- Thank you. I'd like to go ahead and call this Deliberation session of the Bloomington Common Council
- to order here on November 12th. Will the clerk please call the roll? Councilmember Flaherty here rough
- here Rallo here Piedmont Smith here Stasburg here daily present Zulik present Sorry, I am also present
- Wonderful. Thank you
- Wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you all for coming. So tonight we are having our second community
- conversation related to housing and Bloomington and tonight we're going to be formatted a little bit
- differently than we were the first time. So we are going to alternate between
- Presentations by planning staff and small group deliberation conversations, okay And so one of the the
- keys with this is that we're going to have a couple different transitions I think actually for where
- we're going to transition from this kind of meeting set up with council members up here and planning
- staff at that podium giving presentation to small group conversations and then we will have to transition
- back out of small group conversations and back into the large and
- group for more presentation, and then we will go back to small group conversations a second time. And
- where you go for a small group conversation the first time might be different than where you want to
- go the second time, just in terms of what you want to talk most about. Because if last time all of the
- groups were talking about the same thing, this time the groups are talking about different things. So
- as I said to somebody earlier,
- I really had to turn on my teacher organizational brain for this tonight, and y'all are gonna have to
- help me out by turning on all of your listening ears. If you have toddlers, you might know a lot about
- listening ears. At least encouraging listening ears, I hear a council member, sorry, chuckling down
- there with his toddlers.
- The purpose, I'll get back to my script now. So the purpose this evening is kind of dual. One is to
- learn a little bit from planning about what trends that they've been hearing during their many community
- conversations and also about what their outreach efforts have been. And then we also want to explore
- those trends and how those trends could potentially turn into
- to housing policy here in Bloomington and also hear a little bit about how some other cities have turned
- some of those same kinds of problems into policy or what it is that they're trying. So before we get
- to the presentation part, just a reminder of shared expectations and community agreements. And these
- things were in the packet if you read that. But when we are in those small group sessions, we can make
- sure to speak from our own experiences using I statements and being honest and respectful.
- Listen to understand and that it's okay to disagree But please do so with curiosity not hostility and
- to be concise so that everyone has a chance to speak so first on our agenda our planning director David
- Hittle is going to share
- Information about his process related to his community engagement and housing experiences that he's
- been working on since June And depending on time council members may have a few minutes for questions
- But generally I really want to prioritize tonight as a time for meaningful community conversations.
- So Mr. Hittle Thank You president Stossberger good evening everybody My name is hi
- My name is David Hill. I'm the director of the Department of Planning and Transportation and appreciate
- you coming out tonight a Little bit colder than it was the first time that we met but this is the second
- of two deliberative sessions where my department and hand and a variety of our staff are partnering
- with the council we appreciate the opportunity to get input from from you all and hear what you're thinking
- with regards to what we're doing and
- So the Department of Planning and Transportation has been charged with the task of considering housing
- policy changes Intended to make housing more attainable in the city of Bloomington I think you probably
- have a good feel for the fact that housing is not attainable in the city It is the most cost burdened
- city in the state cost burdening being
- Household spending more than 30% of their income on housing beyond which is considered to be detrimental
- to the household So there are things that can be done. There are things that can be done in the UDO
- and elsewhere to try to fix that It's not the cure-all. I think what we're proposing and what we come
- up with but it at least I hope remove some of the obstacles that are
- Not really necessary to be there. So tonight we're going to share some of what we've learned thus far
- Through a variety of engagement and outreach efforts even as we continue to listen and learn and bear
- in mind. These are highlights The we've gone into pretty deep Waters and conversations with stakeholders
- housing interested parties so so we're not going to be able to sort of give you the whole breadth and
- of that and
- that conversation those those many conversations we've had so far but More more top-level items and
- hopefully good fodder for a good conversation for tonight when we break into small groups So
- we're considering potential unified development ordinance amendments and other house housing policy
- changes to increase access to attainable
- housing in Bloomington again, please So this is we're not doing this in a vacuum This is not something
- that the city is undertaking on its own of its own accord without there being precedent this is something
- that is really happening in all of the northern hemisphere
- Cities everywhere are dealing with with housing crises of their own of different types But but it's
- a pretty widespread problem. And so what's developed is is kind of a standard slate of ordinance revisions
- of different types of zoning reform that we're seeing taking place all over the country especially and
- these are the these are the items that generally rise to the top of that list and that would be minimum
- and maximum lot dimensions short-term rental regulations
- cottage development regulations, modestly scaled multi-units, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, accessory
- dwelling units, architectural standards, on-site parking requirements, impervious service requirements,
- ground floor commercial and residential flexibility, permit process improvements, pre-approved plans,
- lender developer training, building codes. With the exception of the bottom four here,
- Everything else that I've read is already in Bloomington code. It's already part of the UDL. So we could
- be looking at amending and refining those things. Quick note about those last four items. The permit
- process improvements, besides being a difficult thing to say, is something that we're in the midst of
- right now. We're having a third party engineering and planning firm from Indianapolis come and audit
- our permit and plan review processes. And we're looking for that to be very helpful
- One thing that we've learned, and I think that it's been learned by a lot of communities, is that the
- longer you delay the time from permit application to the time when permits are approved, the more cost
- it is for developers, and developers don't just eat that, they pass that cost on to the end users. So
- there's quite a bit of efficiencies, I think, that we can realize. We have a lot of departments that
- review our plans, we have a lot of regulations, and we have an external building department, so there's a lot of
- Room, I think for improvement in the communication between those parties and this is the way that they
- interact So that started today In fact, we just had that that consultant come and interview our staff
- and in the morning they interviewed Bloomington utility staff in the afternoon So we're well on our
- way there the bottom three pre-approved plans and lender developer training I'll just talk about those
- two real quickly. Those are going to be part of the Hopewell South and
- Project which is going to be a planned unit development that's coming forward. There's a sort of an
- unveiling by the the consultant we've we were using for that property and that project a couple weeks
- ago and it's
- Pretty exciting what's planned for there. But among them is a catalog of pre-approved home plans. These
- are very well designed, contextually appropriate, missing middle homes. So those would be ADUs. These
- would be bungalows. These would be really small houses. And then even duplexes and triplexes that are
- going to be available for no cost or low cost. Have to figure that out to people that want to build
- them. And so it's a much easier way to get from idea to something on the ground.
