 Dr. Dennis Campbell, division chair of science at Lincoln College,
came before the Logan County Regional Planning Commission and the
zoning board of appeals last week to request a conditional use and
variance on 5 acres zoned for agriculture.
Campbell brought forward plans to create an experiential outdoor
classroom.
With enthusiasm fitting for one who believes in what he is doing
and makes things happen, Campbell said the outdoor environmental
education center is intended to reach all members of the community,
including children and elders.
The center's primary purpose would be to provide an environment
that would enhance kindergarten through college teaching and
learning experiences.
For Campbell, as an educator whose motto about teaching students
is "Bring them outside," the center will be the fulfillment of a
lifelong dream.
In addition to education opportunities for students of the
college and the local education system, the community would also be
provided opportunities to use the facility. Environmental festivals
would be promoted a couple of times a year, but there would also be
times to come out and simply enjoy the natural setting.
The center would serve as a valuable teaching tool in land use by
looking at past, present and future, with emphasis on how modern-day
agriculture has affected the natural environment and vice versa.
The featured structures would include an outdoor teaching
pavilion, insectarium and greenhouse.
There is already a two-year established, restored prairie on-site
that can be observed and enjoyed.
Location, location, location
Located five miles north of Lincoln, west of 1225th Avenue, along
the south side of Sugar Creek, the proposed site is set in a portion
of a 264-acre parcel already owned and used by the college for
studies.
Due to stream and ground research, the area has already become
locally and internationally known for its historical and biological
significance.
Sugar Creek has been declared "biologically significant" by the
state for its freshwater mussel communities.
A wide variety of Pleistocene mammals remains have been
discovered along the banks within one mile of the proposed center,
including the recent discovery of remains of the largest and one of
the last woolly mammoths to roam the planet. Those remains are
currently being studied by a team of internationally recognized
scientists.
Campbell has been closely affiliated with these projects.
There are ongoing research studies, including one now examining
the remains of an early settlement. These studies are expected to
help show the effects of the past on the present and then to aid
decisions for the future, including in the field of agriculture. The
center would encourage interaction with the agriculture community,
Campbell offered.
He said there are other interests for research of the area by
college science professors and students.
The center's location, particularly along Sugar Creek, is
expected to continue to draw outside researchers in additional and
continuing areas of study as well.
The Center for Environmental Education would expand all these
opportunities.
Green, green, green
The grounds would employ many teachable, environmental-friendly
measures.
The restroom facilities plan is for using a composting-type
system, but approval has been given to start with port-a-potties.
The property is away from the power grid. Alternative energy
resources from solar panels and a small wind generator would be used
for the facility's limited power needs.
Erosion control and water preservation would employ numerous
bioswales, rain gardens and rain barrels.
There would also be parking space, boardwalks, sidewalks and a
well.
Boardwalks would cross the bioswales and would make the area
handicapped-accessible.
[to top of second column] |
 Permitting process
With the development, a driveway already accessing the property
would need to be widened and shored up with additional gravel. This
passes through a parcel owned by Shirley Edwards, a Lincoln College
trustee, who has given her approval.
The rock for the entry road and to establish a parking area, as
well as using 5 acres for something other than agriculture
production, requires conditional use and variance approvals from the
county.
An adjacent property owner who is a structural engineer living in
Decatur came to the public hearing by the zoning appeals board. Dean
Werth had several concerns. The 5-acre area to be approved was not
shown in the notices that were sent out. He was concerned about
trespassers, liability and about water runoff after construction. He
said that a change in the creek flow might change his farmland into
wetlands and alter its value. He cash rents the land.
All of his water runoff concerns were addressed by elements in
the design plans. The engineering plans were drawn by the Farnsworth
Group in Bloomington.
The proposed 5 acres, set in a 276-acre area owned by the
college, are well away from Werth's property. The appeals board
agreed to add clarification that the conditional use is limited to
the specific 5 acres as defined in the plans.
It was also noted in the land-use request that the property could
easily be returned to farmland if it outlived its usefulness as an
education center.
Seeing no significant effect on the surrounding properties,
zoning board of appeals members Wilbur Paulus, Doug Thompson and
Rick Sheley approved the request.
The Logan County Board meets later this month. Building permits
could be issued pending the county board's approval of the proposed
conditional use and variance to agriculture land use.
The college is expecting several other permit approvals to come
through soon as well, which would allow project construction to get
under way in November.
First in line would be road improvement and parking lot
development, with hopes of completing those by mid-December.
This would set the stage for the rest of the project construction
to take place in the spring -- the insectariums, greenhouse,
teaching pavilion, well, rain gardens, bioswales, sidewalks,
boardwalks and restrooms.
Apropos to the project, Campbell hopes that "Earth Day of next
April might find all kinds of construction going on out there."
[By
JAN YOUNGQUIST]
 |
