- Welcome everybody It is Wednesday May 20th and you're at the greatest place to be on a Wednesday night
- Disneyworld no, I'm at a City Council meeting. We welcome you to this City Council meeting I will call
- it to order and will the honorable clerk stole please call the roll Councilmember Flaherty Stasburg
- here Piedmont Smith here
- Zulek, here. Asari? Here. Daly? Here. Rallo? Here. Ruff? Here. Rosenberger? Here. Thank you so much.
- Today the meeting agenda is posted on
- both sides, and so you can access this remotely online. We have a sort of standard meeting where we'll
- be approving some minutes, I believe. We have some reports from council members, the mayor, offices
- of different commissions, and then we'll have some appointments, boards, and commissions. We have one
- piece of legislation for first reading and four pieces of legislation. I'm sorry.
- Lots of legislation for second reading. And so with that, I will stop delaying. Do we have any minutes
- for approval? No. No. OK, thank you so much. So we will move on right into reports. Do any council members
- have any reports? Council member Stasberg. Thank you. Good evening.
- I just wanted to say that tomorrow is the last day of school for MCCSE students. Yes, hallelujah in
- my house right now. But I just wanted to congratulate all students, teachers, administrators, parents,
- all of the other staff members and buildings that make our schools go and bus drivers and other
- transportation specialists, et cetera, et cetera.
- As a parent of two high schoolers, it feels every year like it's been a long year, and then every summer
- will feel like a long summer. But I just wanted to make sure to send those well wishes out to everybody,
- and I hope everybody has a great last day tomorrow, or at least last student day tomorrow, and special
- congratulations to all of the graduating seniors and their parents who have stuck with it for a number of years.
- Yeah so that is what I wanted to say. I also wanted to mention that I do have some open office hours
- coming up. They are on my public calendar.
- Next Saturday the 30th of May you can sign up for 15 minutes with councilmember Stossberg I'm doing
- that at the farmers market in the morning between 930 and 1130 So if you have anything that you want
- to chat with me about you can find that link on my page And if you're not sure where to find it, you
- can email me and I'll help you out. Thanks Thank you so much councilmember P. Smith Yes, good evening
- I wanted to talk just a little bit about
- The land that was purchased for the Convention Center project by the Monroe County Commissioners several
- years ago, and that is in process of being deeded over to the Capital Improvement Board, which is overseeing
- the Convention Center expansion. That is the land to the south and west of the current Convention Center.
- It includes Seminary Point Apartments.
- and several local businesses, including the Friendly Beast Cider and Blue Tip Billiards. And we received
- a memo from a coalition of Bloomington Homes for All and the Bloomington Democratic Socialists of America
- Housing Working Group a couple of days ago. They have
- they're trying to figure out how they can preserve and even expand the affordable housing and commercial
- space at Seminary Point, which has a very uncertain future given that it will soon be owned by the CIB,
- and they are not in the business of renting property. They're in the business of building convention
- center. So I've
- Talked with some colleagues about about this. We have a very limited role in this whole discussion because
- Of course the CIB will own that property The property that the CIB is interested in for a hotel for
- the Convention Center is owned by the Bloomington redevelopment Commission So it's also not under our
- control But I think that they have proffered a very interesting plan and a very
- a really great innovative vision for that little mini neighborhood in the future as being a space of
- cultural and social gathering and real truly low income housing. And if there is a way that that can
- be facilitated by this body, I'm open to do so. I think that
- the land swap that has been proposed. So the C.I.B. is interested in the land at College Square owned
- by the R.D.C. to put the convention center hotel and R.D.C. as issued a call for proposals to sell that
- land. So it's been suggested that the summit point and other parcels that the C.I.B. owns or will own shortly
- be traded for the college square site land. Now those those parcels are of vastly different value. So
- I think the the almost seven million dollars the RDC paid for the college square site should be recouped
- in some degree. But I think there should also be some flexibility to see if we can make this vision of
- low income housing and community space of reality. So I'll be working with colleagues to see if we can
- come up with a unified message to relate to the RDC which of course is a partner organization within
- the city itself to see if we can if we can make this work. I was at the CIB meeting today and they are
- extending the leases for the commercial and
- Residential tenants until the end of August so that gives a little more breathing room. They were supposed
- to Terminate in July and Jeff's warehouse gets until the end of September due to Particular circumstances,
- so we have a little more time and I look forward to working on this in the weeks ahead. Thank you Thank
- you so much councilmember Flaherty
- Thank you. I also had a report this evening, also involving College Square, believe it or not, by way
- of follow-up from our deliberation session last week, which was about snow removal on pedestrian paths
- and sidewalks throughout the city, which has been a persistent challenge. And kind of the worse the
- snow events are, the worse of a challenge it is. So this year was especially bad, but it's not unique
- to this year. In fact, we face it most years.
- So just thanks to the members of the public who came out and gave really unique and helpful insights
- based on their experience. Also to the council members who were able to join and colleagues who couldn't.
- Happy to chat with you about it. Also Transportation Commissioner Boland and Casey Guarino from the
- Council for Community Accessibility. We are looking at kind of across operations, resourcing or budget
- and policy or city code what
- types of improvements we can make. I think there will be opportunities in all of those areas. Going
- to be coordinating with at least council members Stossberg and Daly on some of that. And wanted to note,
- just because it was an interesting tidbit and follow-up and just helpful for your information, we did
- talk about the College Square property because we noted that even city-owned properties sometimes we
- don't end up clearing the sidewalks.
- and Director Colleen Hanson reached out and let me know, she listened in to the meeting, which she hadn't
- attended live, which I appreciate that she was checking it out, and just let me know that there was
- a lease executed with College Square for Weddell Ruther's construction, for construction management,
- I guess, that puts them in charge of snow removal and mowing, and so she said that any gaps in snow
- removal were not on the RDC, it was the tenant. But that was an issue we highlighted that isn't just
- unique to the city, it's actually something that the hand department
- has trouble navigating when landlords say, look, it's not my responsibility, my lease says that my tenant
- has to take care of the snow removal. So it was a bit interesting that the RDC itself was here through
- Director Killian Hanson saying that. But what we surfaced last week also is that city code doesn't say
- that the duty can be assigned. It's the duty of the property owner, full stop. And I think that's like
- an example of an operational improvement that we can make where we stop
- failing to get compliance because of this perceived loophole or something. If the fine needs to be issued,
- because ultimately that property never did for two weeks, almost three, never did come into compliance,
- the RDC-owned property at College Square. It clearly wasn't effective, the U Reports and other things
- that were filed.
- So if we just go with the appropriate citation within the appropriate timeline, whatever happens in
- private contracts between the property owner and their tenants from there, that's up to them to resolve.
- If they want to pass that cost on to the tenant because it's in the lease, they can do that. But we
- should not be foregoing the responsibility of the city to try to ensure safe and accessible sidewalks.
- So I thought that was a really interesting follow-up and just again an example of what would
- be an operational improvement,
- necessarily usually the purview of the City Council per se, but these deliberation sessions and the
- conversations with staff to follow are meant to kind of, I think, help build collaborative work towards
- any range of improvements, including ones that aren't squarely our job per se. So anyway, that's the
- report. Thanks. Thank you so much. There's Council Member Zulek. Yes. Hello, everyone. Thanks for being
- here. The clerk's office has asked
- Me to remind all of us that in accordance with resolution 2025-15 established expectations for councilmember
- liaisons for boards and commissions and Few staff liaisons when they were checked in with knew who they're
- assigned council liaison is so I just want to remind everyone that we should have all checked in with
- all of our counts all of our staff liaisons for the boards and commissions for which we liaise to and
- chair of those boards and commissions and introduce yourself other responsibilities are Just let them
- know your role as councilmember liaison checking in at least three times a year Serving as the point
- of contact for liaisons and chairs as a two-way communication for activities or concerns they may have
- and attend at least one meeting of the Commission annually and
- Inform assigned Commission chairs and liaisons of relevant proposed legislation from the council and
- and getting feedback from said Commission. Thank you Thank you so much. Any others the councilman Arula?
- Thank you. Just off the cuff. I'd like to respond to a couple of my colleagues Well, first of all, I'll
- say that drawing on our monthly constituent meetings council member Ruff and I and the third Saturday
- Saturday of the month
- have a constituent meeting that sometimes goes on for several hours and Invariably people are concerned
- about infrastructure in the city Particularly the conditions of the streets and sidewalks Obstacles
- on the sidewalks that present problems with people Being able to use them, especially people
- with accessibility problems and and also
- the transformation of owner occupied housing or potential owner occupied housing to rentals and the
- pressure to Essentially by investors to to buy up those properties and turn them into plexus and Forever
- essentially render them inaccessible for for owner occupancy. That's a very very real concern and
- of core neighborhoods surrounding campus downtown Brian Park neighborhood in particular where a lot
- of that has happened The second thing I wanted to say is that I I wanted to extend my appreciation to
- my colleague councilmember Piedmont Smith Regarding the property that she was referring to which is a
- Second Street, we need to have a close look at that property. I think because it has a lot of potential
- For affordability and I think that we don't have many opportunities downtown to develop those properties
- and so we ought to be very Cognizant that we may not be able to find other places where we can have
- real affordability for people Who are currently living there by the way?
- The third thing I wanted to touch on is something that is, I think it's a tsunami that's happening,
- and that is data centers. So data centers are propping up everywhere in our country. We essentially
- have, I understand, about half of the world's data centers currently, which is numbering over 5,000,
- and we've got 3,000 more on the way.
- These are enormous facilities. The one in Utah is proposed, I don't know if you've seen it, to be 62
- square miles in size. And because it is used for cloud storage and AI training and compute, it utilizes
- a lot of energy and a lot of water for cooling. And so these things plop in communities and they're
- often unwanted.
- By the people and there's a huge resistance to them. Fortunately, I understand that our county colleagues
- and the County Planning Commission put a pause on any more on any AI data centers or any data centers
- Development and until for a year and I think that expires in July They drive up utility costs They use
- tremendous water. They externalize a lot of
- the cost of the public. And so we ought to be on guard and aware and wary of these data centers. Maybe
- there's more to talk about in the coming weeks. Thank you. Thank you so much. Any other council colleagues
- with an update or statement?
- All right, well we will move along then. We now have a handful of reports. First we'll hear from the
- Commission on the Status of Black Males and then the Commission on the Status of Children and Youth.
- Come to the microphone and take it away, sir.
- Good evening. It's nice to be here before you again. My name is James Sanders, chair of the City of
- Bloomington Commission on the Status of Black Males. Thank you for the opportunity to present our 2025
- annual report. Tonight, we will highlight the commission's work over the past year, share the impact
- of our programs and partnerships, and discuss our goals and priorities moving forward.
- The Commission on the Status of Black Males is a seven-member volunteer commission supported by the
- City of Bloomington Community and Family Resources Department. Our work focuses on addressing disparities
- impacting black males in the areas of education, health, criminal justice, and employment while also
- celebrating achievement, leadership, and community engagement. Throughout 2025, the commission continued
- building partnerships with schools,
- nonprofits, health organizations, and community leaders to create meaningful opportunities for youth
- and families across Bloomington. 2025 was a year of strong community engagement and continued growth
- for the commission. During Centennial Black History Month, the commission recognized four recipients
- through the Outstanding Leaders of Tomorrow awards for leadership, scholarship, and community involvement.
- The Black Barbershop Health Initiative led or helped during Bloomington's Juneteenth celebration partnered
- with organizations including the National Merrill Donor Program, Hoosier Health, and the NAACP to provide
- culturally responsive health, outreach, and education in trusted community spaces. The National Million
- The National Million Father March had more than 40 plus fathers, mentors, and volunteers at Fairview
- Elementary School to support students at the start of the school year and encourage positive family
- engagement in education. Our Black Male Youth Summit brought together 67 students for a day of leadership,
- development, and mentorship featuring speakers Dr. Adrian Parker, Keelan Mark, and Arthur Thomas X.
- Williams. Finally,
- our window wonderland partnered with the NAACP Freedom Fund banquet city of Bloomington parks and rec
- and other community organizations to provide a positive holiday experience for more than 100 families.
- These programs continue to strengthen relationships, increase the visibility and create opportunities
- for black males and families throughout Bloomington.
- As we move forward into 2026, the commission is focused on expanding community partnerships, increasing
- outreach, and continuing to grow our signature programs. We plan to strengthen engagement efforts through
- tabling opportunities, collaborative programming, and youth-centered activities that encourage leadership,
- development, and community connection.
- The commission also plans to continue enhancing the Black Male Youth Summit and Black Barbershop Health
- Initiative while identifying additional funding and sponsorship opportunities to sustain long-term program
- growth. Although funding and resource development remain ongoing challenges, we remain optimistic about
- the partnerships and support that continue to emerge throughout Bloomington. The commission is proud
- to currently have full membership representation
- which positions us well for the continued collaboration and impact in the coming year. We invite community
- members, organizations, and local leaders to stay engaged with the Commission on the Status of Black
- Males by attending our programs, partnering with our initiatives, and supporting our mission. We encourage
- everyone to participate in upcoming events such as the Black Barbershop Health Initiative in June, National
- Million Father March in August,
- Black Male Youth Summit in November and Winter Wonderland in December. Monthly Commission meetings are
- open to the public and provide opportunities for residents to learn more about our work and contribute
- ideas that help strengthen our community. Additional information, meeting schedules, and program updates
- can be found on our website at City of Bloomington Commission on the Status of Black Males. Thank you
- for your continued support
- and commitment to advancing opportunities and positive outcomes for black males in Bloomington. That
- concludes my presentation. I'll now entertain any questions that you have. Thank you so much.
- Thank you. Are there any questions or comments. Thank you so much for all of your good work. I know
- we we saw you here last year so you've been at the helm for for a while now.
- Can you tell us a little bit more about the winter wonderland? I'm not real familiar with that program
- so winter wonderland was an event that ultimately or originated from I use a black student organization
- we did that in conjunction with us and a few other organizations and
- Black Greek letter organizations that really started as a toy drive. So we wanted to reach out to I
- guess Minorities in the community via the Banneker Center and we just wanted to make gifts available
- for students of all ages we aimed from two to about 14 years of age and
- From about I would say five years ago a little bit before kovat. It just kind of grew into Toy drive
- then toys and pictures with Santa and then we just slowly added events and now when families come we
- have about 20 events that the That the children can stop at anywhere from games to
- different types of trivia Obviously pictures with Santa and then the last thing that they do is Go and
- get a gift. So it's kind of cool. They get a passport when they first walk in They have to visit so
- many stops and at every stop community leader stamps their passport and Once they have collected the
- mandatory amount they can go get a gift But usually we find out the kids want to stop at every station
- So we have everything from my cocoa stations to cookie decorating stations to carts to Santa events
- like that, so We're really proud of it because it's free to the community we know during holiday times
- it can be very expensive and Hectic for families that you know want to share those special, you know
- holiday moments But that don't necessarily have the funds so
- They get a picture with Santa they get a gift they get a fun day of events the event spans for about
- four hours We pull volunteers in from all aspects. You don't have to be necessarily tied to the Commission
- or any other organization group we put the the need out and we get a
- astounding responses every year. So every year it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I think this
- last year was our biggest year. And it's not only fun for the kids, it's fun for everyone who joins.
- I know that was pretty long-winded, but it's one of our flagship events. That's great. And that's at
- Banneker Center? Yes, ma'am. I have another question. Do you have a staff liaison?
- The person who did it before has moved on from the city. Do you have a new staff liaison? We have an
- acting staff liaison. She currently holds multiple positions. Ms. Shatoya Moss, she's been graciously
- helping us, assisting us in everything that we need. So yeah, she helps us do the tireless work as you
- see her behind me with her lovely son. So we're thankful for that.
- Thank you so much. Thank you so much for being here and for all that work. I mean, that's amazing that
- y'all are very, very busy. So thank you. I have a question. One of your events you said you hold in
- June. Was that the barbershop mental health? Yes, it is. OK. Is that part of Juneteenth celebration?
- Yes, it is. So we used to have the event in various barbershops around Bloomington.
- But we wanted to reach a more broad audience. And a few years ago, the city started putting on a Juneteenth
- event. So we wanted to target black people, people of color, and generally anyone who was interested
- in their health. And so at that event, we held a tabling with multiple medical screeners. Last year,
- we screened for blood pressure,
- I think we discussed A1C in the bone marrow registry. And that was new for us. So we were able to reach
- everyone who wanted to have health screenings performed at the event. I think it was over 100 people.
- So not only do you walk away with information about health in general, but you can walk away with information specific
- specific to you, so it's good to know about blood pressure, but what is my blood pressure? Where is
- my A1C stand? How old do I have to be to be in the bone marrow registry? I found out last year that
- the cutoff was like 40 or something, so I won't age myself, but a lot of that information was helpful
- to know, and not enough of us
- Not just people of color and black folks know about that those kind of things Thank you for the presentation
- I was wondering about the Million Father March, that's a national effort. Yeah, it's I'm sorry. Go ahead.
- Well, I just I was just looking into it and so it's a national effort you're tied into that yes, and it's
- essentially to have a parent come to school and engage with Is I understand it in my am I correct there?
- So yes, that's that's some of it We really just aim to make sure the the students feel supported on
- their first day of school so we know that we've all been students before in grade school that can be
- one of the most hectic days that you face and
- you know, coming in, you know, learning your new teachers, you know, meeting new friends or connecting
- with older friends that you've had. So the commission just wants to show their support or aims to show
- their support for children on their first day of school. So we have a huge turnout. We have
- Types of organizations we have the firemen we have the police department come we have city officials
- as some of you have participated In the past to just come and welcome the students high-five them Just
- give them an encouragement and let them know that they have an entire community behind them That's really
- great Well, my second question is You're doing a lot. Are there resources that you may need that you
- Have trouble that would help you help the commission Say again resources city resources. Are you finding
- city resources are available? To help your commission. Sure. Yes. Are you does it? Yes, we are so a
- couple of our flagship events that are most expensive are the winter wonderland and the blackmail youth
- summit so we found creative ways to support those events and
- through different partnerships with, for instance, Pizza X assists us with donating food for
- the participants. And we get other donations like that. For the toy drives, we reach out to the entire
- community to assist us with gift donations. So they either donate the gifts or donate the funding for
- us to purchase those gifts.
- The commission has a budget that we use that our city liaison manages and we pull from that as well.
- So the donations come from all over the place and I can get you a specific report probably a little
- later. But even though we have lost some donors we've also gained again more donors. OK great.
- Budget times coming up soon. So if you a million dollars, okay Okay, I got it see what I can do I'm
- only one of nine All right, there's a motion and a second will follow will follow up Any other comments
- or questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you
- We'll now hear from the commission. Yay, clapping makes everything better. We now will hear from the
- commission of the status of children and youth. Take it away. Hi, everybody. Hi. Erin Reynolds-Nylan
- here. I am the vice chair this year, but last year I was the chair of the commission on the status of
- children and youth. Thanks for hearing us. Good to see you guys again. Tonight, similar to the status on
- black male Commission we will be providing a brief overview of our work and our Highlights of like several
- key accomplishments from the year And our goals for moving forward for what we would love to see for
- children youth and families throughout Bloomington the Commission on the status of children and youth
- CSC why was established in 2004 and serves as an advisory board for the Commission for
- Our advisory commission focused on issues impacting children youth and families in Bloomington We have
- nine volunteer members appointed by the mayor and Common Council and is supported by CFRD Our mission
- is to strengthen connections and opportunities that empower and support young people through collaboration
- advocacy outreach and community engagement and
- And so throughout 2025, we focused on youth recognition, literacy initiatives, strengthening partnerships,
- and increasing awareness of resources available to children and families in our community. We had a
- really great year last year. It was a year of growth and community engagement. We were super involved
- with various other commissions and just
- within the community, one of our largest accomplishments was the Swagger Awards, which recognizes students
- who demonstrate generosity, growth, and leadership. So Swagger stands for students who act generously,
- grow, and earn respect. We just voted on our nominees last night, which was super great. A lot of really
- rewarding things going on in our community in terms of growth for children and opportunities. This year's
- event, 2025's event,
- was the largest to date. We used to have it in here in City Commons or in Council of Commons. Like maybe
- five kids would be nominated and voted on. And this year we had 179 attendees with 23 nominations submitted
- through schools, youth organizations, community groups, so many different opportunities throughout
- Bloomington. So we're really jazzed about that.