- And then the lender developer training is something that's going to be happening next year again as
- part of this Hopewell South project where we're going to have our consultant help with helping build
- a local ecosystem of incremental developers, kind of homespun homegrown developers, and then also help
- lenders understand that these relatively alternative
- Home designs that they would be lending for so that that sort of greases greases those those gears and
- helps that whole process happen more quickly Again, we're not new here. We're not the guinea pigs. This
- has been done in other cities and done well And so we're pretty excited to have it here
- Building codes is a longer term issue. Our building codes are very much derived from state code. In
- other states, they're realizing a lot of new efficiencies in terms of single staircase design for residential
- structures, different ways of attending to fire safety needs, different ways of attending to sprinkling
- requirements that really could lower the cost of building.
- It's gonna be a longer, I think, term project to have that happen in the state of Indiana, but we are
- seeing more and more states adopt friendlier building codes to make that happen, so if that's a possibility,
- we wanna be involved with that next. Here you see the two documents that we pay regard to when we are
- looking at any kind of changes to the UDO, to really anything we do, and they're in literal chronological
- order here,
- On the left you see the comprehensive plan and on the right you see the unified development ordinance
- the left the plan is a it's the vision as set out for the city of Bloomington with regards to anything
- having to do with land use and development.
- And then that vision is to dictate how the unified development ordinance acts and works as a means of
- realizing the plan. So those two things are inextricably linked and they're very much in the air tonight
- as we talk about these types of things. Okay, next. A little bit about the methodology, about what we've
- been doing since the summer.
- We've been doing quite a bit of outreach to various stakeholders in the city, people who have an interest
- and an effect on the housing environment. Those include neighborhood organizations, the university,
- the school corporation, and then a whole lot of other groups that I initially wrote out
- One-by-one and then realized there were too many so we just sort of encapsulized them into different
- categories there with regards to neighborhood organizations Some numbers for those There are 63 registered
- neighborhood organizations in the city of Bloomington
- Reached out to all of them heard back from 30 visited or scheduled visits for 21 and so far we've had
- attendance of 185 at those meetings We have more scheduled through February. So that number will grow
- I guess I would have liked to have seen a bigger number than 185 but It's you know, that's it's not
- nothing. So we'll take it As we've had those conversations the kind of con the kind of questions that
- we've thrown out to to to drive discussion
- kind of the same questions that we entertained with the first deliberative session, which would be what
- works well in your neighborhood, what does not, what types of housing do you have, what more types be
- a positive or a negative, and why can you walk to meaningful places from your home in your neighborhood,
- or do all of your trips require a car? And then generally, those questions alone were enough to take
- conversation in all kinds of places, expected and unexpected, for a good amount of time.
- We've also met with As indicated here employers the development community peer cities lots of peer cities,
- which I'll talk about in a minute. We also have additionally Some focus groups that were planning for
- the development community and for businesses in January and February to get more focused feedback from
- them Concerns and issues we have had trouble getting renters. Actually, there have been more renters at
- Present at the neighborhood association meetings and I would have expected probably on the order of
- 10 to 15 percent Whereas most neighborhood association meetings are almost always all owners. So that's
- been kind of a positive we've Made arrangements with the Bloomington transport Bloomington Transit Company
- to do some some walk-up surveys at the Transit Center where I'm hoping we'll engage more renters just
- in terms of the
- Clientele that they serve and and the Transit Center and also a key stop so we can add to that Community
- that we've not heard enough from Quick note about pure cities So you see some of the usual suspects
- up there when we talk about pure cities often we're talking about Big Ten cohorts Ann Arbor and Iowa
- City are in there, but it reached out also to other cities that are
- Modest in size but host a very large university. So some some places that we haven't really talked to
- before Charlottesville and Pullman Fayetteville State College Corvallis Athens have been very instructive.
- It's been very cathartic for me as a planning director to talk to
- Planning directors in these other cities and find out that they have the exact same problems that we
- have And that they're dealing with them in different ways and finding successes and also finding out
- that in a lot of ways We're ahead of some of our of our peers out there next slide, please Okay back
- to the comprehensive plan again the plan sets the vision and so whenever we change the UDO we should
- be getting our mandate from the comprehensive plan
- Our march marching orders if you will So let's take a quick look and see what the comprehensive plan
- has to say about what we're proposing to do next slide
- These are quotes taken out, so obviously they're not given in full context. They're parts of goals or
- parts of the narrative. So what I'm reading, what you're reading here, again, there's more color to
- be had if you go to the source and read the entire page, the entire chapter it's from, but I think it's
- still instructive to look at some of this language.
