese, have organized in opposition to the practice. My former employer, the Episcopal church, came out against the practice in 2015.

Every medical group you can name is opposed to conversion therapy. The United Nations called for its global abolition, saying it may amount to torture or child abuse. In December 2021 Canada banned the practice after a unanimous vote of their parliament. They even outlawed driving your child to the US for the treatment.

In the U.S., twenty states have banned the practice (e.g., California, Illinois, New York) and 100 municipalities (e.g., State College, PA). Indiana is not likely to join their ranks. Remember the 2015 “Fix This Now” front page of the Indianapolis Star? Our political responses to the LGBTQ+ community are almost always wrong footed. 

 

But why pick this fight here in Jesusland? (The title of Julia Scheeres famous book on fundamentalist religion here in Tippecanoe County.) Opposed to conversion therapy and its cousins, the council's ordinance seemed conventional. The response was predictable. 

Faith Church launched an aggressive, often ugly, campaign to try and scuttle the legislation. Along the way, Pastor Viars managed to slur, in no particular order, blacks, gays, and Jews. When caught in a lie, Dave Bangert reported, Faith Church "Orwelled" an offending video created by the "Lafayette Citizens for Freedom" (sic). Their fury has become a kind of culture war caricature; “the lady dost protest too much, methinks,” says Queen Gertrude in Hamlet. Faith decided to intimidate the city by threatening legal action. Councilors Sanders and Blanco then withdrew their ordinance, though the video minutes of the 2/7/22 city council meeting are worth a look; David Sanders at 19:45, Shannon Kang at 31:20, Kathy Parker at 36:00, Kathy again at 1:19:00, and Gerald Thomas at 1:22:00.

So then, does a parent really enjoy a religious privilege which would allow them to emotionally abuse a child? Can they outsource that abuse to a religious organization and its unlicensed practitioners? Can they hire that abuse done in the private sector by licensed professionals? 

In 1847 there were no laws protecting children from physical abuse from their parents; from Proverbs 23:14:

  ¹⁴ Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

The country finally determined that parents could not physically abuse their children, even though that first intervention was sponsored at the time by the ASPCA using laws meant to prohibit cruelty to animals. We can and do enforce prohibitions against physical child abuse. We should be able to call out a type of emotional abuse and its sponsors.

 

Council Democrats attempted to do just that in Resolution #01-22, an appeal to the state to outlaw the practice of conversion "therapy". Someday. Perhaps by 2047.

Let me close with a public service announcement on behalf of a cooperating ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis, Trinity Haven. (https://www.trinityhavenindy.org/)

What exactly is Trinity Haven? Trinity Haven is a non-profit organization that provides housing options and supportive services for LGBTQ young adults, including a long-term Transitional Living Program (TLP) which offers up to 24 months of housing, stabilization assistance, support services, independent living skills, case management, and care coordination for young adults in the state of Indiana; as well as a short-term Host Homes Program (HHP) which offers an average of 6 months of housing and intensive case management, and is limited to Indianapolis/Marion County.

Just in case you know someone who might need it.