- The commission also continued its annual read for the record initiative in partnership with MCC schools
- and community volunteers. This year's book was called Nigel and the moon and the program resulted in
- more than 120 shared reading experiences that encouraged literacy and family engagement. It was a really
- really sweet book.
- In addition to or in addition CSCY expanded community outreach efforts through participation in the
- Children's Expo school resource events and partnerships with organizations such as Exodus refugee and
- tandem. The commission was also supported.
- or supported collaborative community initiatives, we've partnered with or we participated in the Million
- Father March and the Winter Wonderland to help strengthen family engagement and yeah, show up for our
- fellow commissioners. As we move into 2026, we are super focused still on expanding partnerships and
- strengthening youth advocacy.
- and continuing our partnerships that positively impact children. One major priority is establishing
- a teen liaison to help elevate youth voice and representation within the commission. We also plan to
- continue using community data and feedback such as the Indiana Youth Institute's Kids Count Data Book
- to help guide priorities and identify emerging needs specifically in the county.
- The commission will continue building upon the success of programs like swagger, which is next Wednesday
- while increasing partnerships and sponsorships and opportunities to help sustain future growth of that
- specific program. So although the commission operates with very limited funding, the community partnerships
- and local support allowed us to secure nearly four thousand dollars in additional sponsorships during our
- last year, 2025, to help expand the impact of our work specifically for Swagger. So the success of the
- CSCY depends on strong community involvement and collaboration. We encourage residents, organizations,
- educators, and community leaders to stay engaged by attending meetings, volunteering, supporting youth
- initiatives, and partnering with the commission. We meet every third Tuesday of each month at 5.30 here
- at City Hall, and our information can be found on the website.
- And we're actually full, which is really exciting. We're not looking for more commissioners, which is
- so first time since I've been on in 2023. So yeah, thank you for your continued support of children
- and families in Bloomington. Thank you so very much. Questions or comments? Well, just thanking you
- so much for the time. Oh, Councilmember Rangel.
- Yeah, I'd like to ask the same question I did before which is So you were able to with limited funding
- you said And get an additional four thousand dollars would I mean you commissions do so much work? So
- for a little bit more we could do so much more. Do you find that you come up short? At times I'm sorry.
- Do you come up short? I mean everybody would like more money, right? But I guess what I'm saying is
- that are there things are there are there?
- Are there things that you would like to do that you're hobbled because it just isn't the resources aren't
- there. Financially I mean I feel like the commission we're still finding our niche with what what we
- can do. There's so much support and different organizations in town focused on children right. And we
- don't want to duplicate. We want to maximize what's going on.
- and elevate what's happening. And so currently, I mean, the biggest barrier that we have is the funding
- for Swagger to keep the momentum and maintain. That $4,000 was acquired for prizes. And some of it was
- in-kind donations, too. Some of it was sponsorships to help with that specific event.
- Yes, and it's we could always use and find some opportunities. I mean, I would really love to help sponsor
- And elevate things that are happening and how we can support Events and things like that through sponsorships
- or anything like similar to that. So It's kind of a kind of an answer Well, that's very helpful.
- Thank you. I just you know, it's great presentation you do a lot and
- Budget times coming up and I would like to see our boards and Commission's support to do more. Yeah,
- as much as they're capable Yeah, I think at annually we operate on like maybe 2000 and we spent about
- 14 of our own funds on swagger last year, so it doesn't leave a lot of room, right? So yeah, thank you.
- Good. Okay. Thank you so much Excellent. Thank you. Any other questions comes from Stossberg
- This isn't a question so much, and it's kind of for both of these commissions. I remember last year
- when we got these presentations, I think both of them. But I know for sure the Commission on the Status
- of Black Males needed more commissioners. And this year, both of these commissions are full. And I just
- think that that is something to celebrate. And I'm really glad that we have some community members who've
- stepped up to participate in both of the good works of these commissions. Because when you're operating
- on not very much budget, what you're doing, what you're
- Which need is person time. Yeah, and they they have person time this year. So that's great and keeping
- the commissioners, right? I we've turned over maybe 70% We just have like just now started our full
- commission from the beginning of the year Mostly brand new people. Yeah, definitely want to keep them
- and do some more really good work with a full team. So, thanks Yeah, thank you so much
- Thank you. Thank you for the comment. Thank you again for your work. Yay. All right. We now move to
- the first of two sessions or sections of public comment or reports from the public. If you would like
- to give comment, if you could so kindly come to the microphone, there's a sign in sheet if you could
- kindly sign in. If you'd like to state your name or your alias for the record, that will be great. People
- online, you can just raise your hand on Zoom and we'll be able to take your question. Is there anybody
- who'd like to give public comment at this time? No one in chambers. Is there anyone online?
- Fantastic, moving smoothly along then. We'll now move then to legislation for, oh, I'm sorry. We have
- any reports from council committees? I jumped over, I'm sorry. Nope, good, I'm grateful that I jumped
- over. I knew it, that's why I jumped over. Apportments to Boyden Commissions, do we have any? Tremendous,
- we are moving swiftly along to legislation for first reading then. Are there any motions?
- I move that ordinance twenty twenty six dash twelve be introduced and read by the clerk by title and
- synopsis only Second there is a motion and a second any discussion Seeing none will the clerk please?
- Oh actually voice book all those in favor. I Opposed same sign. All right that motion carries nine.
- Oh fantastic. Will the clerk please read Ordinance number twenty twenty six twelve
- To amend Title 15 of the Bloomington Municipal Code entitled Vehicles and Traffic to create a chapter
- for streets and alleys that are closed to vehicular traffic synopsis. This ordinance seeks to codify
- streets and alleys in Bloomington that disallow vehicular traffic. Specifically, this ordinance codifies
- the seasonal carless schedule of specific blocks of Kirkwood Avenue
- With this ordinance businesses and residents can expect a permanent seasonal carless Kirkwood allowing
- businesses businesses the predictability to invest in outdoor infrastructure for guests. The
- city administration has provided valuable operational feedback in its 2026 memorandum.
- Identifying important challenges regarding infrastructure sanitation public safety and accessibility
- that naturally arise as temporary programs transition towards Permanent city fixtures with that this
- ordinance aims to provide the necessary legal and budgetary certainty for the city to move beyond Incomplete
- solutions and invest in more permanent infrastructure such as more ADA compliant features and high quality
- seating recommended by staff
- Move to discuss ordinance 2026-12 second All right, there do we vote on that we do vote on that, okay,
- there's a motion in a second to discuss Ordinance 2026 12 all those in favor say aye. Aye opposed Just
- to be clear comes Morello that was the I for the first not the second it was an I for the
- Okay, thank you. Okay that carries eight. Oh Is there anyone to present? All right, I will be presenting
- for this. So thank you very much Okay, so in plain terms ordinance 2026-12 wants to take our Fairly
- recent Carlos Kirkwood tradition and turn it from a guessing game into a predictable city standard so
- so so specifically
- It amends title 15 the vehicles and traffic section of Bloomington's municipal code to officially designate
- specific blocks of Kirkwood Avenue as a dedicated pedestrian zone each year from April through November.
- So we see this you know we've we've made sure to put in here a bit of an emergency valve. It gives the
- city engineer full legal authority to temporarily reopen the street to cars if there's an emergency.
- maybe perhaps a utility disruption, et cetera, et cetera. So why now? A little bit of context about
- how we got here. If you feel like we've been talking about closing Kirkwood for years, you're absolutely
- right. It's because we have. Here's a brief timeline of why this legislation is hitting the table right
- now. So we piloted this during the pandemic.
- Carlos Kirkwood started as an emergency pilot program to help local restaurants survive COVID-19 by
- moving tables to the street. It was highly popular. And so the City Council has been renewing it as
- a temporary year-to-year program. Last year, we renewed it on a three-year timeline. So we didn't have
- to keep voting on it every year so that there was a little bit more predictability for everybody.
- But earlier this year, the administration had decided to not do the full street closure for the 2026
- season. Instead, they pivoted to a parklet model, which we had done a year or two before because of
- construction. So that parklet model meant the streets stay open to cars, but restaurants can block off
- the metered parking spots directly in front of their buildings for dining. And when they made this decision,
- they raised
- the city staff raised some incredibly fair logistical points for making this pivot. You know, they noted
- that when the street is closed 24 seven, but there aren't active festivals or events happening, the
- empty asphalt can look a little barren and maybe sad on a Tuesday afternoon. They also pointed out valid
- headaches concerning delivery trucks, public safety routing and accessibility issues were temporary
- ramps, you know, and the, you know what I'm trying to say, just weren't cutting it.
- And so finally, they noted that a massive holistic Kirkwood corridor study is scheduled for early 2027
- to figure out the long-term future of the street. We see codifying this closure now as a way to go ahead
- and start addressing all of those problems rather than just hoping they'll get addressed down the road.
- So that's partially why we're introducing this ordinance right now. Instead of looking at the technical
- worries as a reason to give up,
- on pedestrian Kirkwood we're introducing this ordinance to give the city the tools to actually fix those
- problems. So temporary year to year pilot programs naturally create temporary and incomplete solutions.
- So that's why we see this as a strategic move. So number one it would unlock budgetary uncertainty
- Local businesses and city departments are hesitant to spend any real money on Kirkwood. A restaurant
- isn't going to buy any beautiful high quality outdoor furniture and the city isn't going to help build
- any beautiful pocket parks or permanent shade structures in areas that it's needed if the program just
- might be canceled next year. Nobody's going to be making those investments.
- By making the seasonal window permanent, though, everyone gets the financial predictability they need
- to invest in making the space gorgeous and active. We also see this as upgrading, you know, from the
- band-aid accessibility to a more universal design. When the closure is temporary, the accessibility
- features are temporary, too. So think, right, plywood ramps, confusing detours for residents with disabilities.
- A permanent seasonal framework means the city can design and build high quality level surface permanent
- ADA infrastructure along the corridor. And we see this as being helpful in setting the vision for the
- twenty twenty seven study. So the planning department along with the SD is doing a major Kirkwood corridor
- study next year.
- This ordinance doesn't step on their toes. It's not designed to do that. It's actually meant to give
- them you know helpful clear directive. The council's job is to set the policy vision. We want a safe
- walkable vibrant downtown and the twenty twenty seven study will be the perfect tool for our brilliant
- engineering and planning staff to figure out the exact design to bring that vision to life. So this
- ordinance is not set up as a fight.
- between anybody, between council, the administration, the city staff, it's meant to be a partnership.
- That's how we're approaching this. By establishing a clear recurring baseline, we aim to provide the
- budgetary certainty that both the city and our local businesses need to invest. We wanna move away from
- reactive ad hoc setups and build a predictable, safe, accessible public living room that Bloomington
- can be proud of for decades to come.
- So tonight's not about forcing a vote or overriding the operational expertise of our staff. It's aligning
- the council's policy goals with the administration's technical excellence. So I look forward to working
- closely with the staff, the Transportation Commission, and all stakeholders to help refine this draft
- into something that makes Bloomington safer, more accessible, and vibrant. Thank you. Excellent. Councilman
- Rosenberger, did you want to add anything?
- Will chime in just a little bit. I think Councilmember daily did a great job. I almost said Congress
- person daily, so I don't know if that's a premonition or what I just wanted to hone in a little bit
- on the legislative changes beyond just
- saying it is changing title 15. So the ordinance that we did in 2025 2502 says in cases of emergency
- lack of participation or any other reason that may render the program impractical the common council
- authorizes the city engineer to permanently or temporarily suspend the program. So this is changing
- that to take away that lack of participation or any other reason that
- makes it impractical. So this ordinance says in cases of emergency the city engineer may temporarily
- restore motor vehicle traffic as authorized under his duties in title 15. So that is I would say like
- the very specific parts in question that we thought we would change to make the conversion more predictable.
- Thank you.
- All right. All right. Council members, any comments, questions? Council Member Pumas-Smith.
- So in addition to the Kirkwood closure this ordinance Talks about an alley between 4th Street and Kirkwood
- 100 feet of the alley to the East of Walnut shall be closed as well could why is that? What is that
- about? Great great question. So this is
- ordinance to amend title 15 is meant to then include it would be a new chapter called streets and alleys
- that are closed to vehicular travel and so that is an alley that is already known to be closed to vehicular
- travel so it would be going in that list director seaboard did weigh in and say that this is
- not a comprehensive list and so
- engineering and or planning would need to give us a comprehensive list to include in in this update.
- So that alley that portion of the alley is already off limits for vehicles. Yes. Yes. That came from
- planning. Other questions or comments comes first last week.
- Yeah, the last couple of years, I think that one of the things that's happened is that not every block
- of Kirkwood has been closed and I'm specifically thinking about the block in front of the library. And
- there were several times that
- I either noticed being utilized or I myself utilized dropping somebody off right in front of the library.
- Was there consideration given to keeping that particular block open to still provide that kind of service,
- like I guess I'm especially thinking about
- Because the the children's section is right there by the doors off of Kirkwood and so being able to
- like drop off your Middle elementary kid and know that they're walking right into where they need to
- be without parking might sometimes be benefit for parents and Was there any thought given or consideration
- given to that block it wasn't something that we discussed You know since there is the drop-off in the back I
- I don't feel that we felt that it took anything away. I know that there have been grumblings about when
- you have to drive around the block, you're going around the two blocks. But there is the drop off in
- the back. So it wasn't a conversation that we had about keeping that part open. It would really kind
- of being smacked up in the middle of Kirkwood would kind of break up the continuity of the whole thing.
- I mean, I'm open to a conversation. Like I said, this is
- Did you check in in transit about that at all? Because I feel like I also saw BT buses dropping people
- off there and they wouldn't be able to fit in the excuse me Fit in the lot in the back. Oh They do go
- through the lot in the back. I Did so Bloomington Transit removed all routes from Kirkwood years ago
- Anticipating a permanent closure to vehicles on the street. So they have not had a bus on Kirkwood in
- years we the
- Councilmember Daly and I did divide and conquer some of this. And I know Councilmember Zulik and I talked
- about library entrances. And so mostly what I consulted was not about children, but was about accessibility
- entrances for the library, which tends to be around back because as you walk in on Kirkwood,
- you have stairs. There is, I think, a ramp.
- From the back you have the whole parking lot and then easier access. So we did talk about that and we
- mostly included all of the blocks because the vision I mean this is all of course debatable in this
- part of this conversation. The vision is sort of the walnut to Indiana being a pedestrian space comes
- from Brazil and then Piedmont Smith then Rallo.
- Yes, I just have a couple, I guess, responses to all of this conversation. Kirkwood is in my district.
- I speak to a lot of the business owners there and outside of the district. The accessibility issue that
- Councilmember Rosenberger and I discussed was not specifically to one person entering. It was actually
- stone belt.
- that has difficulty entering the back side of the library. And so the front side is really the only
- space that they could utilize to access the library as a group. And so that is just one of the community
- accessibility things that I encourage all of us to think about. I'm not opposed to this. I just want
- to put out what I know. The other thing is the church
- I believe it is First Christian Church. They have some community members with disabilities who also
- utilize their alley that is only accessible through Kirkwood. And so those are just some things that
- we might need to circumnavigate. Again, not opposed to the full closure of Kirkwood, but those are two
- issues that we need to solve.
- Yes, thank you. Actually, the first Christian church was on my list to contact. I hadn't gotten to that
- yet. We did also reach out to the Council on Community Accessibility for more input and to start that
- conversation. So thank you. I really appreciate that you're thinking that way. Thank you. I'll connect
- you. Thanks. I was wondering, I think I heard that this went to the Transportation Commission this week.
- Can anybody report on what they said. I can. Yes. So it only went as a discussion item. It did not go
- as an agenda item. So it was very similar to this Q&A on the topic. It. So I did take a lot of notes.
- So we took we talked a lot about. Well it was a lot getting them up to speed on this topic. And oh hi. Yeah.
- So one major topic was whether or not the transportation commission wanted to hear this as an agenda
- item where they created a resolution to send to us in support or in opposition of this. And the chair
- is here tonight who can potentially weigh in and give his own summary of it.
- They are they did schedule a special session on June 8th for this to go before their commission as an
- agenda item. And then they can still decide to do a resolution to support or oppose or say hey this
- is not in our purview or we don't prefer to weigh in because it is much more than a transportation topic.
- But the Transportation Commission touches a lot of areas
- in general as does transportation so Right, so I have a list of questions from them and I think if Chair
- Boland wants to speak about it to he is here and and and can Chair of the Transportation Commission
- as Constable Robert Rosenberger said The Commission did discuss this we didn't get it quite in time
- to make it a formal case, a resolution for this month's meeting. But we were able to put it, we have
- the equivalent of what you now call deliberation sessions and that was our version of it. So in it,
- we at least decided that we wanted to hold a special session in order to be able to make a
- formal recommendation before
- the last meeting you have before recess on June 10th. So again, as she said, we'll be scheduling, the
- meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 8th at 7 p.m. immediately following a planning session of the
- Transportation Commission where we're talking about a different subject. So it has to come after that.
- And I just wanna remind council that this will be on our radar no matter what you decide because it's
- part of our portfolio.
- and as you recall, the commission has representatives from the Council for Community Accessibility,
- Board of Public Works, and Bloomington Transit. Specifically, Bloomington Transit mentioned what Councilor
- Rosenberger said about Kirkwood no longer being a route that BT buses travel. They use 4th and 6th Street mostly.
- So that's that they've already said that wasn't going to be an issue for them, but I'll be listening
- tonight to try to tee up Questions for the commission to deliberate over we're going to make
- a recommendation, but it could be positive negative or neutral It will be the resolution of the commission
- will decide it either way but
- I want to be able to take what you say tonight, and we're already gonna have staff looking into some
- issues that we express concern about on Monday, but we really are taking our cue from you. So, yeah,
- all that. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. Thank you. All right. Are there any questions
- for Commissioner Volin? And I think,
- Councilman Rallo, do you have a question for Commissioner Roland? Are you ready to make your? Your next
- in queue anyways, but it's unrelated to this topic. Okay We all have questions It's it's to you customer
- no, I have a comment about I think it's great that we're having this discussion this evening and I think
- I I Look forward to hearing
- Transportation Commission's opinion of this I had a question for mr. Allen our council attorney so this
- is a subject that's been debated for the last few years and that is Who has authority over? Streets
- in Bloomington, I guess it could be said multiple parties do
- So I wondered about the interpretation of our code specific to title 15 and any relevant state statute
- That is I understand the engineer has authority to close streets for emergencies, etc but it previous
- the council had latitude our Latitude was permanent changes and roadways and streets and things and
- This actually came up in the enabling language of the Transportation Commission. So it went back to
- that. What's your interpretation? Are we are we is it within our purview? What I want to ask on my initial
- read, I believe it is, you know,
- From the standpoint of the city of Bloomington's regulated streets for a long time via Title 15, generally
- as a high level principle, the regulation of streets and highways is a designation of legislative authority
- from the state of Indiana via the police powers of the state, which are exercised by the city. I know
- that right now the administration has a differing viewpoint.
- on that and I would be very interested in learning more about their viewpoint and seeing a little bit
- more about their arguments on that regard so that I could review them in more detail and get back to
- you with a more thorough analysis. I will just tell you that my initial read of state code, it does
- seem like council would have this authority. There are of course a myriad of ways in which council sometimes
- has overlapping authority. In this case also,
- As a regard to the city engineer the council also has passed an ordinance which is essentially
- the authorizing ordinance for the city engineer Himself and certain of his powers and granting the emergency
- closure of roads and things like that So that's where I'm coming from, but I'm certainly open to hearing
- any Legal arguments that the administration have that differ with that and giving you all a very thorough
- interpretation Okay, so you you haven't received an interpretation of code and
- in a written form that you could then pass judgment on or have your interpretation.