- So, some of Bloomington's neighborhoods are relatively diverse economically and by housing type, whereas
- others are comprised almost entirely of single-family homes, limited in development by covenants. 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 spaces. Existing
- core neighborhoods should not be the focus of the city's increasing density.
- Next one, all of Bloomington's neighborhoods must avoid monocultures that serve only a small range of
- household incomes and attract a limited segment of the market. Next. Many communities have a missing
- middle for housing types where there are not many housing options beyond large multifamily units or
- detached single family. These options include duplex, triplex, courtyard apartments, bungalow courts,
- town homes, multiplex and live work units. Bloomington is no different. Next.
- Such housing varieties used to be common in American cities and they offer opportunities to further
- explore affordable housing options for Bloomington next Encourage opportunities for infill and development
- across Bloomington with consideration for increased residential densities complementary design
- and underutilized housing types such as all of those next Avoid placing these high density forms in
- single-family neighborhoods next
- Help meet current and projected regional housing needs of all economic and demographic groups by increasing
- Bloomington's housing supply with infill development, reuse of non-residential developed land,
- and developments on vacant land, if it is at least partially surrounded by existing development. Next.
- And then from the climate action plan, which is also a part of the comprehensive plan, it states flatly,
- encourage density and increase housing options and affordability with the goal of increasing gross density by 3%.
- Next and then from the sustainability section everything else I had read with the exception of the climate
- action part was from the housing part of the comprehensive plan. This is from the sustainability part
- says demographic shifts favor more urban interconnected development with increased mobility and green
- amenities often transforming an area area.
- Depends upon changes in the highest and best use for the community as a whole sustainable development
- is by definition the best long-term investment of private and public funds So there's some contradiction
- in the language of the comp plan and some frustratingly imprecise language But on balance I'd assert
- that the mandate is there for us to give a good look at housing diversity in ways to increase that diversity
- Also, I think it's it's it should definitely be noted that prevailing themes in the comprehensive plan
- include those of equity and those of access and certainly to strive towards Equity and access for all
- your you want to look at the ability to increase housing diversity
- I am going to, before I pass it on to Jamie, I'm going to really quickly set up the first small group
- session. Just take a moment for that, so next please. This Dower fellow is William S. Burroughs. He
- is a mid-century artist and author, and he's not important here, but he is known for having coined the
- phrase, when you stop growing, you start dying.
- And that's one thing we're going to talk about with our first small group. This kind of resonates with
- me because I think it is about 12 years ago as a planning director for Johnson County. And we had hired
- a consultant to work with one of our cities on a comprehensive plan.
- and he made the statement, grow or die, and it kind of became his refrain. And as that process moved
- forward, he was talking about grow or die, grow in the context of how this particular city had been
- growing for decades, which is to conquer corn fields and bean fields and expand ever further with very
- low density suburban development. And I realized that as I agree with this statement,
- when you stop growing, you start dying, I disagreed with that variant in that context. So I think that
- it's possible to grow, but to not grow well. In talking with Hopi as we prepared for this today, tonight,
- we thought that sort of a couple of these more philosophical questions might be fun. Can I say fun?
- for the small groups. So I think that this will probably, I hope, garner some good discussion. And then
- the next one for the small groups is this.
- It's a maxim you hear in planning circles. It was originated I think a long time ago But has become
- more popular via the strong towns movement in the last 10 years or so and it is to two statements No
- neighborhood can be exempt from change number two. No neighborhood should experience sudden radical
- change so as we look at the tension between preservation between preservation of character protection
- of character of neighborhoods and the need for a healthy city to grow and
- Is this true? Is this partially true? Is this true in some places in some circumstances and not true
- in others? So that is another thing that you can all find the answer to when we divide for small groups
- That's all for the first section and I think we're moving on to Jamie now Jamie now or are we moving
- into our small groups? Where does your slide show go? I?
- Because you just intro this like the small group. So should we We could I This is a moment where everybody
- is going to be flexible with us, right? What do you want to do Jamie? What do you want to do? What do
- you want to do? You want to go? Okay, then staff will have to jump back to this afterwards So at this
- point, thank you so much, mr. Hittle so now I I believe
- One of our new planning staff members is going to bring us through a little bit about the related research
- that she has been doing, also related to some of the feedback that Mr. Hittle was talking about. So
- floor is yours.
- So thank you to everyone and good evening. My name is Jamie Kreindler. I'm a newer planner with the
- city of Bloomington. I started here in August and my presentation is about current efforts and practices
- happening nationwide in zoning reform and housing attainability including case studies some basic planning
- principles and guides from professional organizations and what they're saying about middle housing.
- So for starters I just wanted to highlight a few things in the unified development ordinance or you
- do which you'll commonly hear it referred to in the city of Bloomington. There are a variety of residential
- and mixed use zoning districts that allow for diverse types of housing to be built. We have cottage
- developments that are clusters of single family homes with shared common spaces and these are conditionally
- permitted uses in all of the city's residential zoning districts.
- Duplexes are conditionally permitted uses in the R1, R2, and R3 districts, and these are the residential
- large, medium, and small lot zones. Duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and multifamily dwellings are also
- allowed by right in the residential multifamily and residential high density multifamily zoning districts.
- To encourage gentle density, cities small and large have reformed their zoning codes to allow for middle
- housing in strategic locations. Minneapolis, Minnesota is known for being the first major US city to
- eliminate single family exclusive zoning, allowing duplexes and triplexes in all residential districts.
- Several states such as Montana, California, Washington, Maine, and Vermont have passed laws that mandate
- cities to allow middle housing options in low density residential districts.
- Other zoning reform measures that have been widely used across the country include allowing accessory
- dwelling units eliminating parking minimums removing restrictive design standards reducing minimum lot
- size requirements and incentivizing transit oriented development in the city of Bloomington. We also
- have affordable housing incentives that are currently in our UDO as well and those apply to the R1 R2
- R3 and R4 zoning districts.
- The American Association for Retired Persons has done a lot of work on middle housing, and they're a
- leader in the aging in place movement. They've published guides for local and state regulators on how
- to expand middle housing options, such as cottage clusters, triplexes, and accessory dwelling units.
- AARP has partnered with organizations like the American Planning Association, Strong Towns, and Congress
- for New Urbanism, and they make the case that what is good for older Americans is good for everybody.
- According to the 2021 AARP home and community preferences survey, most people prefer to live in walkable
- neighborhoods that offer a mix of housing and transportation options and are close to jobs, schools,
- shopping, entertainment, and green spaces. In many communities, walkable, small to midsize housing that's
- affordable for middle income households is difficult or impossible to find.
- The city of South Bend, Indiana, has an initiative called Build South Bend that is designed to assist
- small-scale developers, entrepreneurs, and residents with property development and new construction
- projects in the city.
- The city of South Bend offers pre-approved housing plans to support neighborhood infill and economic
- opportunities. And this resource assists with small to medium scale housing developments and includes
- contextually appropriate high quality architectural plans to fit within a range of neighborhoods in
- South Bend. These pre-approved ready to build housing plans are intended to save developers and individuals
- time and money.
- on the design and approval process as the city works towards its goal of increasing the supply of diverse
- mixed income housing.
- While still in the early stages, Hopewell, as many people are familiar in this room, is a local case
- study on housing attainability. Hopewell is planned to be Bloomington's next great neighborhood, located
- on the former IU Health Bloomington Hospital site along West Second Street. The Bloomington Redevelopment
- Commission is partnering with Flintlock Lab, a multidisciplinary consulting firm based in Fayetteville,
- Arkansas, on Hopewell South, which are blocks nine and 10 of the Hopewell Master Plan.
- And key components of this project include a mix of housing types and price points, pre-approved home
- designs to streamline permitting and reduce costs, opportunities for local builders, a legal framework
- to support permanently affordable and market rate housing, and ongoing community outreach and developer
- training. One of the goals is to develop a pre-approved homes catalog similar to South Bend that could
- be applied citywide to make housing infill easier in the city of Bloomington.
- In many communities, digital tools are being used to advance housing attainability, better permitting
- systems, and improve zoning transparency. Outdated processes can cause barriers and delays that slow
- down the potential supply of housing. Digital tools can help cities to share success stories, automate
- workflows, centralize records, shorten approval times, reduce error rates, and track community engagement.
- predictable trackable housing projects are more likely to get funding from investors and lenders and
- Developers have an increased sense of confidence to work with communities that have track records of
- efficiency From 3d mapping like this map the city of Carmel, Indiana to interactive zoning tools to
- new innovations in AI There are numerous ways that technology can be utilized to demystify zoning identify
- gaps in housing attainability and provide information to the public and
- Historic preservation is another tool for maintaining the existing stock of affordable homes while protecting
- neighborhood stability and character many pre 1970s homes are inherently affordable and preserving and
- rehabilitating these types of homes can contribute to addressing housing attainability in some cases
- it is more cost-effective to repair older homes than build new housing and occupying currently vacant
- units can help to fill the housing shortage gap and
- Looking at housing attainability through a historic preservation lens, common practices include
- deconstruction over demolition, affordable housing overlays with the creation of new historic or conservation
- districts, ADUs in historic neighborhoods, government funding for repairs to older homes, and regulations
- to Airbnb's which are frequently historic homes that attract visitors rather than providing permanent
- housing to locals.
- And lastly legalizing ad use which stands for accessory dwelling units has been a very common action
- taken by state Policymakers to make attainable housing more feasible to build to date laws broadly allowing
- homeowners to build and rent out ad use have passed in 18 states
- However hurdles still persist even in states where adus are legal in a recent article from the National
- Association of home builders three of the quote-unquote poison pills to building adus or owner occupancy
- requirements parking requirements and discretionary permit reviews and the city of Bloomington adus
- are allowed in all of the city's zoning districts with the exception of the mixed-use institutional
- and the non-residential zoning districts and
- There are you specific standards that apply to building ad use and the city of Bloomington has extensive
- resources available online including an adu catalog with pre-designed plans created by local and regional
- architects Communities are exploring how to make ad use more economical through zoning reform streamlining
- approval processes and offering financial support such as grants and low-interest loans to homeowners
- who construct ad use on their properties
- And that concludes my presentation. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. Thank you so much. And
- once again, welcome to the city of Bloomington staff. I still feel like Miss Kreindler is very new.
- So the next thing we're going to do is we're going to break into the small groups. And so one of the
- design thoughts that we had when talking about this is that
- Planning staff has lots of information to tell us but it's also really hard to like sit and listen to
- stuff So that's why we're doing information and then conversation and then come back for information.
- Okay, so all There are there are gonna be eight groups and all council members Should have this packet
- in front of them and this should help tell you and explain to you exactly how this is gonna work tonight
- Okay, so I just need to I'm gonna do my best to make this really clear. So in our first
- breakout session, we're dealing with our guiding questions. So we have guiding question number one or
- guiding question number two. So council members, you should have this in front of you right now, okay?
- And so on the guiding question sheets, there should be four groups on each of them, and you should have
- a highlighted name of where you're supposed to do.