- Last night that would be helpful. So you're saying that would be very helpful for it to be a little
- bit more fleshed out in full disclosure last night an email was sent by engineer seabor That included
- three bullet points with general citations to Indiana code that just dealt with the establishment of
- the city engineer I didn't see a whole lot that specifically Supported necessarily the argument that
- the City Council has no authority whatsoever
- Streets and highways. That's why I'm interested to learning more. I think he just meant it as hey, I'm
- just flagging this issue for you all That's how I took it. It didn't seem like it was a full legal memo
- at this point But if that exists, I would be very interested in reviewing that Okay, good. Well, we
- should request that I would ask the chair to request a memo that our Council attorney could interpret noted
- Thank you. I actually have a follow-up if it's OK. I don't want to butt in. But in terms of implementation,
- both in terms of first timeline, so is our thought that as soon as we take action on this, assuming
- that we pass it, that
- the road would be closed or is there some type of a sort of lead in to that is question one. But then
- question two is in this for counsel attorney Allen there are a couple of and I'm honestly not sure if
- they're in code or if they're just procedures like the ways that we do alley vacation that's
- that I think the way that it happens is that a petitioner with the support of a council member goes
- to planning and there's a whole process there. So by creating this new chapter, would that then allow,
- for example, an alley vacation to just be done via code? So I'm just trying to think about the mechanics
- of, I like the idea of having this codified. You all know I'm very supportive generally of moving this
- directive. I'm just trying to understand the mechanics of how this will work, how it will interact with other
- policies and code that we have related to these things.
- If you'd like a response just briefly in terms of the alley vacation very specifically that's that is
- dictated by a very specific state statute. And so the council likely could not deviate from that statute.
- You can't create an alternate procedure than what the General Assembly has already has already provided
- for which requires notice of hearing and then the council to hold a hearing and then to vote on the
- vacation of alleyways. I think in this case what we are talking about largely
- is the currently I believe the temporary closure which I think fits into a slightly different category
- than the vacation of right away even if even if this is close to vehicular traffic it doesn't seem like
- the city is is vacating its right of way in any significant sense and so I think that that's a different
- process I will know just for the good of the order there are
- There are other considerations, of course, in terms of what's allowed on Kirkwood, how we deal with
- encroachments and Title 12 in addition to Title 15 as well. So there are plenty of considerations there
- in terms of the implementation that we'll think through. Thank you so much. And Councilmember Rosenberger,
- Councilmember Daly, any thoughts on the timeline particularly then? We were hoping to be able to take
- advantage of it partially this season. That would be our ideal.
- scenario We also understand that you know More conversation would have to be had But we'd like to be
- able to enjoy it for part of this season, you know, it's late but we still got time and I think to It
- doesn't necessarily have to be tomorrow, you know if this gets passed at some point it there are multiple
- ideas and I think that is something we Purposely left out for council to discuss. Yeah, excellent
- Excellent. Any other comments or questions? And then I want to move along to public comment.
- But go ahead, Councilmember Zulek. I just want to give Director Coopersmith one last opportunity, if
- she wants to talk about feasibility or anything like that. We're talking about it, and you're here.
- And thank you for being here. Yeah. Thanks for having me, and thanks for the discussion.
- You know, like I said, I'm largely just trying to be here as a resource if you have specific questions.
- I think in terms of implementation, I have a little heartburn about that just because we have current
- funding and a consultant to activate under the current strategy. And I think it's going really well.
- I think we have a killer plan and it involves certain closures on certain days, our standard special
- events, and then
- weekly activations and that's already pretty labor intensive. So we, I mean, if you all decide to close
- the whole thing this year, I,
- hesitate to think that we would actually be able to successfully program it, although I take and appreciate
- the point that this legislation gives a nod to funding in order to be able to have capacity to do that
- properly when it goes through that budget cycle. So that was one concern. And then just, I think this
- would be dealt with within the legislation, but there are maintenance of traffic plans right now for
- like the construction on the first block and the resurfacing that's happening on the 500 blocks.
- and then number three would just be I understand the framing of this is to give the predictability and
- The one major improvement I think over the parklets this year were that we required at grade Platforms
- and so the businesses that are participating in the parklet program have made significant investments
- in those so it's it could be worked through but I would like for those investments to be able to be
- I mean, they're wonderful and and completely ADA so that the mini ramps going into the dining areas
- are no longer a thing It's all completely accessible from from the sidewalk. So I just want them to
- be able to Use those investments in some some way. That's it. Those three anything else Thank you, I
- kind of have some random things but well director Cooper Smith is there
- I appreciate what you say about how you guys have already kind of thought about programming and various
- things this year if you could maybe write up what you are planning so that that can go in the packet
- just so that we can see that in terms of informing a decision about this for this year like I would
- really appreciate that just so that I can really understand what what you guys are thinking about in
- terms of activating that right now and
- Yes, we have that so that would be really easy to share and I'll see if I can Thank you, thank you Can
- I continue so another random thing I was just kind of looking at the calendar and realizing because
- I watched the Transportation Commission last night too and I think that their special session was scheduled
- for June 8th and our next meeting is actually June 3rd and
- And so are we gonna postpone it on June 3rd or like to do the sponsors? Yes, yes, we First Transportation
- Commission decided June 8th because they already had a planning Meeting that day and it got added on
- to that and we did say we could depending on the
- the will of council either have a second reading on the third and still wait for the 10th if there's
- a lot that needs to get covered if there were like a lot of questions that could come back to have a
- second reading you know probably pretty brief and then the final either a second or third reading would
- be the 10th so it was like very flexible at this point okay great thank you and I have one more actual
- question about it you you have permission for the city engineer to restore
- Vehicular traffic in an emergency situation for up to 90 days before it requires approval by council.
- Why'd you choose 90 days? I Took this from somewhere else in code and I don't remember where but I basically
- copied it I don't know if anyone else knows where I got it Does anybody?
- I guess I think that I got a constituent message about like 90 days being a lot. And yeah, that it could
- be like the whole summer. And so I guess I just want to
- Maybe maybe revisit that number a little bit really kind of think about what makes sense because like
- a piece of what makes sense is Emergencies but another piece of what makes sense is like weather conditions
- Which you can't always control at either end but like do we really need 90 days for that? So I guess
- you know in the sake of discussion I would I would just want that investigated a little bit to make
- sure that that's like A number for a reason Some emergencies are really big
- I think mostly because of what has happened in the past. I was to imagining Sewer work construction
- things like that where trucks might need to be in or the road is literally gone for a while But that's
- great and in my notes to revisit. Can I add another please go and then comes to that director Cooper
- Smith she's been a great sport and we have met formally once and We did chat
- at the Transportation Commission, and we have another meeting in the books, I think, where Council Member
- Daley is joining, if you can, did we? We actually may have scheduled it and then said we were going
- to invite you in the exact little moment. But we did, we are just continuing to talk and throw out ideas
- with this. So I think it's with ESD very open line of communication. Council Member Piedmont-Smith. Yes.
- Isn't the board of public works involved in this decision or at least in the past when we temporarily
- closed each year they had to agree to either the parklets or both parklets and closing the street. So
- what is their role in this. They have been involved in the past in the in the past they had adopted
- rules for the temporary closure. So specifically the participation of businesses, those rules were taken
- to the Board of Public Works and they were adopted initially for businesses that were participating
- in the parklet and the street closure program. Now generally the Board of Public Works does handle all
- of the day-to-day logistical operations through the department of road closures. In terms of in statute
- what's required whenever taking
- bringing in ordinance like this that would alter Title 15. The Transportation Commission is the only
- requirement in terms of a hard requirement for them to consider. The Board of Public Works not necessarily,
- but it would be important, obviously, to have the department and the board's buy-in in terms
- of implementation in the future. So has there been any outreach to the Board of Public Works or the
- Director of Public Works? I met with Director Adam Wason yesterday.
- We had a conversation. Somebody has to put up the bollards and stuff, too. That would be in his domain.
- We didn't get into those details. Didn't get that into the weeds. Just more general talk about the closure
- on a regular basis anyway. And he wasn't terribly supportive of it. He likes the idea. But logistically,
- he had some issues with it that we agreed, well, maybe those could be worked out.
- We didn't settle on anything. Okay. Well I would appreciate having a memo or something from him if he's
- or just have him attend the next time we talk about this. Thank you. Yeah he wasn't available this evening
- but he sent his regrets.
- Excellent. Now, I'm mindful of time and the amount of things we have on the agenda, so I'm going to
- move to public comment. Just saying, just ahead of time so you all can think about it, after public
- comment it would be useful if you had any things that the sponsors had asked that this be sort of a
- generative conversation. So if there's things that you would like to see added to this, no pressure
- if you don't have them, but I think would be helpful for the sponsors if there's any sort of direction
- that you have for them. So I'll open it up for public
- public comment. Does anybody want to comment on Ordinance 2026-12? And same rules as always,
- please sign in, say your name or alias, same if you're online and you'll have three minutes to comment.
- We'll start in chambers and I'll go online afterwards. Go ahead. Hi, Joshua Stockton. I just wanted
- to briefly comment on my experience using the library and that specific section of road. The library
- does get a lot of
- especially in their parking lot, and it eventually does spill over into the adjacent area of street
- parking. So I found myself oftentimes parking in that section of road. And I also wanted to highlight
- the importance that there are two accessible parking spots on that section of road in front of the library,
- as well as seven more parking spots. So closing that road would eliminate those spots. Thank you so
- much. Next commenter in chambers.
- Hello, I'm Greg Alexander. So first thing, I have to say this. The data that ESD presented showing fewer
- visits on Kirkwood is bogus. It's provided by a vendor called Placer.ai. Placer claims that they use
- opt-in data collection. Did you opt into that? I didn't. Nobody did. It's spyware. What they do is you
- install an app that says it'll do one thing and instead it sends information to advertisers and data mongers.
- And then they use AI to turn that spotty data based on people that were gullible enough to take a virus
- onto their phone and they extrapolate for the rest of us that's Very poor methodology if you had asked
- a planner instead of ESD They would have said this is very hard data to get but instead we got a very
- gullible department that but silicon snake oil I'm sorry
- It's non-information. You don't know, I don't know whether it's more or less, and that's really unfortunate.
- I'd like to know that. But for decades, I've heard a ton of people saying, I will never go downtown
- if. And frankly, I don't listen to that because they either go downtown or they don't. They continue
- to go downtown if they're the kind of people that go downtown. They continue to not if they don't. They
- don't change their behavior based on all the things that drivers complain about. So I'm gonna buck that
- trend. I'm gonna say outright the truth. I don't think I'll go downtown more
- if you close it to cars. I'll go downtown either way. But if I'm not quite so close to cars while I'm
- walking or eating or playing with my kids, I will enjoy it more. For me at least, the quantity won't
- change, but the quality will. And I think we really shouldn't be focusing on numbers, number of visits,
- number of minutes, number of dollars. We should be looking at the quality of the place and look at IU.
- For example, I went to IU because it was so cheap. My parents were staff. I got a huge discount. A lot
- of my friends were paying out-of-state tuition, like literally eight or 10 times as much as I was. I
- couldn't believe it, so I would ask them. And they said, I came for a visit, and it was the most beautiful
- campus I'd ever seen. And that didn't happen by accident. You know, I take it for granted. I grew up
- here. I was playing pooh sticks in Jordan River before I could, you know. And that was built.
- Herman Wells said we're going to emphasize quality of place and we're gonna let the numbers take care
- of themselves and that works Please have faith in making a quality place downtown. Thank you Thank you
- so much our next commentor in chambers and then I'll move on then Paul Russo Thank you for bringing
- this forward I'm a strong supporter of the idea three quick points
- With regard to the public library, I routinely see small BT access buses in the parking lot in the back
- of the library. So they do come in and out, and they do pick up people there. Second point is that with
- regard to the timeline, I would remind you that there is currently rather adversarial relationship between
- the legislative and the executive, and if you
- Pass this on your 10th June 10th meeting and the mirror vetoes it That's six weeks gone until your next
- meeting Whereas if you pass it on the third You have time to come back and override a veto and you are
- this is something that is overriding what she wanted to do so consider that and the
- Other issue is that again possibly having to do with the answer adversarial relationship. I would advise
- not having 90 days Because we already have a city that is abusing I think in my opinion for whatever
- reason not impugning anybody's motives, but the 180 day orders are consecutively consecutively being
- used and I think those are supposed to be an emergency basis only so
- We have a precedent here for emergency orders being abused. Thank you. Thank you. We'll move online.
- Are there any commenters online? All right, back in chambers. Good evening. This is Chris Ramsey from
- the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, a membership organization with 900 businesses. 80% of those
- are small and nonprofits. We're kind of getting into a little bit of the summer repeats. I feel like
- I've been up here. I've talked about this. I think I've blogged about it.
- Kirkwoods, when there's festivals happening, outdoor dining, and it really comes together, it's where
- people come, where we have community. But the real question before us is are we prepared to build the
- infrastructure needed to support what would increasingly become a permanent pedestrian district? We
- can't just say no cars and it becomes this high quality Herman B. Wells vision of a pedestrian mall.
- It's much more complicated.
- Than that I mean because it no longer we're dealing with a temporary pilot the ordinance speaks to long-term
- certainty predictability of seasonal schedules and more permanent civic environment It's a major policy
- shift and I understand it. I thought Councilmember daily did a wonderful job of sort of presenting the
- legislation But we're moving that direction We need to recognize that these districts don't succeed
- it simply by closing streets We don't just that it doesn't make a pedestrian mall doing that they succeed
- when we invest in the systems and make them functional and
- Accessible and sustainable. I think right now we're putting a little bit of the cart before the horse
- Many of the businesses I know even that ones that support feel like the The vision is moving faster
- than the infrastructure behind it. The chamber has never taken a stand on the Kirkwood closure We've
- been very much split with our members on that it works for a lot of some of the downtown bars and restaurants
- and other ones I know the bicycles shopping one of them didn't support it
- And there's other issues we'll maybe get into later, but I think the main one right now that we gotta
- think about is the infrastructure. Are we closing it way too early before we've really got that in place
- and where we're kind of creating more of a pedestrian desert than an oasis? Thank you. Thank you so
- much. Next commenter in chambers.
- Hi Steve Olin I wanted to speak individually not as a chair of the Transportation Commission to talk
- about a few of the issues that I know we're going to be looking at. One of the reasons that we're talking
- about who has the authority to make decisions about street closures came from
- a debate that some veteran members of council would recall as to whether or not the engineer, whether
- or not every street control or closure should be in city code or whether it should be abstracted out
- to an administrative document that will be overseen by what is now the director of engineering. And
- so it's an administrative issue, but it did start, that's where this debate over, well, who should have
- the authority
- Came from and it's I think actually a problem that you all are going to be you know You're already thinking
- about it and you're going to be facing it soon enough It's a little bit above our pay grade
- at the Transportation Commission We are also going to be looking at the various ways that a street can
- be closed partially as well as fully Jersey barriers bollards and the like I
- We want to talk about the significance of parking and how to measure the value of it as an asset and
- what data is really reliable rather than anecdotal for the commission to use in deliberating on these
- issues. The legal question is also one that's a notch above us. We are actually waiting for some kind
- of guidance because there is a
- That's is still in dispute who has authority. I mean my personal belief is that it is the council's
- authority ultimately To decide to close streets a reminder that the Board of Public Works is represented
- on our body Rick Coppock is the representative appointed by the Board of Public Works so they're aware
- of what we do director Wason was at our recent meeting on Monday and We're regularly in touch with them
- The June 10th date was also decided because we want to give staff the time to be able to create a memo.
- We're expecting that we're gonna be able to present you with some documentation from consulting Board
- of Public Works, the engineering department, the planning department, whoever is going to be tasked
- with, I mean planning should be making a recommendation on this as well.
- Fine and finally the the last thing to say is that when multiple departments and interests are stakeholders
- Who should be making policy? We're gonna tee up as much as we can But this issue is one we're looking
- to you for guidance on which department or departments should be making should should outrank others
- make the final decision on policy last thing is But that's your time The mayor has ten days to override a veto
- So you won't be able to override. Thank you. Any other comments in chambers? Good evening. Chris Sturbaum.
- I spend my Saturdays with my grandson. We call it Grandpa Saturdays. And we usually often head to Kirkwood,
- and he likes Goodfellas pizza. And you know what? My memory of Kirkwood in the summer, Bear,
- tables sitting in the hot sun with like three or four people out on the tables. That's just what we
- see. We also find it harder to get to good fellows. I become an expert on old people or I'm fast becoming
- an expert on old people and old people don't get around the same way young people get around. And when
- you think about taking away what the concept of a shared street
- Means there's place for people their place for cars. There's even parking but when it's a barricaded
- street, you know with empty tables inside it we have to we find like we have to work our way to get
- into Goodfellas and He's a better walker than I am and I don't walk that far anymore but just think
- about the rest of the continuous constituency that is older and the funny thing is
- The students have left town. So now sometimes the townies take over and they'd like to go downtown.
- And sometimes that feels more like a barricade than a wonderland. So I just wanted to give you that
- perspective. Thank you. Thank you so much. Last chance for people online. Fantastic. All right. Any
- final comments? And thank you all for your comments. Any final direction comments that you'd like to
- offer Councilmember Ruff?
- We spend a lot more time thinking about an implementation thinking about timeline It just seems to me
- like there's the fundamental question of whether the administration Is going to say and I want to thank
- dr. Cooper Smith very much for being here But whether the administration is going to assert that this
- is not within the council's peer view and
- seems to be come before any of these other discussions because If it comes down to a dispute the council
- doesn't have staff to Implement the measures to turn the street into a pedestrian way for a part of
- the year So if it's a stalemate it doesn't happen Does it lead to a further legal
- Confrontation that's a long time in coming then so You know one of the first dramatic things that this
- new administration did when the term began one of the early ones besides telling council that That they
- would not support any or indoor sign any resolutions that the administration deemed not really city business
- One of the other first initial big things dramatic steps that was taken changes from prior administrations
- was to assert that title 15 that Council didn't have any purview over what happened on the streets,
- right? That was a purely administration business And judging it based on how quickly the administration
- from beginning till the very end asserted over and over again the Council's
- Ability or lack of ability to us have reasonable conditions on the Hopewell project. I'm I'm sort of
- I Don't understand why we don't have a firmer Statement of position from the administration right now
- on this and I just I don't really want to spend much more of my own time and I don't think council or
- public time and
- on talking about implementation and timelines, et cetera, et cetera, until we know, you know, what is
- the position going to be? Is it going to be that council does? Because then the veto doesn't even matter.
- The mayor doesn't need to veto something. The administration says that we don't have the right to do
- it, and they're just not going to do it because they disagree. Then there's no need for a veto. So,
- you know, a lot of what we're doing here, and I appreciate very much
- My council colleagues are bringing this forward And again, I appreciate director Coopersmith being here
- But I think there's a fundamental question that we need to know Soon very soon before we really take
- this much farther and it spends much more time discussing it So that was my final comment. Thank you.
- Thank you so much Councillor Flaherty. Thank you I'm excited generally about the prospect of opening
- Kirkwood to pedestrians
- not a closure, it's just framing, you know, do we open it to cars, do we open it to pedestrians, at
- no point will the street be closed, it will be open at different times for different uses. Second, on
- the point of council authority, I guess, Council Member Ruff just kind of covered this, there's also
- been other instances.
- Corporation counsel has sort of been casting doubt on counsel's authority, and then we end up in this
- sort of limbo where they essentially have what they want, which is we're not regulating anything via
- Title 15 anymore. I'm reminded of this monthly at Transportation Commission when Director Seaborg comes
- and reminds us of the ever-expanding list of 180-day orders that are being extended and extended in
- perpetuity. I actually don't think that's acceptable. I think our temporary counsel attorney support
- mentioned Bloomington Code 15.08.040,
- which is about enabling, empowering rather, the city engineer to make such regulations in the first
- place, the administration's violating that code right now, no question. By its letter, there's
- no optionality, shall not remain in effect for more than 180 days. In the event they want to make it
- permanent, they shall be made in writing that request and submitted to the common council for
- its consideration prior to the expiration of the order. They've been violating this for years, they've
- been doing it more egregiously since the mayor took office, it's unacceptable.
- So I'm not okay with that. I think we need to seek resolution immediately. And if not, seek to hold
- the administration accountable for violating city law. Third point, this goes to Mr. Emgy's point. I
- think he's right to some degree. I don't think it's a cart horse. I don't think we should choose not
- to proceed because we haven't decided every issue. But you're right, the, let's say, mixed experience
- and diverse perspectives around just how successful it's been
- to open Kirkwood to pedestrians while closing it to cars for periods of time is it's largely chalked
- up to a failure of vision, not a failure of possibility. And look at Burlington, Charlottesville, Ithaca,
- Boulder, Iowa City. All of these places have wonderful pedestrian malls that have been successful for
- many decades. Boulder, among the longest standing, Pearl Street in Boulder,
- been open to pedestrians and other users besides cars for half a century. That took vision. I once read
- the story of how it was created. It took a lot of work to get it done. There was a lot of opposition,
- as you might expect. And it's amazing. It makes that town to a significant extent. We have that potential
- here. It takes vision. I know that's not coming from this mayor. The question is whether the council
- can use its authority both to create the legal
- structure, I guess, necessary to enact this, but then also through the budget process. If we want to
- see this done, let's see it done. We can accelerate these things. We can choose what to prioritize.