- where you're supposed to go. So if we think back to Mr. Hiddle's presentation, our first guiding question
- was about neighborhood change and that idea of no neighborhood should experience radical change, but
- all neighborhoods should expect some change, okay? No neighborhood should experience radical change,
- but all neighborhoods should expect some change. So there will be four groups talking about that statement,
- and those will be groups one through four.
- And so these small groups should be numbered, I believe, one through four are all within council chambers.
- And then there will be four groups talking about guiding question number two.
- If you have guiding question number two as a council member, can you like hold up your sheet? So you
- have guiding question number two. So I know that you're paying attention to me. Thank you so much.
- Thank you, teacher. So guiding question number two is when you stop growing, you start dying, that quote
- from William Burroughs. So groups five through eight, I think five and six are in chambers.
- maybe five is in chambers and six, seven, eight are out in the hall, are gonna be talking about that
- concept of when you stop growing, you start dying.
- Okay, so in each one of those groups one through eight, there will be a council member and a City staff
- member teaming up to do facilitation. All right, so before you start moving council members the other
- things that you have is a printed out facilitation guide and Which one you're doing should be highlighted
- Okay in terms of which questions you're dealing with and then you also have a note-taking guide Okay,
- and so I would like to remind you that one facilitator
- One partner in the group should be taking notes, and you guys can decide who that is. And then I also
- emailed this document out to you if you prefer to take notes digitally as opposed to on paper. There
- are also clipboards and pens right here if you want to grab a clipboard and pen and take notes on paper.
- If you don't want to use my note taking guide at all, there's also just paper here, and that's fine.
- And you don't have to use my note guide. Does anybody have any questions right now about where they're
- supposed to go?
- Yes, there are numbers on the chairs. And council members, bring this sheet with you and hold it up
- so that then residents and community members can help remember whether they're going to groups one through
- four, talking about neighborhood change, or five through eight. All right? In about 20 minutes, I'm
- going to call you back, and we all need to come back to the main group. Work on that, y'all. All right.
- Let's go back to Mr. Hiddle, who is going to kind of continue on with a little bit more information
- about the trends that he has seen related to the housing challenges in Bloomington that will kind of
- set us up for our second small group discussion. Take it away, Mr. Hiddle. Thank you, President Stossberg.
- Thanks everybody for pulling yourselves away from the group. Sorry to do that. This will be Another
- 10-minute presentation and then you'll go back to two more groups so this is we're going to share a
- little bit about what we've learned throughout the outreach and engagement process again, these are
- very much highlights and very selected highlights very little detail here, but we tried to kind of
- Curate some some items. I think probably will lead to again good discussion here and also just help
- you understand sort of the dynamics that we've Learned from people as we've gone out and talked with
- them so a couple of the points that that are really hitting home is that Generally a greater diversity
- of housing options is desired among stakeholders thus far engaged we found that you're not going to
- find a lot of people that say oh gosh diverse housing and
- Terrible. I don't like that at all As you get talking a little bit more closer to home and in their
- specific neighborhood Then they be they maybe become a little bit more concerned about it That leads
- us to the second point is where there is concerned expressed about housing diversity. It's most often
- from neighborhood residents and and leadership Next slide, please those concerns include
- First and predominantly the idea that off-campus student housing pressures will overwhelm or are already
- overwhelming neighborhoods and From that we get a loss of neighborhood character new buildings don't
- fit contextually new buildings are architectural downgrades from what they're replacing next slide the
- local residential market cannot compete with off-campus student housing market
- Neighborhoods uniqueness its sense of self erodes as more transitory students replace more long-term
- neighbors And then traffic parking and student behavior and I actually put that last item last on purpose
- Traffic parking and student behavior because I heard those complaints, but I didn't hear them nearly
- to the degree I expected I've come my previous job was in West Lafayette Lafayette, Tippecanoe County
- same job different town
- Big University small city and the complaint there was very much about student behavior in especially
- adjoining core neighborhoods in West Lafayette Here we get that there are certainly certain neighborhoods
- that I spoke with where You know, they've had bad experiences with students and and they is very much
- top of mind but
- The overriding concern really has to do with the dynamic between the pressures of off-campus housing
- needs and what that does to the built fabric of the neighborhood, the pressures for changing the built
- fabric of the neighborhood and for really just changing the cost of living there. Not so much student
- behavior, so I think that is there, but it's definitely not in first place. Next slide, please.
- This was one of the neighborhoods provided me this specifically as an example of their concern relative
- to neighborhood character. So this is 7-Eleven East Cottage Grove two years ago. Next slide. This is
- 7-Eleven East Cottage Grove two weeks ago. Next slide. And then this is what is proposed. This is what
- the neighborhood gave me that they were given, I think, by somebody that visited.
- But it turns out that the next slide is actually more indicative of their plans. And so what you see,
- I mean, this is 400 feet from campus. And so you see what was a single family dwelling would now be,
- this is a triplex. So there's the tension. It makes sense that there should be, could be, maybe will
- be higher density close to campus. But then the question of at what cost when you look at the change
- in character.
- And so there are going to be some people that think this is a fine thing, and there are going to be
- some people that think that this is an abomination. And I think that it's worthwhile to listen to both
- points of concern as we look at what we want to be able to call gentle density. Next slide, please.
- More of what we learned, there is a strong desire for improved walkability. I heard the word walkability
- a lot. In the post-war neighborhoods, and when I say post-war, I mean after 1950, essentially. So these
- are the more suburban neighborhoods in character. But there's also a different
- different definition of walkability there. I think what I'm hearing there has a lot to do with just
- the presence or absence of sidewalks and paths and their condition. Are they there? If I want to walk,
- can I go there? Whereas in the core neighborhoods, it's a more, I think, comprehensive idea of walkability,
- is if I leave my front door, can I actually walk to a place that's meaningful? Do I have to get in the
- car to get a gallon of milk? If the kids have to go to school, do I have to get in the car? Can they walk?
- So the idea of walkability is much more comprehensive in the center part of the city in the
- core neighborhoods Than it is in the external neighborhoods But we do have some of these more suburban
- neighborhoods where they do talk about the pleasures of being able to walk to the store to a coffee
- shop There's a relative lack of awareness. I was surprised to learn of ADU opportunities If you live
- in a residential neighborhood, you can build an ADU Well, not tomorrow because it'll take us a long
- time to process your permit and
- But if you do live in a residential neighborhood, you can build an ADU. They're expensive They're super
- expensive because you know per square cost our per square foot cost of an ADU is much higher than than
- a than a Regular single-family dwelling so we don't have a lot of them but but they're allowed by right
- right now and so I've been to you know neighborhoods I've talked to and people are thinking
- I'd love to be able to have, you know, my father-in-law who is ill and needs, has some independence
- but needs some help, love to have him living in the backyard in a house or have my adult special needs
- child, you know, in the same situation or, you know, more and more these days your college graduate
- child is not ready for
- You know is gonna you would like to have that person, you know living at home or have the opportunity
- and so I was a little bit surprised that so There are not a lot of people that knew that that was something
- that could be done right now People were aware very aware of their subdivision covenants, especially
- again. These are in the 50s and 60s era neighborhoods more in the perimeter of the city
- A lot of those neighborhoods have subdivision covenants that prohibit anything other than a single-family
- dwelling from being built on a lot Now those are not enforceable by the city, but they they certainly
- have sway and power as far as whether somebody wants to try to do that So that's kind of a that's a
- real sticking point for people that want to be able to build an adu in their backyard for the reasons
- I just described but but they have private covenants that prevent them from doing that and then also
- in the the
- post-war subdivisions, there's this sort of low-key fear of anything other than a single-family dwelling.
- And I say low-key because it's not overwhelming. There was no place I went where there was this uniformity
- of opinion where the idea of living next to something other than a single-family dwelling was just completely
- objectionable. There was always a little bit of diversity of opinion.
- But there was, in general, generally speaking, there was a desire, if you live in a single-family house
- in a post-war suburb, most people wanted to have the same thing on either side of them. Next slide.
- Off-campus student housing, again, this is a major, I think, cannot be overstated what a compelling
- force this is.
- In this city is as far as house housing works and how much housing costs So again, I've talked to peer
- cities and learned a lot in doing that We're gonna look at some of the strategies that other places
- are utilizing again super highlight This is not with much depth But I think it's it's interesting to
- look around and see what's being done and certainly good fodder for conversation Next slide. So Ann
- Arbor builds vertically It's nothing for them to drop an 18-story student housing
- Project somewhere their their campus and their downtown or are integrated in a way that's a little bit
- different from Bloomington's They have a history of small of taller buildings in their downtown and
- it's just a bigger city So so this is sort of an opportunity that they have that I don't think would
- fly so well in Bloomington but they they in addition to other strategies one of them is to build up
- and so these are you know,
- On the outside, they all look a little bit different, but on the inside, they're all the same. This
- is the high amenity, luxury student apartment buildings. Next slide. West Lafayette, again, this is
- the place I just came from, so I know a little bit about it. They go vertical as well, so they have
- no shortage of 12 to 16 story student housing buildings in their downtown. And what's really interesting
- about West Lafayette, next slide, please, these are two side-by-side maps of downtown West Lafayette.
- Wabash, if you look at the one on the left, the green area is essentially the banks of the Wabash River.
- And then on the map on the right, the white area shows a redevelopment area. So this was an area built
- in the 60s with a mall, an enclosed mall.
- big strip mall and then some old garden variety apartments, all of them failing, all of them making
- for a really big redevelopment area. So what they have done, what they are doing is creating a new downtown
- essentially. If you look on the map at the right, you can see that they gridded out a new street network
- to allow for a lot of new development here.
- Again, the map on the left shows downtown West Lafayette on the left side of that map and then a new,
- basically a new downtown West Lafayette on the east side. The problem they're having though is all of
- the developers, all of the pressure and desire to build there is high amenity student apartment buildings,
- mixed use perhaps. They don't want to build mixed use, but if they have to, they will.
- There's a philosophical question in the air in West Lafayette is, do we want to put all of our eggs
- in this basket? Maybe higher education changes substantially in 50 years, and there's not this immense
- on-campus or near-campus student presence with online education, with the fact that we have demographic
- challenges I think that colleges are going to be dealing with, starting like literally right now into
- the future.
- If they're left with these massive buildings that are really built only to house college students, what
- does that do for the town 30, 40, 50 years down the road? It makes you think of Anderson, Indiana, which
- put all its eggs in the basket of the automobile industry. And when they left town, it's just a shell
- of itself. So it's kind of the same dynamic here. So it's a question that's being grappled with in West
- Lafayette.