- We can focus that attention and have that infrastructure redesign that's needed to make this a truly
- wonderful pedestrian mall experience. It's so naturally suited to it from the courthouse square to the
- sample gates. I hope we can get it done. I very much appreciate my colleagues for bringing this back after the
- Shannigan's a couple months ago with the other ordinance that did this. Thank you Thank you so much
- any other comments Fantastic go ahead councilmember daily
- Just wanted to really quickly thank councilmember Rosenberger for all her really hard and amazing work
- on doing this. Thank you And all of the you know city staff that we've met with and have been giving
- us their feedback, especially Director Cooper Smith for being here this evening and director Cooper
- Smith. I'm really sorry that we cause you heartburn I will try to not cause you as much heartburn as
- possible But that's it I just want to thank everybody for their comments tonight, too. I
- One more real fast because councilmember Flaherty is talk about budgeting and that we have budget power
- reminded me of our 2027 budget priorities letter that I sent to the administration and one of the things
- on that priority list was creating vibrant third places slash neighborhood hubs which included activating
- vacant space and investing and ensuring public spaces are high quality engaging and active and the activation
- of Kirkwood could be
- It absolutely falls under that I think that it was even mentioned specifically but I just wanted to
- point that out both to the public to council members and also to any administration Officials including
- the mayor who may be watching this meeting. Thank you Excellent excellent, I would like to take the
- privilege of saying the last thing of just saying I echo all the things that were said so Okay, we any motions
- I move I motion to move this to June 3rd Second there's a motion in the second any discussion All those
- in favor. Hi Any opposed I just had one point of discussion just that at this time Council members or
- anyone else has anything, you know, we council member daily and I are accepting questions and comments
- great. Yes
- Well, we already passed the motion to move it in nine. Oh So let us move on. Thank you very much. We'll
- now move to legislation for second readings and resolutions I Move that resolution 20 2605 Be read by
- title and synopsis only second. There's a motion and a second any discussion All those in favor say
- aye aye any opposed
- Alright that motion carries eight. Oh Will the clerk please read Resolution 20 2605 a resolution to
- initiate a proposal to amend title 20 unified development ordinance of the Bloomington Municipal Code
- in order to improve sustainability and housing affordability synopsis
- This resolution sponsored by council member Flaherty directs the plan commission to prepare amendments
- to the unified development ordinance regarding one, a reduction of minimum lot widths, lot areas, and
- building setback requirement to better align with Bloomington's historic form and character.
- Two, sustainability incentives and planned unit development requirements.
- for building electrification and Three the elimination of minimum parking requirements to facilitate
- housing development and reduce housing costs I move that resolution 2020 605 be adopted second. All
- right councilmember Flaherty Thank you. So it's been a minute, but I did present on this maybe six to
- eight weeks ago at some point
- And what I'd like to suggest to start actually is that we just consider an amendment that was needed
- to kind of clean something up. And in fact, there was an amendment 1A that went out with a clerical
- correction in your packet this afternoon. There was a typo, I was off by one section of Indiana code
- that was referenced in 80.5.
- After one of the the citations, so that's that's an amendment 1a and I'd like to move we adopt Amendment
- 1a to resolution 2026 with six second Go ahead So, I don't know if it's helpful to display every we
- could basically this this is to amend section 6 of the of the resolution section 6 covers the process
- that will follow from this resolution, so it's a state-defined process for
- council-initiated recommendations to the Plan Commission for UDO changes. So it used to be a 90-day
- window in total for the Plan Commission to develop a consider proposal and get back to the council with
- a recommendation. Now it's sort of bifurcated to 60-day windows that are up to 60 days. So they have
- to hold a public hearing within the first 60 days, the Plan Commission does, and then it says they shall
- vote on a proposal within 60 days of holding the public hearing.
- And so yeah, that's the new process that was changed in state code I think a year ago when this was
- first, a prior version of this resolution was drafted. Previously that was not the case. So I was not
- aware of that when I brought this back in the form this year and that's why the correction. Any questions?
- No, seeing no.
- We'll move to public comment then does anybody like would anybody like to comment specifically on amendment
- one to Ordinance resolution 2026 oh five Just on the amendment Is does this deal with the parking issue
- Amendment one or are there three different issues?
- three different amendments that We don't usually answer but I bet that you know, we should I don't As
- a point of information this amendment is is only clarifying Some code references in the synopsis, right?
- I'm not necessary synopsis section 6. It's about the process to plan commission uses to consider Changes
- it's not about the substance of any changes. Oh, that's Issues but those issues don't
- Anything to do with this is that what you're not with this amendment, but you'll get a chance to comment
- on the broader thing Which is included there. Yes Thank you Good evening, Dave Askins with the B square
- bulletin. I think that mr. Allen can confirm What I'm about to say is correct councilmember Flaherty's
- recitation of the history is just factually wrong This 260 day windows have always been In place that's
- the way it's always been
- and the use of a 90-day window that was based on the advice of past city council's legal counsel that
- I think was just flat-out inaccurate. But I think that, according to Mr. Allen, the synopsis has been
- corrected to reflect the accurate history of the legislation. And I'm content that in writing it's accurate,
- but what Councilmember Flaherty just recited is not, thanks.
- Any other commenters in the chambers? Anyone online? Okay, we will come back to amendment one. Council
- member Fleuraday. Just thank you to Mr. Askins for the correction. Glad we've got it right in writing.
- That's what we count on our staff for. Thank you. Any other comments? Questions?
- Happy to take a vote on amendment one If there was a motion I think yeah, sorry. We already have a motion.
- Can we do a voice vote on this? Clerk we have to do it individual. Will you please call the roll? Council
- members Tosberg. Yes, Piedmont Smith. Yes, Zulek. Yes. I'm sorry. Yes, Daley. Yes, Rallo. Yes, Ruff. Yes. I
- Rosenberger yes clarity Yes Okay now now the bill as amended So as I noted I did have a PowerPoint
- presentation on this that I presented previously when we first heard it So I don't feel the need to
- go through that again also in the packet Somehow the file is not not readable Which I was at a work
- event all week and didn't catch a
- to correct it earlier, but again, no matter, I don't think I need to present that PowerPoint. Again,
- what I'd like to do is just kind of do a brief or talk through of the policy aims here and the sections
- of the resolution so that, yeah, just to refresh, because it's been a minute. So is it possible to display
- the resolution itself and maybe zoom in a little bit on the sections as I kind of go through?
- Okay, so high level I mean this is about three Policy areas that are all in city goals and plans that
- we've adopted They all relate to sustainability and affordability hence the title of the resolution
- And I'll break it down into three sections so we could go to the first section And those first two sections
- are about housing most squarely in particular that we need more
- housing of all kinds. We need more market rate housing, but that market rate housing is not a binary.
- Adding more housing could be suburban sprawl. It could be high density multifamily. We've definitely
- had some of that. It can also be infill, and in particular, infill with modest home sizes, and in some
- cases, missing middle housing. This proposal has nothing to do with missing middle housing. It only
- has to do with basically
- removing some barriers to developing the type of housing that we've always developed historically.
- And namely, that is allowing smaller homes on smaller lots, which when compared like for like with other
- adjacent housing, is more affordable. I will say new construction is rarely the most affordable because
- it's expensive to build things new. But we have a housing system, and as things age over time, they
- tend to become more affordable.
- And also, again, when you're comparing apples to apples, smaller lots, less land, smaller homes all
- mean more affordable relative to bigger lots, bigger homes, et cetera, under the same conditions. So
- to enable that, section one looks to basically the residential zoning areas and looks at the minimum
- lot sizes and
- the lot widths, which are, as currently in the UDO, much bigger than the historical development patterns
- of Bloomington. And my PowerPoint presentation that I presented to you all previously demonstrated that
- with some different neighborhoods throughout town, that we had 2,500 square foot, 3,000 square foot
- lots with modest homes. We don't allow those anymore in code. Section two covers some related areas
- which have
- Basically, when you change minimum lot sizes and minimum widths, to make that functional, you probably
- need to look at some things like the setbacks, possibly the subdivision requirements, lot frontage
- requirements, things like that. Maybe impervious surface coverage. So this just calls out some of those
- things that might be corollaries to changing minimum lot size and width that the planning commission
- and staff supporting them will need to consider.
- Sections one and two, which again are about basically enabling the type of development that we used
- to have that we no longer allow. Moving on to section three, this is kind of the second substantive
- area of the resolution, sections three and four. So this is about adding, beyond the efficiency that
- is already a part of our, like energy efficiency that is already a part of our incentives in the UDO,
- adding electrification to that.
- So from an affordability perspective from a resident health perspective and from a sustainability standpoint
- high efficiency all electric buildings are the only viable path that's aligned with our city commitments
- and long-standing goals on reducing climate pollution and when efficiency and electrification are paired
- it's both cost competitive in new construction and lower cost operationally over time and
- And so what this aims to do, and we can't mandate these things by the way. We can't mandate electrification
- in the same way we can't mandate inclusionary zoning and that we can't mandate energy efficiency that
- goes beyond state code. And so what we rely on for those things that we value in Bloomington but don't
- have the home rule authority to enact as mandates, we use the incentives, the power of incentives in
- the UDO. And so that's what this would do. It would bring electrification into the incentive section.
- around sustainability and that's it, that's what it would do. If we wanna scroll down to section four,
- it would then also have PUDs mirror that by requiring the PUDs to follow some path on the sustainable
- development incentives in the incentive section of the UDO. So PUDs right now, we already require that
- on the housing affordability front.
- On the sustainability front, it's a little looser. It does reference it, but it's sort of like left
- at the discretion of the planning director. And so it's kind of wishy washy right now, what we expect
- on the sustainability front from PUDs. And I'll note here specifically that our Bloomington Climate
- Action Plan explicitly calls for requiring building electrification in PUDs, electrification in PUDs.
- So that's implementing or would implement what's in the Climate Action Plan.
- Okay, so on to section 5 the third substantive area of this resolution This also is called for in the
- climate action plan and it's about eliminating minimum parking requirements Throughout the city and
- so a few things about that. It does not change maximum parking requirements That is it doesn't change
- what people can choose to build None of that would change what it does do is it stops mandating? parking where a
- housing builder may choose not to include it for various reasons. It could be that the type of clientele
- or prospective tenants or owners that they want to cater to are not folks that need or prefer to have
- multiple cars. It might be that it's transit-oriented development. It might be that it is in a dense,
- walkable area in downtown or near the university. There are lots of reasons, and we have good examples
- of this historically that used to have to jump through a lot of hoops to be built.
- The, in particular, one I've referenced before are the apartment buildings on the southwest corner of
- 4th and Madison, right by the IFL building there. They used to be called the bicycle apartments. I don't
- know if they're still called that. You know, there's some of the more affordable apartment options in
- the downtown. There's more housing there, and it was lower cost to build because they didn't have to
- build parking on site. So again, lots of folks choose to drive and want one or two or more parking spaces
- where they live.
- That's not everybody. There's a significant portion of our community that doesn't drive at all, chooses
- not to, can't, et cetera. So it stops forcing us to build parking when it's not always warranted, while
- still allowing us to build as much parking as currently allowed with new developments. And just to note
- that this has been taken up by now hundreds of cities around the country. It's very well documented
- that this has been a major driver of increased housing costs and a barrier to housing development at all.
- And our peers up in South Bend have already done this. Lots of peer cities in college towns across the
- country. And so yeah, on to section six and seven. Section six we just amended. This gets to the process
- that follows from here. So just a reminder that this resolution is not itself enacting any new policies.
- It is directing Plan Commission to consider new policies.
- make recommendations and bring it back to the council in the form of an ordinance that we would then
- later consider. So we will have opportunity at later point to discuss the details of what this actually
- looks like as formal proposed policy. Right now it's saying we would like the plan commission, we would
- like staff to move on these things that are aligned with our goals, sometimes called for in our plans
- that we have not yet at staff's initiative brought forward. So that's the process we've done at a fair
- amount this term.
- with UDO or at least a few times. Let's see, Section 7 is just about severability. So if any provisions
- deemed not valid, the other ones still are upheld. And I would say there are public engagement. The
- Plan Commission process itself is
- built for that. We also had lots of engagement on these topics with the Planning Department through
- deliberation sessions last year. A lot of these topics were discussed. The Planning Department is also
- working on developing substantive changes. I think these are somewhat aligned, but probably distinct
- in some areas. Just with some preliminary conversations with staff, I don't think all of these things
- would be coming necessarily from staff and the administration.
- So I think it's just a shared responsibility. We can both propose and bring things to the UDO. I think
- it aligns well with their timelines and is worth moving on. The thing that was the impetus for me in
- bringing it back actually was the Hopewell South PUD where we allowed for two and a half blocks virtually
- everything in this resolution. And the fact that we don't allow any of these things currently was the
- driving factor for why the administration chose to bring a PUD in the first place rather than just following
- city code.
- And so I'm hopeful that we can use some of these tools that the administration agreed at that time were
- you know, well well proven affordability solutions to and housing availability solutions to Apply them
- more broadly citywide. But again, those votes will come later. This is just directly the process happy
- to answer any questions. Thank you Any questions council members All right seeing none any comments
- Okay councilmemor and then it will go to public comment. Yeah briefly first of all, thank you councilman
- for flirty for your patience because I know this has come before the council many times I Find this
- in general alignment with a comprehensive plan. I do find that there are devils in the detail I don't
- want to go explicitly into them just to say that regarding minimum lot sizes, I think that there's there's a lot of
- work that could be done in order to To create more housing in traditional neighborhood forms. I'm supportive
- of the electrification Commitment the minimum parking requirements. I have trouble with the times I
- think it depends upon the the placement of it because I see that Having only minimal parking sizes.
- Obviously the developer might choose the
- Build as much as possible which increases more housing, but then it imposes parking parking elsewhere
- So but since this is a resolution, I think it's very Good idea to have planning staff explore these
- topics bring back Relevant ordinances and then I'll reserve judgment on those when they appear.
- Thank you. I'll support it Thank you so much
- Otherwise, if seeing none, we'll go to public comment. Would anybody like to comment on resolution 2026.05
- as amended? See a couple of people, thank you so much. And online, you'll get your chance shortly, so
- have your clicker fingers ready. Exactly.
- For those who commented earlier if you didn't if you did not sign in just a reminder please go and sign
- in so we can surveil jokes. My name is Kathy Barry and with respect to council member Flaherty's care
- about sustainability and affordable housing. I am here to disagree with this resolution a resolution
- to initiate
- a proposal to amend Title 20 in order to improve sustainability and housing affordability.
- In a few words, please don't initiate this. Most of the changes are already available for people and
- are being tried. I think we need to wait and see if they have the intended effect. For example, paragraph
- four of the preamble says minimum lot widths and areas required by the UDO do not align well with the
- historic and existing form of the relevant zoning districts, but they do.
- They are the history of older zoning and even no zoning. Original owners may have bought two lots or
- two neighbors split a lot between their houses. This gives a neighborhood character and creates different
- prices for the houses. The paragraph goes on to say minimum lot widths unduly restrict housing availability
- and affordability. But I think increasing the number of compact form houses only attracts more buyers
- who want that lifestyle.
- and that will increase the cost. I appreciate that focus groups have established that Bloomington is
- not affordable for many people. But I, as one who worked for 35 years in clerical and customer service
- jobs, have also noticed what people focus on. Secretaries, nurses, delivery drivers, bank staff, and
- hospitality workers do seem to feel and will say Bloomington is too expensive. But I wonder if they
- mean too expensive for what you get.
- I believe that people who work on their feet face to face with people for 10 or 12 hours a day don't
- want to get off work, pack up the family, and walk to the park or the farmers market. Their children
- who may have been in excellent schools or low-cost child care have not seen their parents for 10 or
- 12 hours. Maybe they are tired of playgrounds even if the equipment is really cool.
- The people I meet in all these walks of life often commute from Lawrence, Morgan, Owen, Green, and even
- Orange counties, perhaps because for the same cost of a brand new zero lot line home in Bloomington,
- they can get their own backyard and a sense of privacy and family togetherness.
- I know that as a city we are committed to sustainable actions and have deadlines looming under the climate
- action plan. But again, all the changes sought in this proposal as legislation are actions that individuals
- can take now.
- Please let's set this proposal aside and watch what happens with Hope Well Bloomington co-housing the
- land trusts and other housing and facility use trends and let's all continue to encourage each other
- to use resources wisely as our life circumstances and convictions guide us. Thank you. Thank you. Next
- comment in chambers. Hello I'm Greg Alexander.
- It's a good proposal, good start. My worries are all processed. I'm worried that staff will drag their
- feet and neither plan commission or you guys will be able to press the issue. I'm worried the room for
- interpretation might wind up gutting it. I'm worried the zoning map itself will continue to be a collection
- of special interests written down on a map rather than a rational approach to building a city. I'm worried
- that if it ever does come back to you after plan commission that you guys will chicken out that it won't
- pass here.
- Mostly, though, I'm worried about a parallel staff-led process that might make essentially the same
- changes. When Hopewell South first came before you guys, I said that the one-off PUD was being brought
- instead of comprehensive reform, and Director Hittle confronted my claim head-on. He said that his department
- was urgently pursuing reform, and he laid out a timeline that could result in major UDO updates before
- this body as soon as September.
- He probably believed it was true when he said it but I knew it wasn't true and I hope you guys weren't
- fooled either it's not true the administration is pursuing hopeful instead of Comprehensive reform.
- So my biggest hope for this resolution is that it might provide a little kick in the pants for that
- process You guys need to face the reality that in actual fact You will have to play hardball with the
- mayor if you want to solve any of our city's problems The mayor wants to avoid an ugly political scene
- more than she wants to make Bloomington prosperous for all of its residents
- After my kids move out in six years, I want to build a small house, a shotgun shack in the side yard
- of my 10th acre property. It's just half a mile north of here. I want to recoup some of my costs by
- renting it out. And then when I retire, I want to sell it so that I can keep my house that I live in
- now that I love. I want to provide a retirement for myself. I want to provide additional housing for
- my neighborhood.
- for the businesses that I go to, and I want to keep my house. My goals are reasonable. It will take
- an active council, though, to make it happen. You can make it happen if the minimum lot size and setbacks
- are small enough. For comparison, Hopewell South reduced those numbers to zero.
- Zero minimum lot size zero setback. That's a reasonable goal for a city. We are a city It's not a reasonable
- goal out in the county. It would be a disaster in Ellisville But this is a good first step. I just hope
- it doesn't turn into nothing. Thank you Thank you so much. Are there any other commenters in the room?
- He's preparing if there's anybody online you'd be ready. You're next. So I now understand that this
- is just a proposal to examine all this stuff and most of it makes good sense. You know the I just want
- I just live in a neighborhood a core neighborhood where one or two extra cars is a crisis. People are
- parked and
- It sounds really good to eliminate parking restrictions, but somebody puts a triplex nearby and there
- are no parking restrictions. It wrecks the neighborhood. We're going to be parking locks away and there's
- no alternative. People have to have, I have a car for my business. My wife has a car to pick up the
- grandson and to do all her things. And one great idea really doesn't fit all places and
- Right now you can have you can appeal the parking issues and let the bca look at that area and say,
- you know Is this going to cause a negative impact on adjacent property? And eliminating that and giving
- it by right Means we don't really care if it has a negative impact on adjacent property because we think
- we have the best idea but if you really think about how to apply it and
- Carefully and sensitively. That's the same thing with density It's a great idea in a lot of areas some
- places. It doesn't really work. So Just watch out one size doesn't fit all and there are real consequences
- to real people down on the ground Thank you all Thank you so much anyone online Fantastic anybody else
- in chambers
- All right, and we'll come back to council members and then any final comments Councilmember Stossberg
- Thank you. Um, I just want to thank councilmember Flaherty for his persistence With this resolution.
- I'm very happy to support it this evening. I do want to address the public comment that talked about the
- Commitments that director Hittle made I did actually check in with him a few weeks ago about how that
- process was going He said he was actually waiting for to figure out what was that gonna happen with
- this resolution? So there I think that the Planning Department is eager for us to deal with this because
- it has been on our agenda multiple times But our meetings have just gone so long that we didn't have
- a chance to vote on it So I'm very pleased that we can actually consider and move on this tonight. So,
- thank you and
- Anyone else. Council member Rosenberger a little question a little question. How does the transportation
- plan work in conjunction with this that these are you do changes and then would it make sense during
- this process for council to also take on looking at
- transportation plan for how it might fit or be updated because just in the vein of things that hope
- well Did differently there were? Setback not set back there were right-of-way requirements that were
- difficult and on-street parking and sidewalks things that so would it make sense to sort of be looking
- at that while this is going on or have you thought of that or is it something that would happen later or
- I would say it's invoked essentially by section 2 which mentioned subdivision standards and gets into
- that. I think we identified that maybe the most significant part of the transportation plan that needs
- some change and flexibility with respect to its interaction with housing development in the built environment
- is the ability to adjust the required right-of-way width based on whether or not the street typology
- You're using, well, just the street itself has parking or not, basically. So the rights of way in the
- transportation plan are rigid, and they assume a street typology that has parking included. It's sort
- of like the model for that type of street, neighborhood connector, arterial, general urban, whatever.
- And some streets just don't have parking. There are older streets. They're not going to have parking.
- We know that. I don't know.
- Henderson would be, or I always get them confused, Hillside and Henderson, whichever one's north-south.
- That's a good example, right? We're not gonna add like a parking lane to that street. Henderson,
- thank you. So we need the ability to adjust the right-of-way width because when lots are being subdivided,
- that's a good example. Like a lot that's in Bryant Park that could be subdivided that fronts on Henderson,
- it might not be functionally possible without additional changes to address that. And so it's possible
- that would like warrant
- You know wouldn't be able to fully unlock the potential here until we make changes to the transportation
- plan Maybe some of that can be covered in the subdivision standard section of the UDO which again is
- called out here but really that's gonna be for planning experts planning step experts to Guide I think
- I think we can help do that and I guess just to that to that. Well, yeah. Yeah, so I think that's my
- answer Great. Thank you. I just thought about it when it was brought up at public comments about maybe
- subdividing a point one acre of
- locked and that right of way would make it probably pretty challenging. So that's great, thank you.
- Can I say one follow-up thing to that, which is that we've generally required lots of any size, even
- single lot subdivisions to come into compliance with all those things. And I do wonder if different
- approaches are warranted for a full block when a full block is being changed, like it was in Hopewell
- versus a single lot
- on a street. We did just make an adjustment. If you recall, the staff brought changes recently up to
- the UDO. We now have a sidewalk payment in lieu option on a site-specific basis like that where it doesn't
- really make sense to build just a single lot of sidewalk. Maybe it's proposed still. Sorry. Time is
- fluid right now. Anyway, good question. I think it will potentially have some interaction with that.
- which I think, again, is already on staff priority. Excellent. If it's OK with the body, I'd like to
- move to a vote, because we have lots of other things on the agenda, and this will come back to us. Can
- I say one last thing? Yes, yes. Which is just thank you. Thank you to my colleagues for consideration,
- and I hope I get your support. Also, just to planning staff, I don't know how common this is when we
- pass these resolutions. I would like to be, I guess, I offer to be as involved as you all would let
- me in the steps along the way, just to
- Try to ensure we have alignment and you know, if you have questions about intent that kind of thing
- I'd love to stay involved. So thank you All right. Will the clerk please call the roll? Councilmember
- P. Monsmith Yes, so like yes. I'm sorry. Yes Daley. Yes, Rallo. Yes rough Rosenberger. Yes clarity. Yes
- Yes, that carries nine. Oh, thank you very much everybody And thank you councilmember Flaherty for both
- your patience and hard work on this. All right moving on other I move that resolution 20 2606 be read
- by title and synopsis only Second there's a motion in a second. All those in favor say aye aye all those opposed
- All right, that motion carries nine. Oh, will the clerk please read? Resolution 20 2606 a resolution
- directing the Housing and Neighborhood Development Department to develop a framework for long-term housing
- affordability Synopsis the resolution sponsored by councilmember member Zulik directs the Housing and
- Neighborhood Development Department hand
- to develop a legally permissible framework for ensuring the long-term affordability of housing units
- supported by the city, including the use of tools such as silent second mortgages, rights of first refusal,
- and other shared equity mechanisms, and to provide recommendations for any necessary amendments to the
- unified development ordinance and related provisions of the Bloomington Municipal Code.
- I move that resolution 20 20 606 be adopted Second, all right council members of it. Yes. Thank you.
- Just real quick I know we have lots to do today. So I will very quickly go through the sections essentially
- this is intended to be a continuation of our intent to produce affordable housing across the city and
- indicate our
- intent to do this much past Hopewell this was initially intended to be voted on right after Hopewell
- so that we were all still thinking about it. But as you know that was a long council meeting. So essentially
- this resolution
- directs the housing and neighborhood development department to develop a framework for affordability
- measures across our city evaluation of tools development of clear standards a review of best practices
- and then a presentation of findings to counsel within 120 days.
- If you're if anyone has a question of why 120 days I will remind us all that we have a six week break.
- Well yes I did plan on doing it six months ago but there will be a six week break at this point. So
- now we will need that extra time to accommodate for council recess. The last section is next steps at
- which point after presentation from the hand department council can then consider any additional legislation.
- So that is my presentation. Happy to answer any questions Fantastic. Is there anybody from the hand
- department or from city? Offices that would like to comment on this Okay, I'm seeing none and council
- members questions All right council member comments, all right, we'll go to public comment on resolution 20 2606
- Is there anybody in the public who would like to comment on resolution 20, 20, 606? Good evening again,
- Council. It's Christopher from the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. I appreciate Council Member Zulek's
- work on this and it is a very important issue. We've been talking about affordability for quite a long
- time and, um,
- I think we all have the same affordability and attainment for homeownership goal. The concern moving
- forward is the same kind of debate we had on the Hope Well, which is just ensuring that these policies
- are workable in practice. Affordability requirements need to be balanced with financing realities,
- construction costs, and long-term feasibility.
- The affordability standards and too rigid administratively complex in projects may deliver fewer units
- or fail altogether, which we've seen. So I just want to keep that in mind as we sort of move forward
- with affordability issues. I thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Is there anyone online who'd
- like to win the prize of being the first online commenter for the night?
- No, they the prize might be great. Okay Anyone in there all in the room? I keep on I say the office
- none. Okay fantastic back to council members any comments councilmember Stasberg Thank you. Um, I just
- want to say there's a few parts of this resolution that I'm not very comfortable with and I didn't ask
- questions about them because I figured it was more of a comment than a question so I didn't want to
- do that then and
- In terms of making amendments to Title 20, which is the UDO, I'm really uncomfortable with a resolution
- Basically gives the hand department that capability when really it's the planning department and the
- planning commission that should have that capability to do that and that really like any city department
- can reach out to another city department and ask questions or have collaboration and and talk about
- proposals like that, but I'm kind of uncomfortable from the council perspective of Saying yes to a resolution that that
- titles that in this way. Secondly, I'm gonna have to go back to what I said during Hopewell numerous
- times in terms of these methods of affordability that, I mean, there's, I appreciate that it's a resolution
- saying, hey, investigate these things, but you know what, I think that the Hand Department has been
- investigating these things for an incredibly long time and never, still never gave us any really good
- information
- data, et cetera, about their efficacy. And I voted no, ultimately, on the affordability amendment related
- to Hopewell because of that. And I considered voting no on the whole thing because of that, because
- I just am really skeptical that we'll get any better information from hand that we've gotten in the
- last six months around this. So I find this whole resolution really frustrating.
- That's Yeah, I just find find the whole thing very frustrating it goes along with my frustration with
- the hand department and This yeah, so I just can't support this I think that hand is probably already
- doing this anyway, especially since hope all was passed with the affordability resolution or affordability
- amendments that basically allowed them to use whatever tools they wanted to so
- And yeah, so I guess that's my comment and I'll be voting no on this this evening. Thank you Thank you
- so much. I'm other I see councilmember. Okay councilmember Zulek councilmember Flaherty comes over daily
- I just I would have appreciated that feedback anytime in the past six weeks where that's been on the
- agenda and
- Thank you, thank you Council Members Zulik for bringing this. I still think a framework, I share some
- of the reservations, but I think a framework will be helpful. My broad concern here is that I think
- some of the mechanisms that the hand department or director has sort of favored at times are ones that
- may require kind of like periodic ongoing public subsidy in order to sustain as permanent affordability
- and like definitionally like maybe that's not permanent affordability anymore if you have to keep putting
- money into it.
- I think the opportunity to like, you know, we passed the UDO, or it's not the UDO, the PUD, the Hopewell
- South PUD, with some uncertainty sort of there, but a requirement for permanent affordability, I think
- we may confront that reality at some point, but I think the opportunity to revisit this in the form
- of a framework will be a good chance to like look further, look more holistically and look further downfield
- and think about the trade-offs involved with various options here. So thank you again, I'll support it.
- Yeah, I'm really excited to support this too. I I think I just want to say thanks councilman Brazil
- look for all the work that you put into this because I think this is a really important good step and
- I think we definitely need this and I think it'll do good things. So it's a it's a great initiative.
- Thank you. Happy to support it Any other comments Seeing that will the clerk please call the
- roll Councilmember Zulek Yes
- Sorry. Yes, Daley. Yes, Rallo. Yes rough. No Rosenberger. Yes clarity. Yes Stasberg no Piedmont Smith.
- Yes That motion carries seven to thank you so very much councilman Zulek All right. Any other motions
- I Move that
- Getting there ordinance twenty twenty six. Oh seven be read by title and synopsis only Second Yes,
- all right, there's a motion at a second any discussion all those in favor say aye Any opposed same sign?
- All right that motion carries nine. Oh, will the clerk please read? Ordinance twenty twenty six. Oh
- seven to amend title eight of the Bloomington Municipal Code and
- Entitled historic preservation and protection to establish a conservation district regarding cottage
- Grove Conservation District Bloomington Historic Preservation Commission petitioner synopsis his ordinance
- amends chapter 8.20 of the Bloomington Municipal Code entitled list of designated historic and conservation
- districts in order to designate the cottage Grove Conservation District and
- neighborhood of a hundred and twenty two properties in the city of Bloomington Monroe County, Indiana
- as a conservation district the majority of structures in the proposed district date from the years before
- and after World War one and are built in the folk Victorian and Queen Anne styles representative of
- this period in Bloomington's history houses from the late 1910s and 1920s are mostly craft
- Craftsman style with a conspicuous number of limestone Tudor revival houses Many of the pre-war houses
- were built by employees of the showers brothers furniture company and bear the hallmarks of carpenter
- built folk housing While many of the larger post-war houses are associated with Bloomington's booming
- limestone industry the neighborhood demonstrates a high degree of integrity and many notable houses and
- Thank you very much. I move that ordinance 20 2607 be adopted second. All right Mr. Sandweiss, I think
- I saw you come in Are you still there you already do the presentation? But is there anything you wanted
- to add based on questions that came up last time or any additional comments? I had received a question
- about the potential council process for any map amendments This has been done in the past I believe
- for the Johnson Creamery property
- In 2022 where there was a council proposed amendment to the map I haven't received any follow-up on
- any specific proposals Other than that we have received a couple of more Comments that are now included
- in your packet since This ordinance was last considered
- I'm also available for any additional questions if I receive any more Excellent. Thank you so much.
- Are there any further questions? Councilmember Stasberg Thank you. I do have questions for mr. Sandweiss.
- So don't don't sit down. Thank you. I Just I just want clarification about the
- I'm going to assume at this point that it's going to roll over into a historic district in three years
- because most conservation districts do and the state standard for keeping them conservation districts
- is extremely high. So I'm going with that assumption with these questions. So at that time when assuming
- it would roll over into a historic district then somebody within the district would need to write district
- guidelines correct.
- That's right. How is that process usually done in terms of how many meetings is that done at? How many
- people tend to attend those meetings? Is there some kind of vote of approval at the meeting? Are there
- other kinds of votes of approval? How is that usually done? So this process is usually handled by groups
- from the neighborhood, oftentimes a neighborhood association if one exists.
- They will often request that members of the Commission or staff attend these meetings. They have to
- be public meetings So that we can make sure that you know, what is being proposed is allowable by local
- code Generally and we don't control the process when this is being proposed from the neighborhood they
- will vote on resolutions for
- guidelines for you know different areas of design that are considered and once that has been reviewed
- by Members of the Commission who've been invited to comment for I guess Being able to hold water according
- to state and local statutes It's presented to the Historic Preservation Commission for a vote which
- then ratifies what's presented from the neighborhood Okay, so in terms of the votes by the neighborhood
- Those resolutions that you said so is that usually like in person at the? For lack of a better term
- neighborhood association meetings whenever I've attended it has been in person. Okay, so I This this
- might sound like a comment but it probably is one of one of my concerns has to do with those
- with those standards and the number of people who participate in that process and approve that process.
- So been talking to attorney Allen around that process and amendments that we could make to that process.
- And currently our code doesn't say much about that process but
- But he he did tell me at least initially he thinks that that code could be modified to define that process
- more including ensuring that for example the majority of owners within the district approve those guidelines.
- Would you agree that we could potentially amend city code to put in guidelines around those resolutions
- and how many property owners within the historic districts would need to approve those rules. I would
- want to see what other precedent there is in the state if there's any other certified local governments
- that I guess involve the city in that way.
- I know that, you know, different cities handle the creation of guidelines in slightly different ways.
- I would also want to make sure that a system of guidelines is created, because if they're not, then
- it's going to be up to the commission to interpret, and we really want to make sure that there's,
- you know, something that's presented to us by people who live in or own property in the neighborhood.
- And it can be difficult to get, you know, a substantial number of people to
- You know show up to meetings or comment to you know respond to emails or letters that are sent initiating
- this process So, you know, I wouldn't rule it out, but I would want to make sure that there's some sort
- of precedent and that it would be workable Okay, great. Thank you Any other questions customer rough
- That's your 10 ways so I've visited the area like four times on foot and bicycle over the last
- or two and as I Went around the area I noticed like going down 12th Street East from Grant, which is
- the current proposed boundary I saw Homes that were I Didn't see any difference between some of those
- homes that are east of between Grant and Indiana
- On 12th Street that were seems any less significant or any less diverse. Why would they not have been
- a part of the proposal? Do you know um So there were several different maps that were proposed by the
- petitioners for this district And When boundaries for a historic district are drawn, you know, they
- should include an area that has a
- sort of a consistent historical and architectural context. I think my understanding is that, and I would
- agree, that the buildings for the most part in this area fit this context. It could be drawn larger
- or it could be drawn smaller to include or exclude buildings that may or may not contribute to it, but
- there has to be a boundary drawn and there is often a preference to
- you know, making discrete boundaries based on sort of clear geographic divisions like Grant Street,
- for instance. For example, there are a number of contributing buildings east of there, but a lot of
- that area of sort of the eastern part of the Cottage Grove neighborhood has already been substantially
- redeveloped. So it's really west of Grant Street that you have a big sort of consistent historic context.
- So you don't think that along 12th
- There are some definitely homes that could have been included and that would have fit really consistently
- well. Okay, and then further along 12th, I noticed there are what obviously were homes probably from
- the era. Now they're just grass lots, they're just empty lots. Pretty big area with a lot of that.
- Can you tell me what that's about? Do you have any idea? Um, I'm not sure when the Commission gets a
- demolition delay for a property that's not located in a historic district the basically the options
- that are presented are either to Nominate the property for designation to City Council or to release
- demolition delay I'm trying to think I got the statistics for somebody who asked recently, but I
- I think within the past three years there's been One building that has been designated through the demolition
- delay process so usually that's going to mean release which means that the property owner can then do
- you know according to County and UDO guidelines whatever they want with that property So I don't know
- what the plans are for those properties that are now grass lots So well, I mean the grass they
- Obviously, it's not very recent that they've been bare for a while obviously from the looks of them
- at least Then if I can ask one last follow-up related question follow-up Some members of the public
- spoke at the last meeting where this was discussed and Indicated that there had not been Outreach and
- communication or negotiation with
- involvement with The property owners in that area And I'm wondering if you can at all speak to The validity
- of that assertion that there were there was not engagement or involvement with some of the folks who
- are property owners in the area that that maybe aren't supportive of the
- Okay, so from my position at the city when I was required to I sent Three letters to all the property
- owners in the district plus an additional letter As a courtesy to the Petitioners or I believe Anyway
- four letters were sent three of them from the hand department and
- To let them know about steps in this process including when the properties came to the HPC
- for The Commission's vote on the proposed district when interim protection was placed and when a date
- was scheduled for a hearing with City Council There were also I believe three meetings that the petitioners
- put on that were publicly noticed I
- From the last mailing that I sent out I received one letter that bounced back. So other than that the
- letter should have been received by You know, whatever property owner they were addressed to Okay, yeah,
- thank you very much for your replies, thank you so much other councilmember questions All right, I'm
- gonna move to public comment at this time Same thing. Can I just see a strove hands of you plan on public
- commenting on?
- Okay. Fantastic. All right. So same thing. We'll keep it at three minutes. And if you're ready online
- you might win a prize. Thank you also for waiting so long. Go ahead. Okay. My name is Amy Butler. My
- husband and I were involved in creating this district. And first of all I wanted to follow up real quick.
- We sent out multiple emails
- Neighbors to start this process We sent out a letter in the mail which cost us a lot of money to do
- We only did send one letter So I admit that through the mail But we did send out a ton of emails and
- we contacted and talked to anybody who contacted us back And we stayed in contact with them as they
- stayed in contact with us Cottage Grove is a neighborhood worth protecting
- This neighborhood is a small collection of 100 year old or older homes that represent diverse architectural
- styles that are core to Bloomington. They are built of materials and use techniques from their era.
- They cannot be duplicated. Once they are lost we are not getting them back. All the bits and pieces
- are present that make for a nice place to live. We have small green spaces around our houses including
- big mature trees and the subsequent shade they provide even cooling the houses next door and the houses
- down the street.
- Our streets all have sidewalks, some of which are made of 100 year old bricks. And then there's the
- WPA era limestone sidewalks created by people needing work in a difficult time for our country. These
- sidewalks, our hand built limestone walls and the big old trees make for an especially pleasant place
- to walk in the summer when we are heading downtown.
- Most of our houses also have big porches, providing exterior spaces our residents can enjoy much of
- the year. Some of the porches wrap around the house and the house will have a second entrance, offering
- an additional place for the inhabitants to enter their home. This is a great example of how houses were
- able to work well for the resident owner and the renters at the same time. Our neighborhood has a wonderful
- versatility to it. These old houses have multiple uses over the years. Some have been residences for
- many years and others have been rentals since they were built.
- Some rental houses have even turned back to owner occupied residences. Our host houses are adaptable
- and useful, and that is why they have lasted for all these years. These are houses built by our working
- class, business managers and mill owners. Indiana's own Hoagy Carmichael was born in a house that would
- have been in our district, but it was torn down.
- We have students, retirees, professionals, even families. Our neighborhood is a great example
- of Bloomington's cultural heritage. It is facing significant development pressure and I encourage you
- to vote in favor of protecting it. This neighborhood is full of naturally occurring affordable housing.
- Please help us save it. Thank you for your time and considering Cottage Grove.
- Hello, my name is Greg Alexander. Let me tell you about a house a couple blocks south of this district
- I coveted this house the location the architecture the size Still to this day. It's my dream house.
- I found out about it in the 90s when a former council member lived there and They didn't keep it up.
- So it was very affordable when they sold it but of course the bank would not lend me for a
- fix her up or at that point I missed my opportunity. Instead it was bought by someone who is today a
- judge. And that future judge poured a ton of money into it and then she sold it to a real estate management
- company that specializes in luxury historic rentals. So the building was preserved. Hooray, right? But
- I am excluded and its role in the community has gone forever. My kids will not sit in that majestic
- living room and smoke pot with Harmony students. That will not happen ever. That house is gone.