- just the natural market forces to flow as they seem to want to flow, then they will have a downtown
- that is composed of nothing but big student apartment buildings. Next slide. This is just a cross section
- of what you see in one of those buildings. The hallmark of student housing is that the bed to bathroom
- ratio is one to one, and that operationally the rents are by the person, by the bedroom, rather than
- by the unit. So this is the rive,
- Bloomington next slide shows pretty much the exact same thing the verve and West Lafayette and again,
- they're Go to Ann Arbor. They're the same names. The buildings look the same. It's it's sort of a formula
- that they can just that just caches checks next slide
- State College Pennsylvania. They have an interesting strategy in place there. They're actually also
- overhauling their zoning ordinance. So whether or not this survives that process, it's not sure. But
- if you have a student in a residence
- And that student meets the definition of student home. I mean, attending undergraduate or graduate programs
- offered by colleges or universities, then that is a student home. And automatically, you cannot be within
- 720 feet of another existing student home. So the practical output of that is that you distribute student
- homes within a given neighborhood, core neighborhood, so that the ability for student housing to overwhelm
- a traditional
- You know single-family or duplex or triplex oriented older neighborhood near campus doesn't materialize
- Next slide Charlottesville, Virginia overhauled their ordinance last year and they created three what
- they're calling gentle density districts all adjoining campus Allowing for three units six units eight
- units by right even more of affordable
- They are put in place and then they were sued immediately and so that's all a little bit in limbo in
- fact the other three cities in Virginia that have major campus presences a major campus presence at
- the same time enacted similar zoning ordinance overhauls to allow for increased density and they were
- sued as well and
- Virginia's state code has a very prescriptive Requirement for changes to ordinances and the suit allow
- alleges that those weren't followed in different ways in each of the four cases But anyway, that's something
- that's going on in Charlottesville Next slide, please back to Bloomington. This is our zoning map Jamie
- showed it earlier all of the yellow is r2 zoning and it allows by right only for single-family dwellings and
- Also, you could build an ADU. We've talked about that You could have a duplex but only by grant
- of conditional use which is a BZA process which carries with it quite a bit of friction so that zoning
- district is about 4,000 acres of land in the city and that's almost five times the next highest land
- area zoning district, which is our three so we have a lot of land set aside that allows a
- By right really nothing but single-family dwellings with the caveat that that 80 years can be built
- as well Next slide
- It's informational. The top graph I think is probably most worth looking at. The yellow dots show the
- number of ADUs built over the years since 2018. You can see it's a pretty even average of four or five
- per year during that time. And then the blue shows the number of plexes, duplexes, triflexes, or quads
- that have been built since 2022. Gentle ascent of about one and a half per year. We've had six so far
- built this year.
- So we did allow for duplexes by grant of conditional use in in our Residential districts, but as you
- can see it hasn't resulted in a lot of those actually being built next slide And then this just shows
- the distribution ad use in yellow and plexes in blue relatively evenly distributed throughout the city
- Next slide
- Just a little bit of elaboration on some of the typologies that we mentioned earlier. Cottage courts
- is a very interesting one. Next slide. This is a two lots, two urban lots in Indianapolis. This is actually
- in a neighborhood, the neighborhood I used to live in. And this is a traditional cottage court development,
- brand new construction. I don't know that there have been many of these built in Indiana in recent years.
- Deb Meyerson might know the answer to that question. Come again?
- Engelnuck Okay So this is one of the few cottage developments that have been built in the state This
- took six seven years The developer had this concept again two urban lots on which would be built instead
- of the two single-family dwellings It would have been allowed by right. There are six 1100 square foot
- single-family dwellings each of them three bedrooms two bathrooms
- very thoughtfully constructed, very energy efficient. You can see that there's a courtyard in between
- them. Next slide. And they've actually been built. As a planner, I'm so accustomed to seeing glossy
- renderings and ideas that never get built, but these have actually been built. Now, they're $300,000
- a piece, but as new construction goes, that's relatively inexpensive. And if you allow this kind of
- thing to scale over time, there'll be enough of it that you would hope that those prices become reasonable
- for people.
- Again, this is an old typology. I don't know that there's any in Bloomington that exist that were from
- a different time. But in other Midwestern cities, certainly in Indianapolis, there are a number of these
- that were built in the 20s and 30s. And it's a good way to achieve true gentle density. They complement
- the neighborhood, they work well, they offer lower price points, and they give people places to live.
- Next slide.
- Just another example of a cottage court done well. You know, again, it fits well with pretty much any
- neighborhood. Next slide. Lot dimensions. Real quick note about that if you'll go to the next slide,
- please. So this is just an example of houses that have built ADUs and using various means, they've split
- off the ADUs so they can actually be sold.
- Fee simple and then owned by a different party The lot on the left is using a flag lot approach which
- we don't allow right now with our ordinance And then the lot on the right is used taking advantage of
- the fact that it's on a corner to split off the rear lot this
- This is an idea, I think, where it probably has the most utility in Bloomington is for large residential
- lots, where there's a house and then there's just a big expanse of turf grass. And we've been approached
- by people who want to be able to subdivide that. And as infill, as true infill, where you're not building
- new pipes, you're not expanding services, you're not building new roads, it's a very economical way
- of getting more people in the city
- without great expense and without dramatically changing the neighborhood as well. Next slide. I just
- find this interesting. This is from Indiana Code. This is HB1005, which was passed last year and went
- into effect. So if you'll read the bottom part, it requires certain municipalities
- to voluntarily revise their unified development ordinances, zoning regulations or other land development
- rules to allow for higher density development of duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes in areas designated
- for single-family homes, construction of other housing types including accessory dwelling units and
- manufactured modular housing, adaptive reuse of commercial buildings for residential use. So this reads
- very much like the blue states that Jamie mentioned earlier that demand this
- of all their municipalities, but it applies only to those Governments that are that are utilizing the
- residential housing infrastructure assistance program. So that's Financial assistance to develop additional
- housing but it's fascinating to me that this language just even appears in Indiana code Because I just
- never thought that day would come Next okay
- So I can send you guys into your groups Thank you, so thank you so much right now to our planning department
- and especially mr. Hittle but also Jamie Crandler because both of them have done a lot of work preparing
- this session and supporting me as I figure out some of these facilitation details, so
- Right now, we're going to split into our small groups again. And there are going to be four different
- topics. And so they're kind of briefly illustrated up there.