- The moral is, I hope we're looking at results. What are you trying to accomplish here? I can tell you
- one thing it will accomplish is putting future development under the thumb of the Historic Preservation
- Commission. I cannot say enough bad things, unfortunately, about that commission. Every single meeting,
- someone points out they aren't allowed to regulate use, and yet that's all they want to talk about.
- They ignore that advice. That's all they want to talk about. It's a backdoor HOA. At best, busy bodies
- are interfering with their neighbors. At worst, it's naked corruption. I'm sorry, but commission members have
- line their own pockets and use that position to punish their competitors. That's happened a lot. Another
- thing is it will make development just more expensive. Those costs will be passed on to tenants. It
- will reduce the amount of development overall. There will be less housing so close to campus. If we
- can't build housing near campus, we'll build it somewhere else. So we'll contribute to sprawl in parking
- lots too. Another effect is it will kill the engine that made this beautiful neighborhood in the first
- place. These houses are
- the result of an era when people solved their problems by building density in cities. Today we solve
- our problems with commuting. That is a big change. We can't entrench that in law and get a good result.
- What we'll get is a bad result. It makes it harder for good neighborhoods to be built in the future.
- There is no other opportunity to build a neighborhood so close to downtown or close to campus if you
- take this off out of the options.
- Historic preservation here will make this neighborhood more expensive and more exclusive and it will
- also Exacerbate the problem of people living in drafty and moldy houses because their landlords won't
- have the opportunity to make rational choices And just as an aside, I checked the names on the petition
- The address is almost entirely rentals. The names are not the names of the owners. That's fine You know
- as an activist I really I envy that skill to get students to sign a petition and
- But the volume of names here reflects nothing but naive good wishes from people who were presumably
- told the city wants to tear down their house. Thanks. Hi, I'm James Ford. I live in Cottage Grove. I've
- lived there for 20 years. Lived a few blocks from there since 1984.
- an auspicious year. So I've waited a long time to be here tonight. I have a lot of things I could say,
- but I'm only gonna really say one thing about something that was mentioned two weeks ago. And that was
- a discussion about the old Northeast Neighborhood Association. These are the bylaws of that organization
- that was formed in March of 1998 by four people, three of which have died, and one of which has moved
- on to a different
- Neighborhood Association, I'll talk about that in a moment. This Neighborhood Association is huge. It
- ranges from Kirkwood through to 12th, from college to Woodlawn. Quoting from the bylaws, it includes
- four of Bloomington's historic neighborhoods, Cottage Grove, North Indiana, North Washington,
- and university courts, so they acknowledged from the beginning that College Grove is a historic district.
- The general purpose is the aim of promoting the welfare of residents and improving the general living
- conditions of the area. That's what Old Northeast was originally about. One of their guiding principles,
- to encourage all owners, residents, and businesses to take pride in this neighborhood, to appreciate
- its beauty, uniqueness,
- and historical significance and to enhance its viability. That was in 1998. In 2006, it was a breakaway
- of some actual residents because most of the people in that neighborhood association were landowners
- who didn't actually live in the neighborhood. So the High Point Residence Association, not the neighborhood,
- but the Residence Association was formed in April of 2006.
- The goal was to maintain and improve the architectural integrity of the neighborhood, but specifically,
- the membership was restricted only to people living in that area. It was for residents to talk about
- their neighborhood. I want to talk about one house real quick.
- that's in our neighborhood. It's on Cottage Grove. It's right on the corner of Grand and Cottage Grove.
- It's a beautiful house now. It wasn't so beautiful for a while because there was a lady named Martha
- Douglas who lived in there until she was 100 years old. And when she died, this house was purchased.
- I thought it was going to be torn down, but instead the people who bought it, they fixed it up. They
- made it look beautiful. They put in a lot of special effort to paint it baby blue, fix the roof up with
- the traditional shingles, planted roses all around it.
- That group was called Horn Properties, which is a large corporation that owns a lot of properties in
- the area, but they chose to fix this one up, and it is beautiful. It's the corner anchor of our neighborhood.
- And I hope that they choose to do that with other properties in their neighborhood. Thank you.
- Thank you. Next commenter in chambers, and then we'll move to see if someone's going to win this prize online.
- I'm Elizabeth Cox Ash. I am a member of the McDowell Gardens Neighborhood Association and we
- are Bloomington's very first historic conservation district and later historic district.
- And I recommend all nine of you go back 25 years ago and please read how we went through the whole process
- of becoming first a conservation district and a historic district. A lot of your questions that you're
- asking tonight can be answered just by reading this. Another thing.
- Cottage Grove has many of the original showers homes. This means they have hardwoods from 150, 160 years
- ago. Those are not grown anymore. So if those are torn down, you've lost the sustainability of this
- neighborhood. You've lost it. When McDowell Gardens started this,
- 25 years ago, we were 60% rental, 40% owner occupied. The rentals were many times, they were owners
- whose grandma who had the house, and they were out of the area, in some cases, out of the country. So,
- any rate, the importance is,
- Once we got our historic conservation district, you would not believe how fast within the next few years
- it flipped. Now we are over 60% owner occupied and 40%, maybe even less, rental. That left a lot of
- affordable housing available for homeowners to buy. We still continue
- Even though prices have gone up, we still continue getting new buyers in. We are a very attractive
- neighborhood. I just want you to all know that. Please, please do this. Save this neighborhood.
- Thank you. Thank you so very much. I'm going to go online and then we'll come to you here in chambers.
- Is there anyone online?
- Oh, yes, the winner. All right. Comments are online. You've received, what have they received?
- This gavel, you will receive this gavel. Okay, but go ahead, person online. Is this me? Am I the only
- person online? Yes, yes, that is you. Okay, yes, hi. My name is Michael Brahms. I am a out of state
- property owner, developer. I've owned property
- in Cottage Grove for the past 25 years. I heard one of the council members express some concern about
- engagement with other people in the neighborhood. I live in New York City, which is not close by any
- means. I can tell you from my personal experience, I felt that the efforts to reach out to people in
- the neighborhood were more than sufficient. I was on
- the phone, not having to come in for both of the meetings at the library that were held regarding this.
- So for me personally, that was not a concern at all. I feel that maybe if people didn't participate,
- they didn't maybe want to. But I can tell you being out of state, I had no problem getting a notification
- at all of what was going on and constant communication of what was going on.
- I will tell you as a property owner in the neighborhood, I said at the last meeting, a lot of my tenants
- value houses. They want to live in a house. That's why they rent some of my properties. If they didn't
- want to live in a house, they moved downtown or to different areas. So I know for me personally, seeing
- things that look like houses
- and fit with the neighborhood. I don't view it as rooting my property value. I look at it as probably
- increasing it at a benefit. That's it. Thank you so much. We'll be sending this gavel to you in New
- York. Back in chambers. I'm Paul Ash. My wife and I went through all of this with McDowell Gardens neighborhood
- Which now a historic district the the the trick is in in the the guidelines if if you write your guidelines
- with everyone's input and You know be very democratic about it. You can really avoid an awful lot of
- controversy, but if you don't approve this historic or historic conservation district I can
- I can pretty well tell you what'll happen because when we first were setting our boundaries, we wanted
- to set them up on First Street, so you know, right south of the hospital properties. And we got some
- real opposition and had to pull back to Wiley.
- guess what happened to all those little affordable houses? They were historic, not always, I mean they
- were humble, but rentals and people had lived in them a long time and hadn't really kept them up and
- they're gone. They did not have the historic protections and so what you saw there further on 12th Street
- where there were empty lots,
- Yeah, you're going to see more of that. Thank you. Thank you so much. Is there anyone else in chambers?
- And then we'll go online again. Go ahead. Hello. My name is Dr. John Butler. I'd like to just address
- a few of the questions that have been asked and a few of the statements that have been made.
- Councilmember rough asked some questions about our Boundaries on the eastern side and there were some
- homes on the eastern side that we would have liked to included We would have liked to had our boundaries
- stretch further east And that was actually the majority of the people who responded to us felt that
- we we should go ahead and include those homes but as with the people of McDowell Gardens we ran into
- quite a considerable pushback from
- one property owner who basically said I can't condense you including those homes and so we attempted
- to negotiate with that owner and we did not extend our boundaries further east. Apparently that was
- not enough because this owner's still opposing us. In terms of some statements that were made earlier
- about this and affordability, I think those were absolutely off base.
- because it's not a simple case of a home being preserved, historically preserved, and then the price
- goes up. Actually, it's sort of an option between the home being historically preserved and maybe the
- home is fixed up and there's some investment, so the price would go up slightly, or the home is torn
- down and it's replaced by a million dollar investment property.
- That million dollar investment property is absolutely out of my reach, and I imagine it's out of reach
- of most Bloomington homeowners. And so I think that was a mischaracterization that a historic district
- is going to lead to higher prices. If anything, by protecting marginal homes or homes that need to be
- fixed up, what we do is we allow for that, I don't know what you would call it,
- Sweat equity where the owner can actually you know put in there in their free time they can fix up their
- home they can improve that home and That can then be sold or moved on to another property so Having
- some of these homes that are not as good shape that will be included in this district will allow people
- to fix them up And will allow some of these homes that would be torn down because that's what would
- happen. They would just be removed and
- They will still stay viable structures that can be lived in. And to our east, we have lost an incredible
- number of homes. There was the rest of Cottage Grove neighborhood, but it's gone. And it was taken out
- by the developer who's opposing us and trying to save the rest of it. So I think the Better Business
- Booster guy said that there was one home maybe that was threatened. That's simply not true. I mean,
- they tore down 14 in the other neighborhood. Thank you.
- Perfect timing one more comment and in chambers, then we'll move online All right My name is Jordan
- Evans. I did speak at the last meeting I am the current president of the old Northeast neighborhood
- association to be clear We did participate in the meetings in the beginning
- What happened was our comments were disregarded as they were not in line with the petitioners. There
- was no meaningful discussion, no compromise with the Old Northeast, nor any further engagement. I want
- to also be clear that this is the last neighborhood with zoned density near campus. If we go to protect
- this the way that this is being proposed,
- we're eliminating the ability for any further density to be built close to campus, which in turn will
- affect affordability across Bloomington. I feel that it is counterintuitive to everything that I've
- heard you all discuss tonight and last week to preserve these homes. As mentioned by the folks in McDowell,
- their home values have gone up. This is not going to lead to
- Cheaper rents or anything along those lines I want to be clear in my position with the old northeast.
- I don't oppose the historical district I oppose the boundaries and the history lesson mr Ford provided
- for all of us high point separated due to a difference in ideals and needs three years after the old
- northeast was formed very quickly it was realized and actualized
- Ask that if possible council pushes to reconsider the boundaries to limit this to the High Point neighborhood
- and Even further south of where it is into the already historical district there for those of you not
- familiar High Point is Lincoln Washington 12th to 8th Thank you for your time Thank you, and we'll move
- online. Are there any more commenters online? Oh
- OK, fantastic. You don't win a prize, but we'd love to hear from you. Person online, I think you should
- be unmuted at this point. Hi there. Hello. Hi, I'm Rebecca Swanson, and I'm a property owner, have been
- for about 20 years in this area. And I just want to say simple and sweet, I think this is a great idea.
- I lived in that neighborhood for 15 years and watched it
- Just really a lot of sad investment property owners come in and do things with the neighborhood that
- made it not feel like a neighborhood that I wanted to live in anymore. I really wish we would have done
- this a long time ago. I think it's a great idea. And so now I'm a landlord and I just wanted you to
- hear me say that I still think it's a good idea. If you wanna know more about why,
- I don't wanna take up your time. I just wanted you to hear the voice of a landlord and somebody who
- owns property that I support this. They were communicating with me clearly. I found everybody to be
- very, there's no hidden agenda here. So thank you. Thank you so very much. Back in chambers, Mr. Rousseau.
- I don't live in this neighborhood, but I go through it almost every day. And I've actually,
- Had the pleasure of getting to know several of the neighbors because they're out in front of their houses
- taking care of them and I Stop on my bicycle and get to know them and I really enjoy going through this
- neighborhood because it's so beautiful So many of the houses are just gorgeous. I Council member rough
- made the mention about asked questions about why it wasn't extended east of grant on 12th Street And
- I asked the same question myself There's a
- Two or three houses there with brick facades that look pretty good and look pretty historic to me. One
- of them without a brick facade also looks very good. I noticed the other day that it's got a demolition
- sign in front of it. There are two others in the neighborhood that have rubble on them, limestone rubble
- I might notice. I might note the new houses, replacing them will not be built from limestone probably,
- will not be built from brick. It's too expensive. When we're tearing down an old house, we're tearing
- down value.
- And yet the marketplace knows only one thing profit if it's profitable to tear down something of long-term
- value, but it's Better to replace it with something that might it might not even last 20 or 30 years.
- I don't know that's what they'll do and It's really important for us to step in as a city to say no
- for the benefit of the whole We'd rather keep these homes It's a beautiful neighborhood. I hope you pass this
- Thank you. Thank you so much. Next in the chambers. Before I start, I just want to say I really resent
- this podium. I know there's a shorter one in storage, and I really wish people would get it out. I feel
- literally like a talking head.
- Good evening. My name is Jan Sorby, and I want to talk to you tonight about voting yes for this petition.
- I understand that historic preservation and conservation districts are sometimes seen as barriers to
- growth, but I would like to encourage you to see them as a tool, a tool to help Bloomington grow while
- protecting the qualities that make people want to live, work, study, and invest here.
- Bloomington's charm is one of its greatest assets. Our older neighborhoods with walkable streets, mature
- trees, front porches, limestone architecture, and human scale design create a strong sense of place
- that benefits residents, local businesses, and the university community as well. These neighborhoods
- also teach important lessons about how people live well together.
- lessons worth preserving for the upcoming generations. Many older homes were designed before
- air conditioning, and they rely on natural light, cross ventilation, shade trees, deep porches, and
- operable windows to remain comfortable and energy efficient. The neighborhoods themselves encourage
- walking, social connections.
- an even more human scale relationship between building and public space. As a parent and a community
- leader, we should want future generations to inherit a Bloomington that still reflects those values
- rather than losing them piece by piece over time. Preservation also supports goals this council and
- our community already value.
- reusing existing buildings reduces demolition waste and Excuse me conserves the embodied carbon it supports
- reinvestment in neighborhoods where infrastructure already exists and rehabilitation projects support
- local contractors and skilled trades Importantly preservation does not mean stopping change
- Bloomington's older neighborhoods have always evolved over time. Conservation districts simply help
- guide new development. So it complements existing neighborhoods rather than overwhelming them. This
- is not a choice between preservation and growth. Bloomington needs housing and badly needs investment.
- Preserving helps ensure that the city's growth
- It does not gradually lose qualities that make Bloomington distinctive and sustainable and livable.
- Please support this. Thank you so much. Next in chambers. I'm on the other side of the spectrum here.
- My name's Doug Horn with Horn Properties. Our 50-year-old firm has been supportive of multiple historic
- district efforts, University Courts, Garden Hill, for example. We own four single-house local historic
- districts, one of which is included on the National Historic Register. We pride ourselves in offering
- a variety of affordable housing options across our 70 properties residential portfolio.
- Most of our buildings are historically designated. This petition concerns us on multiple fronts. Most
- requests for multi-property historic district designations have been brought forward by neighborhood
- associations. This one engages across boundaries of two, neither of which offer support, one of which
- asks you to deny it. Also, most proposals focus on
- platted homogeneous additions to the city, sharing a common human demographic and story. This one is
- a confab of various additions and varied stories. As you walk the area, you can feel shifts in character,
- period, layout, and quality. Most concerning is the fact that local designation and its associated limiting
- parameters
- will significantly impair if not completely stop a property owner's ability to increase area density
- as encouraged by our current UDO and its associated zoning designations. Expansion of building footprint
- is significantly limited or prohibited by existing historic districts.
- Owners attempt to continue to salvage or adapt existing structures to affordable higher densities through
- cold compliant additions will all but be eliminated, even to the lowly contributing class that makes
- up a majority of the buildings affected by this proposal. In our opinion, this prohibition negates near
- and longer term community land use intentions.
- Through all of this, we must remember that absolute protection already exists for these properties and
- that the HPC must approve any building permit application filed on even these lesser properties from
- total demolition to something as mundane as replacing an entry door. Three minutes is almost up and
- I have five additional concerns that do not support this request and in fact,
- We have few arguments in support of it. The most significant of these, however, is that the petitioners
- are wonderful people. And with heartfelt intentions, which I'm sure you would agree, on balance, we'd
- ask that you vote no on this proposed ordinance. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you so much.
- Next in chambers. And while they're signing in, is there anybody else online?
- Okay, if you are still online and you'd like to, all you need to do is raise your hand and you'd like
- to comment. Go ahead. I'll be quick. I won't need three minutes. My name is Melody Duesner. I'm a professor
- at IU. I serve on the Historic Preservation Commission. I am a renter in Bryan Park and a pedestrian.
- And I just want to reiterate that if you are on the fence about what to do about this district and how
- you want to vote on it, I just want to remind you that we really have no options in the middle. I wish
- there was a way for us to kind of find maybe some middle ground, but there's not.
- the district is not protected these houses become worth more dead than alive and There is no way that
- people with less money fewer resources We cannot compete with out-of-town developers. We cannot at
- at historic preservation, we cannot halt the demolition of things. You will not be able to see us in
- here for each of these remarkable houses because although they make Bloomington Bloomington, they are
- smaller scale and ordinary and they belong to ordinary people. So I'm asking you to keep in mind that
- even if you are worried that a historic
- District in your mind is overreach or something along those lines We have no other option in terms of
- preserving the character and just the existence of these homes Given the scale of development in Bloomington.
- They will be gone. Thank you Thank you so much next person in chambers. I
- My name is Mary Kropinski I've been a local architect to Bloomington for almost 40 years now gave it
- away I Lived at 213 East Cottage Grove for 30 years It was an affordable solution to raise my family
- in at the time I want to share part of a story that over the years I had several neighbors
- Were elderly and as they passed away those homes became rental homes and As those homes became rental
- instead of being one person or two person homes They became three person homes and five person homes
- by adding bedrooms and basements and such as that happened You know while you bought into the neighborhood
- by living there that there would be parties in the neighborhood it became extraordinary
- To have 50 people in the yard across the street from you where your grandpa Bob used to once live That
- became almost unbearable Especially when you could no longer park on your street There are many homes
- in the neighborhood that don't have driveways and I parked on the street for 30 years but when the house
- is turned over I Had to routinely walk a block away even if I had groceries and
- So don't think that transition is necessarily always good. This neighborhood has rich fabric. Please
- maintain it. Please maintain the niche one of the niches of Bloomington. The hole is always greater
- than the individual. And yes while these homes may be protected from a demolition permit one by one
- they will not be
- Protected as well as if they're looked at as a whole. I wish this would have been done 20 years ago
- And I think we'd still have a lot of that fabric here. So please please Grant this neighborhood this
- district. Thank you. Thank you so much Next person in chambers. Thank you all for your comments so far
- My name is Jim Butler. My wife and I bought a house in this district 50 years ago so I've probably seen
- this change and evolve more than most people in this room and we live there for about 10 years and then
- we bought another house a couple blocks outside the district so we have a long association. When we
- live there we bought it for really two reasons. One it was within walking distance of downtown. It was
- a neighborhood with sidewalks where you had children. We had a lot of young young people newlyweds.
- It was a neighborhood of young children retired people business owners factory workers. We even had
- one state representative living in that district at the time. So it's not a homogenous it has a heterogeneous
- character to it which was really nice people knew each other and we didn't buy the house because it
- was historic. We actually bought the Ivan Adams house without knowing who he was. We found little pieces
- of carved limestone in the yard and such that came to light.
- Number of years later, but to me having neighborhoods where you can have young people with children
- is important We have grandchildren in the MCC SC. It's my understanding that the student population
- is decreasing Primarily because there's not enough affordable housing in Monroe County. So people are
- moving to Green County Owen County and
- And if I just a casual driving around town, I see all these apartment complexes. I don't see playgrounds
- for kids in those. Those are not made for families. So that's my feeling, my comments. Thank you.
- Thank you. Is there anyone else in council chambers? Take it away.