- the first kind of set of more substantial questions has to do with off-campus housing and attainability,
- kind of with the main thing of how can Bloomington absorb the significant need for off-campus housing
- of our university students while still providing attainable and necessary housing for non-student residents?
- Okay, so how can Bloomington absorb the need for off-campus housing and still provide attainable and
- necessary housing for non-student residents? So that is going to be discussed in group
- One and two. Okay, so that is in this room groups one and two Then we are going to have how can neighborhood
- character be maintained while Allowing for growth to meet the needs of current and future residents
- Okay, so how can we balance that neighborhood character and preservation and that is going to be I'm
- not reading the right thing right here right now, but that's going to be groups three and four and
- Okay, which are also in here. I don't know where all of our circles went, so we're just gonna have to,
- that one is three and I think that four is back there. Okay. And then we will have group three.
- What will incentivize small local developers and or disincentivize large outside investment into our
- housing market? That was another one of those kind of common refrains that came up a lot in the last
- council session that we did was this idea of wanting to support local developers. So that is the third
- question and those folks will be in groups five and six is out in the hall. And then the last topic
- is how can
- housing be made more attainable for current and future Bloomingtonians. And that's groups seven and
- eight. So once again, if you wanna talk about student off-campus housing and how to balance that, you're
- in groups one and two. If you wanna talk about neighborhood character and preservation mixed with growth,
- you're in three and four. If you wanna talk about incentivizing small developers, you're in five and six.
- And if you wanna talk about attainable housing, which is kind of a mix of affordability and availability,
- you're in seven and eight, okay? Go team. Okay, we're still working on people coming in from the hallway,
- but I just wanna close us out here with a very short statement. Thank you, is everybody in from the hall now?
- All right, so I had originally planned that we were kind of gonna do some large group reporting out
- from things that we heard in our session, but our time was not managed quite as well as it was during
- the first session, and I think that that's because we all seemed to really enjoy talking in our small
- groups. So if you're interested in hearing what other people talked about, sometime probably next week
- there will be kind of a packet addendum
- with the notes that note takers took tonight. So I think that that's gonna be the most efficient way
- to do this. I have generally advertised that these deliberation sessions last about two hours and it
- is now 839, so that's more than two hours. So I wanna go ahead and adjourn us sooner rather than later.
- But I do wanna thank everybody for being here and for sharing your thoughts and being deliberate and
- taking time out of your day to help give us the kind of feedback that we need to
- to move Bloomington forward in the housing arena. So I just wanted to kind of tell you what the next
- step is that Mr. Hittle kind of alluded to is actually making policy changes to the Unified Development
- Ordinance to try to address some of the challenges and improve the housing situation in Bloomington.
- So I just wanted to say once again in terms of process and timing, the expectation for that right now
- is that there would actually be official policy
- Change proposals that would occur Probably starting in the earlier part of next year depending on planning
- department Situations and there are probably you know, we've talked about a lot of different topics
- and there's been a lot of different things that they've heard And so it won't be just one big thing
- There will probably be several smaller pieces of legislation that will come through and those will start
- at the planned Commission level and planned Commission meetings are
- are Monday nights, and I'm forgetting right now whether they're first Mondays or second Mondays. They're
- second Mondays, thank you. They're second Mondays of the month. I'm actually on Plan Commission, and
- I just couldn't remember which Monday of the month. I always am here.
- But so they will start at that plan commission level with that proposal. Usually there will be at least
- one hearing for everything. Usually there are two. That's kind of standard. We have to waive a second
- hearing very deliberately if we just want to move through. But at the plan commission level, there is
- an opportunity for the public to weigh in through public comment on the specific proposals. And then
- after the plan commission processes it and looks at it and hears feedback and potentially changes things,
- then that will end up forwarded on to common
- Council and Common Council of course also will at second readings have time for public to comment on
- those specific policy proposals. So I hope that everybody signed in today either out on the paper or
- using the QR code and so through those sharing of email addresses if you shared that we can I will pledge
- to do my very best to keep you up to date in terms of sharing when any specific proposals are coming
- through the
- planning commission but those meetings are of course publicly noticed and all of that kind of thing
- but I will do my best to also send it out to all of the folks who came tonight and then also to the
- meeting in September so I don't think that there's anything else I needed to share do council members
- have any questions oh yes the reminder if you did not put your pin on the map
- of where you live. We're just trying to make sure that when we have these input sessions that we're
- gathering data from all over Bloomington and not just having feedback from narrow areas. So please make
- sure to do that on your way out. If you didn't sign in, make sure to do that on your way out. If you're
- watching on Zoom, I once again forgot during the second breakout session to point you toward the QR
- code around the second breakout session topics and feedback for that, but hopefully you all
- figured that out because it was the same procedure as the first one. So unless there are other reminders
- from council members or other stuff. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Absolutely. And on that note, we are
- adjourned.