- My name is Jeremy Hackard. I am the current chair of the Historic Preservation Commission We're here
- today because we received an application to consider this area for historic protections The Commission
- has options available to it We can consider an area's historic and architectural significance and that's
- it based on the staff report that we received the information that we received from the petitioners it meets
- both of those criteria, and that's why we're here tonight. There's a couple things that people have
- said about what happens once things are protected. I just kind of wanted to clarify. Just two meetings
- ago, there was a notable house in a historic district where we approved an addition and an ADU. Work
- can be done in these areas. We have no purview over work that is done inside homes. You can renovate
- all the houses all you want on the interior. It's totally fine. You can keep these up.
- We also have the support from my predecessor, Sam DeSaller, who was chair before me. He asked me to
- read part of a letter out for him. He writes, I'm writing to express support for the proposed Cottage
- Grove Historic District. I'm a practicing architect and served on the Bloomington Historic Preservation
- Commission for over a decade. I've seen many proposals for historic districts. I did not vote for all
- of them, but this one has my wholehearted support.
- Cottage Grove is the type of neighborhood you think of when you think of Bloomington. It has a distinct
- architecture character, and streetscape is contiguous and is under threat. He says, please vote to establish
- Cottage Grove Historic District. And I would also like to add, this is a great way for us to preserve
- our cultural heritage, the architecture that we used to have in this town, the limestone buildings that
- we used to have. Let's keep it. Let's let people continue to live here. It's near campus.
- Please vote, yes. Thank you. Last chance. Comments in chambers. Good evening. My name is Eric Ost, and
- I am currently the president of the Elm Heights Neighborhood Association as well as the Council
- of Neighborhood Associations, but I'm not here to speak
- in regards to any position of those organizations other than to mention that The Elm Heights neighborhood
- association is currently reviewing its historic district guidelines and I want to offer that as proof
- that guidelines are not set in stone and they are open to revision I Wanted to read
- Section of the comprehensive plan that I think is applicable here And this is on page 80 I believe But
- anyway, it's under a section housing trends and issues some of Bloomington's neighborhoods are relatively
- diverse both economically and by housing type whereas others are comprised almost entirely of single-family
- homes and limited in development by covenants and
- And I think in regards to the resolution that was introduced earlier, I think covenants will have a
- large role in terms of being able to densify many neighborhoods in Bloomington, where perhaps there
- should be denser development. But most core neighborhoods are stable, but are trending towards a lower
- percentage of new single-family homes. With greater density in the city comes the challenge to preserve
- neighborhood character
- and the opportunity to strengthen neighborhoods by developing small commercial nodes as community gathering
- places. Existing core neighborhoods should not be the focus of cities increasing density. Elm Heights
- is a neighborhood that had been since 1988 and it is very dense. Infrastructure plays a very large role
- in being able to increase density.
- affordability is something that we've spoken of and I have come to appreciate the value of Naturally
- occurring affordable homes and these are homes that were built 1950 1920 some even before that and they're
- built usually with very good construction and When those homes are demolished in a new structure is
- built it is going to be far less affordable than
- perhaps designed for one purpose If this if for nothing else besides just neighborhood Agency, which
- is another thing that historic districts and conservation districts Provide for you should consider
- the effect of What conservation districts and historic districts can do to preserve affordability so
- I asked you to support a
- the creation of this conservation district. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. Any comments online?
- All right. Last commenters online. Take it away. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Hi. My name is John
- Lawrence, and I'm from the Bryant Park neighborhood. I'm the past president, but I'm not here in an
- official capacity. I hope you'll support this proposition.
- A local historic district can be an important tool for protecting long-term neighborhood affordability
- because it helps preserve the existing scale, character, and housing patterns of a neighborhood rather
- than encouraging speculative redevelopment and luxury tear downs. In neighborhoods like this one and
- mine, rising land values often create pressure to replace modest older homes with larger, more expensive
- projects that drive up taxes, rents, and overall housing costs.
- Historic district protections can help slow that cycle by encouraging reinvestment in existing homes,
- preserving smaller and more attainable housing stock, and maintaining the diverse lockable character
- that makes the neighborhood livable for people of different incomes and stages of life. Used thoughtfully,
- historic preservation is not just about architecture. It's also about protecting community stability
- and preventing displacement. So I live in one of the last
- Poor neighborhoods, that's not protected. And we're feeling this pressure, the same pressure. People
- are buying small affordable houses, spending $200,000 on them, tearing them down, putting up $500,000
- structures and charging $1,000 a bedroom. So we are losing affordable housing that exists in
- our neighborhood, and it is being turned into luxury development.
- Historic protection is one of the few ways to protect this affordability. So I hope you will help protect
- this cute little neighborhood and give them the protection they need. Thank you very much. Thank you
- so much. Any last commenters online? Oh, after the last call, our final commenter in the room.
- I've missed it.
- Go for it. In 1978, there was a landmark case, Penn Central versus New York City. This beautiful station
- was going to be torn down and was fought by the local preservationists in New York. This went to the
- Supreme Court because the investors said,
- We now own, we have every right to build the tallest building and this is in our way and we're gonna
- tear it down. So it became this conflict between property use and the community good. And what's interesting
- is they found in favor of the community. They said, as long it is not a taking, as long as the owner
- can still make a reasonable economic return on the property. And that is the foundation
- of your decision today. That's the law you stand on. That's the preservation law foundational rule.
- You know, did you you all got maps I think of the neighborhood and it showed lot by lot and you saw
- a lot of blank lots also. And what it made me think of is when we played Monopoly when I was a kid,
- you know, and you get enough lots together and the houses are off of it.
- and you can sell and make the big bucks and win the Monopoly game. But in my family, somebody always
- cried when we played Monopoly. I don't know if everybody's experienced that, but you know, you wipe
- out your little sister and she's crying. Anyway, I always went for the little houses. I don't know if
- it's part of me always, but I'd get those two little houses, the affordable ones right near Go.
- There are speculators in this neighborhood and they're good people but their businesses to get lots
- Make money on them and you know someone mentioned they own 70 properties They're not going to be hurt
- I mean those you heard from landlords who were happy with this project and you heard from tenants who
- are happy with this Proposal these people are going to get their money back
- I mean, they may not get it for the strip they bought along the high along the railroad track speculating
- that the city might build a bike path, but they'll get their money out of the rest of these properties.
- So let's not make anybody cry if we can and let's protect this neighborhood. You know, I, I was part
- of the first local historic district in Bloomington.
- And at the time, just the idea that a neighborhood could be historic was new because famous person hadn't
- lived in the house. You know what I mean? But the neighborhood is a living biome. That's your time.
- Am I out of time? Yes, sir. Thank you. Appreciate getting to come and talk to you. Well, thank you.
- You closed this out. Thank you very much. We'll come back to council members. Any comments at this point?
- Final comments? And if we could so kindly, we have a timer set.
- I believe for five minutes councilmember Rallo then councilmember Rallo Well, I agree with this I support
- this petition Preserves our community identity. It's sustainable Particularly the embodied energy in
- these structures I do see over time that it trends to owner occupancy in time
- And I'm I'm satisfied with the boundaries. I Appreciate I just want to say I appreciate the work that's
- been done this I really appreciate the butlers for their work. Mr San wise put together in a very complete
- pack packet That I appreciate and I also appreciate the Star Preservation Commission for coming in and
- giving your Expert expert opinion on this. So I'll be supporting it. Thank you. I
- Thank you very much. I have a lot I could say, but it's already late, so I'll keep it fairly brief.
- But I just want to say that I very, very much support the conservation of Cottage Grove. I walked this
- neighborhood, and I believe that it strongly contributes to much of what Bloomington is, providing a
- lot of character and community and a strong sense of our own history here in Bloomington.
- I understand the importance and the desire for development and profit and for building new homes, but
- it does not need to be done at the expense of this sense of neighborhood that I felt very strongly as
- I was walking around Cottage Grove. You know, we talked a lot about affordable housing. I really do
- believe that this is a large element of helping to maintain some affordable housing in our community.
- To deny this request is to give the thumbs up for demolition and for cheap but overpriced development
- where they will charge a lot more than people will be paying to live in these homes that are already
- here in Cottage Grove. It may not happen in the immediate future or even within the next few years,
- but it absolutely will happen eventually. And I'm not at all okay with that. Newer is not always better.
- The vacant lots that I saw when I walked around the neighborhood just felt so harsh and out of place.
- And the new buildings that I saw going up also did not inspire much of a sense of belonging in the area.
- Lost my place now. And density has come up a couple of times in this conversation. So I want to just
- forcefully push back against the idea that this conservation designation would destroy density efforts.
- Not at all. ADUs are permissible here. In fact, I saw one property that's planning on adding one soon.
- I saw another property that already had a really cute brick one out in back. Editions are also allowed
- to these buildings. I saw at least one home that had already expanded with some additions. And in fact,
- I know that there were at least a few of them that I probably just didn't even notice as I walked past
- them because they just blended in so seamlessly.
- Long story short, I feel very strongly about this preservation. So I'm very happy to support this tonight
- and hope that it passes. Thank you. Yes, thank you. I feel a little bit like the Lorax right now because
- I'm going to speak for the renters. When I was in college, I started college in 2020, graduated in 23.
- The first apartment that I signed a lease for was for $1,200 with one other person. So I was spending
- $600 a month.
- And that was pretty much all I could afford. There was no option for me to go to the luxury apartments.
- I now work two jobs and I still can't afford anywhere near that level of rent. And so when I look around
- and I think about historic preservation as one of the only opportunities to preserve some of the housing
- opportunities for people who look like me, for people who grew up like me,
- When we think about the working class, they are not in those luxury apartments. If we want to bring
- the working class back to Bloomington, we have to start providing real housing for them. And it's not
- new apartments, guy rises. So I'm really excited to support this. This is in my district. And the other
- thing I just want to say is I think I've had the opportunity to work with the butlers who are the petitioners
- for about a year now. And for those of you who don't know, I've done some organizing professionally.
- they're kind of the best I've ever seen. Like they knocked every single door multiple times. Like they
- can articulate probably every single person's personal opinion. And that is incredibly commendable.
- And I really, really admire how persistent you've been. And this is, I think we should always support
- community members who have really engaged democratically, especially in an age where
- Democracy seems to be dying in darkness. So thank you very much for your efforts and I look forward
- to supporting this Yeah, I tend not to speak that much during council meetings So I'll probably take
- all my five minutes and then I'll take my two afterwards my total seven This is
- So first of all, I wanna say something really quick. It's been mentioned by a couple of my
- council colleagues, most recently by Councilman Zulek to talk about the oft sort of repeated and assumed
- but demonstrably totally false idea that we will get cheaper rents by allowing development just to follow
- the market and let development take its course.
- I was doing this a little earlier. Just look, anybody else got their computer? 422 East Cottage Grove,
- 614 North Grant, 521 North Dunn, 711 East Cottage Grove, all right in this area, all much denser multi-unit
- apartments have been built and displaced, the exact kind of homes we're talking about here. The rents
- in all of them,
- Are fourteen hundred dollars per bedroom per month fourteen hundred It stems to be false that they're
- cheaper because you can go there right now and find the existing Rental units there and they're significantly
- cheaper than this It's so it's just absolutely untrue. This is going to it's demonstrably false You
- can you can just look at what's available in this in this just folks in this area and
- This idea of finding balance. I'm all about that But if you start from this area that's proposed right
- now and you go east There's all that is not Proposed to be part of this and it's not designated you
- go across the road tracks to the blocks then north from there on up to 17th Street You go across College
- of Walnut and
- on the other side of the tracks and go west to that whole area that goes back to where the marathon
- is and where Chandler's garage is and those homes in there. You go south from this area from 10th Street
- between Walnut and Indiana and Dunn and go towards town. There's plenty of balance. The vast majority
- is available
- for property owners to do what they want how they want when they want The balance I think is to preserve
- areas like this that we have that are left that do Provide practical benefits for naturally occurring
- affordable housing both in terms of rental and potential buyers and single-family residential buyers and
- also preserving Our history character a little bit of what's left of this town And Lastly I want to
- do want to say I don't blame The investment property owners at all for wanting to preserve the ability
- to do what they want how they want when they want it I Would probably likely do the same thing or advocate
- for the same thing if if that was my job
- That's not my job. My job as a council member is to weigh the overall pros and cons and balances for
- this benefits to the city to our community and make a decision and In this case, it's clear to me that
- voting to support this is achieves that balance and achieves
- My responsibility and my goal as a as a representative of the community of Bloomington So I'm gonna
- be happy to support this. Thank you. Thank you so much councilmember Piedmont Smith and then councilmember
- Stossberg Yeah, I am very pleased to support this tonight and just walking through the neighborhood
- it It did remind me of my own childhood growing up in Bloomington not in such historic district, but just I
- Having the variety of houses, the variety of residents, the cool different architecture from different
- eras. And I see in my district, as some of my constituents have said, that a lot of these older, especially
- the small homes, are being torn down and replaced by things that are not as affordable as the rent was
- on the original home.
- changing the streetscape and not for the better. And it's sad to see. So I'm pleased that the Butler's
- did all this work and all this outreach to involve a lot of people in this and get the word out.
- And really, we've received more positive comments than negative, especially from people who actually
- live there.
- So the only the only thing that that does bother me a little and has always bothered me about historic
- districts is that it's such a small group of people in the end who write the guidelines who can dictate
- what all the property owners in the district can do with their houses. So we really should do everything
- we can to try to involve as many people as we can when those guidelines are written so everybody knows and can
- bring forward their concerns and those can be discussed in a democratic way can lead to guidelines that
- people can agree to and live with. But I'm really excited that this is coming forward for protection
- and I'm sure I will enjoy more walks through that area in the future. Thank you. Hi, thank you.
- I've had a lot of conflict about this petition. I think a lot of you probably know that I generally
- have a lot of concerns with historic preservation petitions. And some of that has to do with
- what Councilmember Piedmont-Smith just said about a small number of people who write the regulations,
- like the ultimate guidelines, has to do with the state's rules about how it switches from a conservation
- district to an historic district.
- pretty much automatically just because the bar is so high to get over to keep it a conservation district.
- And then I think you have to continue to make motions to keep it a conservation district as opposed
- to it rolling over. And so that's not something that can be changed, but that's just one of my
- My general concerns with petitions like this and similarly I have witnessed myself some of the ways
- that various petitioners have been treated by the HPC when they have come to them wanting to do something
- to one of their historic buildings and the increased costs associated with that. I do not think that
- it is affordable to make something historic district. It is not affordable.
- And where this location is right now, I mean these are not affordable houses like just FYI These are
- not affordable houses. They are too close to campus to be affordable Okay, like the land value underneath
- them. I mean it just kind of dictates like that So that that is my general like concern with with historic
- districts this petition is really interesting though to me because I I
- I this neighborhood has a lot of what I would consider really well constructed old buildings old houses
- like if we want to think about historic integrity and And the variety I really appreciated the variety
- when I was there one of the commoners against the petition kind of derided the variety but I actually
- think that that's a benefit to the whole district and a lot of the
- Houses are very well maintained. There are not very many that I automatically look at and go, ooh,
- that one. Something that uses the space a lot better could or should go there. It's relatively dense,
- and even within the lots, there are relatively small lots and small houses, but the houses that are
- on the lots, they take up
- enough of the lot so it's not like there's hardly any house on this huge lot in the way that some of
- other areas are. And I think that the houses there generally have been constructed really well. So this
- is part of the reason why I've had such conflict is that I don't generally like
- And I don't generally like the process. I think that there's some real problems down the road but this
- is a neighborhood that I do think should should be Preserved as it is because even though I say, you
- know making it a sort district like it's it's not going to be affordable But if you kind of think like
- leaving it as it is, you know, it might stay like this historic district adds some amount of
- Money right like it makes it less affordable But it absolutely makes it a whole lot less affordable
- to tear down these houses and then put in you know a quadplex or Actually, they're really duplexes with
- five bedrooms on each side. Like those are even less affordable New construction is less affordable.
- So it's this like we're not really preserving affordability here, but we also maybe making something
- more affordable
- than another option might be. So this is my conflict. And I'm gonna wait until it's my turn to vote
- to figure out where I stand in the end of that conflict. But I think either way, I will be looking at
- code over the next year and figuring out ways to change code in order to figure out a logistically possible
- way to make sure
- that there is buy-in from Hopefully in my mind a majority of property owners within our historic districts
- to agree to
- whatever rules there are in the end, because honestly, it's those rules, like how onerous is it in front
- of the HPC? It all depends on those rules. And then similarly, I think that I really appreciate that
- there's some rewriting of rules going on, and I think that there should be requirements about frequency
- of having to address and potentially rewrite those rules. And so I will be pursuing that no matter how
- I vote tonight. Thanks. Thank you. Would you like your extra two minutes?
- Okay. All right. Any other comments? Councilman Rosenberger? Hi, thanks. I'm going to bop around like
- normal. First, a little romance. I graduated from college in 2005 and my first college boyfriend lived
- in a sixplex in this neighborhood and I lived in
- a four or fiveplex at 10th and Grant. So I paid $450 a month. I paid for my own college outside of any
- scholarships I got. But I couldn't afford anything fancy either. So the multifamily that I got to live
- in, I very much appreciate that I got to graduate college without undergrad, without student loan debt.
- OK, high level here.
- I'm going to talk about more than high level but I am not supporting this until the state of Indiana
- changes the way it works with historic districts and conservation districts. I don't like that. There's
- not one conservation district that is known to have survived as a conservation district and everything
- is forced into a historic district. I live in Prospect Hill.
- and bought my home before it was a conservation district, and then now it is, of course, a historic
- district, and I have gone through my own ups and downs with trying to change some, or not change some
- things, but renovate some things on my house that were rotting, and then I wasn't allowed to change
- because of the historic preservation committee, commission.
- So that can be hard. Okay. I love sitting next to someone who we mostly agree on everything but in this
- case we very much disagree and I think that's so cute. I haven't really read a lot that says preservation
- equals affordability and a very big thing for me is
- Affordable housing and Bloomington and for me it is econ 101 the more supply we have the more Competition
- we have the more we can stop prices from rising as fast as they are I think prices will always be rising
- for renting and for owning I know there's a lot of tension between Preserving I like to say preserving
- not protecting also preserving great
- Buildings versus not freezing neighborhoods in place. I I just read an article about this today preparing
- for this that said More and more historic districts are being created despite there being fewer districts
- that like really qualify across the US Some quick numbers
- Historic preservation, increased renovation costs, increased maintenance costs, increases red tape and
- process, increases unpredictability and what can get done, increases utility costs, because mostly we
- are dealing with homes that leak air at an absurd degree. This all increases rents. It increases the
- shortage of homes. I understand we have
- We have small homes in this neighborhood and we have again my ex-boyfriends sixplex and the rents in
- them are the same. They're nine hundred dollars a bedroom for a two bedroom house nine hundred per bedroom
- or a bedroom in a sixplex nine hundred dollars. What happens when you have a shortage of housing as
- we push out low income residents. I know we all already know that this neighborhood like council member
- Stossberg said is already unaffordable. So that's not changing whether it's
- Preserved or not preserved it is It's similar to prospect hill prices. I was looking at homes recently
- sold. I just looked at a prospect hill home Going on the market for 320 grand and had rotting joists
- that would require crawlspace work for another 20 grand So it's a two bedroom one baths in a historic
- district That really isn't livable right now I
- I think that's about it. I'd love to hear Elm Heights is redoing their historic standards. They are
- the they are known as the neighborhood with the strictest rules and they're also the most expensive
- neighborhood in the city. And I think that is probably related. OK. That's all for me. I do appreciate
- everyone and everyone willing to show us around. But I pretty much usually have the same answer on that.
- Thanks so much. Thank you.
- Councilmember Ruff, you wanna follow through on your two minute threat there? Well, I wasn't going to,
- but I get to tell my little story. It's not a romance story, but it's a bit of a romanticized story.
- So I know I look much more vital and vigorous than 64 years old, which I'll be this summer. But if you
- can imagine little Andy on a stingray,
- for biking from the north side, where I grew up, down Indiana, under the railroad track, crossing there,
- and along till 10th Street, and then cutting in to school at McCullough, where I went for six years,
- from 1968 to, would have been, I guess, 73 or 74, when then they closed the school. But that whole trip,
- Lot had a residence or a business all building forward including 10th Street between Indiana and done
- Right across on the playground. What was the playground at McCullough all building forward a grocery
- store Jerry's with the Jerry who lived above it and Hinkle's hamburgers a little farther down 10th, but
- it's much less dense now than it was then and Largely because of speculative development efforts So
- if freezing it in time, it's someone my council colleagues mentioned used that term Means maintaining
- what was a more dense more diverse more
- Community neighborhood centric or with stores restaurant grocery then so be it call it freezing it in
- time It's what we need more of in this community right now the way it's been going so thank you that's
- only two minutes Thank you so much Councilmember Stasburg, I'm so sorry. I just want to address one
- other thing to you because some commenters and I think I got a couple emails mentioning the
- that they have this preference for marking things one at a time for historic preservation instead of
- whole districts. And I guess I wanna address that because I disagree with that. I think it would be
- an administrative nightmare to just do one house at a time spotty all over the place would just be a
- disaster. I just wanted to make sure to say that because that was something that had come up in comment
- and some emails I got, thanks.
- Thank you all so much. All right. Will the court please call the roll. Council member sorry. Yes. Daily.
- Yes. Rallo. Yes. Yes. Rosenberger. No. Flaherty Stasburg. Yes. Piedmont Smith. Yes. So like yes.
- That motion carries 7-1. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Are there any more motions? Oh, yes.
- There are. Okay, so I move to consider ordinance 2026-08, ordinance 2026-09, ordinance 2026-10, and
- ordinance 2026-11 together.
- second Thank you. There's a motion and a second the for clarity The motion is to the motion is to consider
- all of these at the same time It was councilmember Stossberg All right, all those in favor say aye Yes,
- but there's a point of information I had my computer closed because it's dying. Those are all the ud.
- Oh ones, right? Correct. Great. Thanks. Yes All those in favor say aye Any opposed?
- That motion carries 7-0. So we are now considering, will Mr. Gruelich? Do we need to still have the
- clerk read them in? I don't believe that we have to have a synopsis. We already read these for first
- reading, so I don't believe we have to have a synopsis read. Attorney Allen?
- I don't think you need to read the synopsis again, but if you'd like to have it, somebody can make a
- motion to have it read. We will adopt. We will move to adopt before we vote. We're going to vote on
- each one individually. OK. Yeah. So we can do one presentation, then we can adopt individually or not
- accept individually. So Mr. Gulick, you can present on all of the above. So as quickly as you want to.
- So we are here tonight to present our annual UDO amendments. So as usual, these kind of run the gamut
- from minor technicality changes, proofreading errors, spelling errors, to adjusting language based on
- certain interpretations
- Misunderstandings or not clarity in terms of how certain things are administered So there are a few
- things within these amendments that I think I will kind of point out that I don't want to say our big
- things but kind of are a little bit larger on the scale that vary from just adding a footnote
- or a misspelling to kind of changes in terms of Language within the udl. So we have four
- Ordinances that are coming for you tonight one of those encompass technical amendments. So those are
- just kind of housekeeping things Nothing really substantial in in those particular series of amendments
- The next ordinance comes for chapter 4 which addresses development standards So one of the things that
- I wanted to point out that is a big thing that is happening in that particular ordinance section is
- a change to or removal of a process for determining sidewalks or more specifically relief
- from installing sidewalks. There is a determinate sidewalk variance process in the UDO right now.
- That was introduced in 2017 When we went through some of the modifications to the language within the
- udio we incorporated a new Process that allowed for a determinant sidewalk variance to be approved So
- a determinant sidewalk variance means you are granted temporary relief from having to install a sidewalk
- but there is a zoning commitment that is recorded that can allow for the city to
- Call in that sidewalk requirement at some point in the future that some point in the future could be
- weeks months years decades. So those have are can be somewhat troublesome to track, but even more so.
- Troublesome to to try to enforce or bring forward You know several years down the line when you're dealing
- with a completely different property owner, you know who had no idea or You know certainly the implications
- of saying you've got to build a sidewalk and spend several thousand dollars Can be very imposing on
- that particular new property owner so we we
- Here, determinate sidewalk variances occasionally, maybe a few of these a year. So they get recorded
- on a property, but they don't really result in anything really being installed on a property,
- and like I said, can be very challenging down the line for us to try to track those, and then even,
- like I said, more specifically to call them in. So several communities within the state and around the
- country have a process for a payment in lieu
- Fund where instead of granting a variance a petitioner makes a contribution Somewhat proportional to
- the cost of that sidewalk into a dedicated fund that that fund is then used to fund other pedestrian
- facility improvements within that community So we are proposing to remove that determinant sidewalk
- variance process and allow for instead a payment in lieu to be a
- Made so this would go to the alternative transportation fund which is administered by the council So
- this contribution would then be used subject to council's discretion as part of the fund distribution
- for other pedestrian improvements throughout the community so this is kind of a big change and we feel
- like it certainly results in a better benefit to the community as a result in a real concrete improvement
- within the community rather than a
- Piece of paper that is recorded that that doesn't result in anything So we did see this as a benefit
- and like I said, there are many communities within the state that incorporate this so we do feel like
- this is a Positive thing but is a big thing. So I certainly wanted to make sure to point that out the
- rest of the amendments in chapter 4 another one that is somewhat substantial is a change in terms of
- how landscaping is calculated or done for parking lots and
- The current regulations deal with a certain amount of trees and shrubs per the raw number of parking
- spaces in a lot over time we have found that that Can be can result in very large quantity of shrubs
- and trees that is just simply not practical To get on a particular property and so we are shifting how
- that is calculated and following the model that the county uses which just looks at
- parking lot landscaping for the perimeter. So it's not based on just a raw number of spaces within a
- property itself, but is more tailored to what was the goal of parking lot landscaping, which is to buffer
- the perimeter, the view of these parking spaces from the perimeter. But then there is another requirement
- that deals with landscaping within that parking area as well.
- So it's just an adjustment in terms of how landscaping is done for parking lots to more closely align
- that with reality and what is practical And so there is an adjustment made for that The next series
- of amendments deal with amendments in chapter 6. So this is for administration and procedures section
- There's nothing in here that I would
- Classify is really kind of major again. These are just kind of some housekeeping sections This deals
- with actually removal of the determinant sidewalk variance from a process Which just kind of goes along
- with the language that I mentioned for chapter 4 And then the last series of amendments is for chapter
- 2 3 5 and 7 so that deals with zoning districts use regulations subdivision standards and definitions
- Within this section, the one thing that I would say is probably the most noteworthy would be the removal
- of the standardized business ordinance language. So if some of the council may remember, the standardized
- business language was introduced probably 15 years ago, something like that, and was implemented as,
- it was intended to serve as a way to
- prohibit standardized businesses from moving into a location. However, as we went through the legal
- challenges in terms of what we could actually regulate, you know, we can't say no to a particular business.
- We can't regulate what it looks like on the outside for signage. So the language that got
- folded into the UDO really got diluted from what was the intention of saying no to a business to regulating
- just what exterior signage looks like. And so the language that's in the UDO in relation to standardized
- business talks about making sure it's compatible with other signage or buildings along a corridor, which
- again, as we've gone through several, several years of trying to administer, is very challenging.
- To try to come up with some sort of a cohesive unified sign Appearance along a quarter because there's
- so much and so it really just became very difficult to administer Wasn't really accomplishing what the
- goal was intended to when it was built into the code And so we are proposing to take that out so those is
- Those are kind of I would say that the brief overview obviously. I'm happy to go into specifics on any
- of the Other items that maybe I didn't go into a detail. Thank you so much councilmember Ella Yeah,
- I had a question about the parking lot trees so when you used of
- Having trees in a parking lot is to reduce the island effect. And so by relegating them to the perimeter
- You don't enjoy that effect. Is that our is that problematic for us?
- Yeah, so so the as I mentioned there is still a requirement for landscaping within the interior and
- it's just kind of shifted how that is calculated from a wrong number just based on how many spaces to
- a percentage requirement within that interior so it requires a certain amount of green space and the
- number of parking spaces then
- Dictates, you know a certain percentage of that interior that has to be green space has to have a certain
- amount of trees for every island You know, you have to have a island for every nine parking spaces So,
- you know, I would say in reality you really accomplish the same amount of landscaping We still
- get landscaping and trees within parking lots. So it certainly addresses the heat island effect that
- we're concerned with it just adjusts
- Number of shrubs and trees that were previously required that like I said, we're almost practically
- impossible to accomplish And so we found time and time again variances were being granted from the Board
- of Zoning Appeals just to Acknowledge that you know just was not possible to plant 900 shrubs or you
- know Whatever the number might have been in some situations where you had large parking lots So it's
- just a recalibration of how that's done. And like I said, it's reflective of what the county does and
- So it makes it easier for developers, you know, they don't have to adjust to two different Requirements
- for that. So it kind of expedites review as it makes it easier for developers to know what the standards
- are Thank you The amount for the payment in lieu of sidewalk calculated I
- Yep, so once a year the Plain Commission would set a rate For what that number would be so there are
- certainly a variety of standards that we could use You know some of those could be a common cost estimator
- that in not uses You know could be just a raw concrete amount. It could be a factor of something between
- the amount of concrete and
- labor and installation costs So that's something that I said that the Planning Commission will arrive
- at at the beginning of every year and set that number You know, certainly we want it to be Somewhat
- realistic in terms of what a material cost would be without at the same time being cost prohibitive
- that You know, it's just too much that it wouldn't be practical for an individual to pay
- Okay, and that, just to be clear, because this is kind of a policy departure, if somebody chooses the
- payment in lieu, there's no guarantee that that's gonna be used for a sidewalk anywhere near them in
- the future, right? It just goes into a big pot of money for the alternative transportation fund, and
- it gets used for something. Yeah, again, so it'd be used somewhere within the community, and like I
- said, well, I guess I didn't say this, we do maybe a handful of these a year.
- You know, so we're talking about maybe four five or three or something like that So it's not a significant
- amount that in and of itself that one contribution is going to result in a sidewalk along You know a
- particular road frontage, you know, it's just you know here is here is the current process of determinant
- sidewalk variances Which you know in reality accomplishes nothing, you know, it's something that sits
- on paper and it just kind of gets sitting in a corner and here's something that
- a real benefit within the community somewhere, you know, certainly the council can look at, you know,
- where those contributions may have come from and use that as a factor as you look to proportion where
- that money gets spent. But we don't expect it to be, you know, a substantial amount based on the limited
- number of cases that we see. Yeah, no, I mean, it may be the same follow-up question that I'm about
- to ask, so go ahead.
- And then also, okay, so we have two follow-up questions on the payment in lieu. I was curious about,
- so you talk about the sort of process by which or the considerations, right, of topography or other
- things like that, but more specifically,
- I was a little unclear on who makes the final call So the the Transportation Commission would be the
- board that would hear that so because you know, we felt like because you know a request to not install
- a sidewalk is is kind of a large deviation from the scene of the UTO that that is something that should
- be Publicly vetted and so the Transportation Commission would be the board that would be approving those.
- Okay past the comes we're starting them back to councilmember Pema Smith just in terms of
- Did I hear you understand so the payment in the money would go into the alternative transportation fund.
- Is that a non-reverting fund? Do you I believe it is is a non-reverting I am not a hundred percent positive
- Okay, I guess I just want to make sure that we do a little bit of research in that to make sure that
- it That that money goes into a non-reverting fund in the same way that payment in lieu for affordable
- housing Goes into the housing development funds so that then that money doesn't end up getting lost
- or reallocated if it doesn't get spent
- In short, yeah within a year or something. So confirm that or not, but I don't believe it reverts. Yeah,
- thank you Back to you. Sorry So the payment in lieu goes into the alternative transportation fund which
- is used by Two or three different departments, but I think somewhere in your memo you implied it would
- actually go into the pot of money that the Common Council Pedestrian Safety Committee
- Uses Allocates. Yes, right. Yes As I yes, I understand that is the same that is the alternative
- transportation fund. Yes, right But the the Common Council only has control over a certain amount of
- money in that fund So I guess yeah, I don't know what I don't know what your limit is for how much of
- that you can disperse So it may or may not come down to us I mean it it'll just go in that fund and
- whatever portion of that fund we're allowed to
- allocate that's the amount we're allowed to allocate yes and like I said I mean let's let's pretend
- you know we we looked at a few realistic scenarios you know a common property that might be a hundred
- feet long you know that are and needed to do a five you know six foot wide sidewalk
- Might be looking at a contribution of four to five thousand dollars something like that might be a little
- bit more So let's pretend, you know that there were like three of those a year you looking at a contribution
- of maybe fifteen to twenty thousand So I don't I don't know proportional wise what's in that budget
- amount item now, but Five hundred thousand dollars. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, that would be a very small
- percentage I guess of of that Okay, I
- I think I kind of answered it for myself that it would not be like we get an additional five thousand
- dollars to play with. No we get whatever we allocate the budget. OK. Thank you. I had another question
- that because when we've looked at payments in lieu as relates to housing developments we've run into
- some sort of adverse incentives and like the costing which I think why you know that first question
- was so important.
- what mechanisms, or have we considered any mechanisms to think about ensuring that this doesn't create
- an incentive for private developers, for example, to skirt building infrastructure? Is there a possibility
- with the payment and lose structure for sidewalks to allow,
- Maybe too hypothetical but like to allow a developer to skirt the needs like to just say actually I'm
- not gonna build that here's a payment in lieu it right like so that's where the transportation would
- Commission would evaluate that request kind of based on those same kind of same set of criteria as you
- know You know, what is what is the pattern along the street? Is there likely to be other developments?
- Are there unique constraints that prevent it? You know, so those are the the review criteria that are
- in there are what they would use to evaluate that so if they find
- That it didn't met that then they would say no you have to put it in. It's a fantastic. Thank you any
- other questions Or comments All right, I'll move to a time of public comment. Thank you so much We might
- have some things in a second. Is there anybody in chamber that would like to comment on? any of the
- ordinances ordinance twenty twenty six or eight twenty twenty six or nine ten or eleven and
- Is there anyone online? Tremendous. We'll come back to council council members any comments or further
- questions? All right, seeing none, oh, please come to miss us I'll just comment real fast and thank
- the plank mission and the planning department for the technical corrections I mean the UDO is a big
- document and every year we've
- find something in it that Needs some sort of fix and it takes a lot of detail work to do that and I
- appreciate that work from staff. Thank you I Move to adopt ordinance 2020 608 Second there's a motion
- to second all those in favor. Oh, no, there's motion to second. So any discussion All right, and will
- the clerk please call the roll
- Councilmember Daley Yes, Rallo Yes, Ruff. Yes Rosenberger. Yes clarity Stasburg. Yes Piedmont Smith.
- Yes Zulek Sorry, yes that motion carries seven zero I Move to adopt ordinance twenty twenty six. Oh
- nine Second there's a motion in a second any discussion
- The clerk, please call the roll Councilmember Rallo. Yes rough. Yes Rosenberger. Yes clarity Stasburg.
- Yes Piedmont Smith Yes, so like a sorry. Yes daily Yes, that motion carries seven zero any further motions. I
- I move to adopt ordinance 2026-10. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any discussion? Will the clerk
- please call the roll? Ruff? Yes. Rosenberger? Yes. Flaherty? Stasberg? Yes. Piedmont-Smith? Yes. Zulek?
- Asari? Yes. Daly? Yes. Rallo? Yes.
- That motion carries seven zero. Are there any more motions? I moved to adopt ordinance 2026 dash 11
- second motion and a second. Any discussion? Well, the clerk please call the roll. Rosenberger. Yes.
- Flaherty Stasper. Yes. Piedmont Smith. Yes. Zulek. I'm sorry. Yes.
- Yes. Rallo? Yes. Raff? Yes. That motion carries seven, zero, and that finishes our time of second readings.
- Thank you so much for your time and patience. We now move to our final time of public comment. If there's
- anybody in chambers or online who'd like to make public comment who did not make public comment during
- the first, well, no one made public comment. So if you'd like to make public comment at this time, you
- can come to the podium.
- You know the rules by now. I see one approaching Hi Dave Askins with the B Square Bulletin there was
- some brief discussion about whether the synopsis should be read for the four items This is Bloomington
- municipal code the editor the synopsis shall be read whenever the legislation and accompanies it introduced
- at a council meeting for the first or second reading and it shall become part of the official record
- so I would be delighted if
- those four synopses could just be read aloud. Thanks. Thank you. Anyone online that would like my comment?
- Anyone else in chambers? Fantastic. Are there any motions? I yeah, sure. I'm sorry. I move that the
- clerk put me on the spot. I move that the clerk
- Read by title and synopsis only ordinance 20 26-8 20 26-9 20 26 10 and 20 26 11 Second there's a motion
- in the second any discussion All those in favor say discussion go. Yes, please I don't know how this
- works with procedure right now since we already voted on it but I think because it's past 1030 we'll
- have to do a roll call vote and
- Sounds good. I think I don't really know that comes from Prima Smith. I think it can be understood since
- there was no objection that we all decided to. What's it called. Wave the rules suspend the rules suspend
- the rules and not have all those synopsis read. Mr. Allen.
- I think that that's a fair interpretation, it was unanimous, and if someone objected, they could have
- made a motion. I was reading a different part of the code, which, Dave's right, there's two different
- references in terms of reading the synopsis, but I also think that that's a fair interpretation, that
- you all decided to suspend the rules by opting to consider them as a group, and then not reading the
- synopsis, title and synopsis. It doesn't hurt to read it as well at this point, either, so.
- There's a motion and a second on the table any other discussion All right Will the clerk please call
- a voice a roll call on the motion to read Yes, please Councilmember Flaherty Stasper. Yes. Yes. Yes.
- Yes. Sorry. Yes. Yes
- Yes Yes Yes Will the clerk please read that carries eight zero all four of them Ordnance 20 2608 to
- amend to provide technical corrections and
- to title 20 of the Bloomington Municipal Code entitled Unified Development Ordinance. Synopsis, the
- ordinance contains technical corrections or clarifications in the UDO, including reference corrections,
- removal of unnecessary wording, and syncing references across the UDO. There are 22 amendments proposed.
- Ordinance 2026-09.
- amend and provide technical corrections to chapter 4 Development standards and incentives of title 20
- of the Bloomington Municipal Code entitled unified development ordinance Synopsis this ordinance contains
- corrections and amendments to chapter 4 development standards and incentives there are 70 amendments
- in this petition and
- Ordinance 2026 dash 10 to amend and provide technical corrections to chapter 6 administration and procedures
- of title 20 of the Bloomington Municipal Code entitled unified development ordinance Synopsis this ordinance
- contains corrections and amendments to chapter 6 administration and procedures of the unified development
- ordinance there are 27 amendments in this petition and
- and ordinance 2026-11 to amend and provide technical corrections to Chapter 2, Zoning Districts,
- Chapter 3, Use Regulations, Chapter 5, Subdivision Standards, and Chapter 7, Definitions of Title 20
- of the Bloomington Municipal Code entitled Unified Development Ordinance Synopsis. This ordinance contains
- corrections and amendments to Chapter 2, Zoning Districts,
- Chapter three use regulations chapter five subdivision standards Chapter seven definitions of the unified
- development ordinance. There are 28 amendments in this petition This is a schedule fantastic, please
- consider this portion of code All right any other things for any other things for the first get council
- schedule Yes, please Councilmember Piedmont Smith and Stasberg
- Well, I was just going to clarify that the Committee on Council Processes is meeting tomorrow. But you
- won't be at 4 p.m. Where are we meeting the Alison conference room, I believe. So welcome to come and
- join the fun comes with us. There was a fiscal committee meeting scheduled for this Friday at 830 and
- I canceled that. So I just wanted to make sure to announce that the topic that we were going to
- consider we couldn't, because Reedy Financial was not available on that day. So there is one more meeting
- of fiscal committee before summer recess. Has the clerks have canceled? Fantastic. It's already been
- canceled. Fantastic. It's all officially canceled already. Fantastic. Daily then, Peter R. Smith. And
- tomorrow, no, no, Tuesday. After Monday, yeah, yeah. Yeah, next Tuesday, the day after Memorial Day,
- the Jack Hopkins grant
- Allocation meeting will be taking place at 6 p.m. I believe in McCloskey Tuesday no, no, no Tuesday
- right right after right after Memorial Day Correction for the committee on council processes meeting.
- It's in the McCloskey room. Okay, excellent Thank you. We have cleared our backlog. This was a fantastic
- achievement. We are adjourned