>> Hi, everyone. I'm going to encourage you. We don't usually sit up on a tall stage like
 this. This is a very formal auditorium. I'll encourage you to come as close as you want
 to come. I'm Mayor Carrie Thompson, and I have with me tonight the director of our Housing
 and Neighborhood Development Department, Anna Killian Hansen. And the way we usually do
 these things is we give you some high-level updates about what's happening in the city.
 Anna's here to specifically highlight some housing things. I'll give you some more general
 updates as well. And then we will take questions, and I think in this format we're probably
 going to take note card questions because Katz is up there and we need to broadcast the question.
 So we'll take note card questions and repeat them back. Lucas, can you wave your hand for
 us? So Lucas is around, he's on our comms team, and then Desiree and Paige will come in as
 well and they'll help facilitate the note cards. Were you offered note cards when you
 came in? Okay, great. If you want to pre-fill them out, it doesn't have to be anything related
 to what I'm saying or what Anna's saying. This really is your opportunity to ask whatever
 you want and really to steer the conversation. I do these town halls every other month and
 we travel to the different city council districts. You don't have to be from this district to
 come to this town hall. You're encouraged to come to any that you want. In the months
 that I'm not doing town halls, I do traveling office hours. That's a better opportunity
 to sit down one on one with me, talk about some things that you want direct answers to
 or you may not feel comfortable asking in public. This month, obviously, traveling town
 hall, traveling office hours in November. I can't even believe it's October already.
 We also do door knocking. I go out once a month with at least one of my team members,
 sometimes two or three. We go to different neighborhoods. If you want us in your neighborhood,
 just ask because we pick different neighborhoods every single time. We don't tend to repeat
 neighborhoods at least not until we cycle through them all. Rain or shine, we're out
 knocking doors once a month. That actually is where I sometimes get the very best information
 from people. Come on in, Eric. We're glad to have you. You who need no intro to the
 town halls. We are working on a new city website. For all of you who have had frustrations with
 the city website, join the club. I find it incredibly hard to navigate. And so I'm delighted.
 Desiree is leading that charge. She's our communications director. And in 2026, we will
 have a new and improved website that I anticipate will be 100 times more user friendly. So look
 forward to that. I want to start this evening by just talking
 about some public safety events that have happened in the past couple of weeks. You
 may have read that we had a shooting in close to the Hopewell neighborhood. I don't think
 I'm speaking out of turn. And if I am, they will reprimand me later. We are very pleased
 that we made an arrest today in that case. And we are, I'm really proud of the police's
 work in that case. We are committed to keeping Bloomington safe. And our police department
 is more fully staffed than it has been in a long time. We're working on getting it fully,
 fully staffed. And we're making great progress with that. We have, Wes is here from the fire
 department. Our fire department is fully staffed. And really delighted about that. And my thanks
 to Fire One, who has a brand new station, for responding so quickly to the first Christian
 Church fire this past week. They were on scene almost immediately and really made a bad situation
 not quite as bad. So my thanks to Fire. We dedicated the new, or we unlatched the hose.
 Is that what you say? Yeah. We uncoupled the hose today at Fire Three. The renovations
 are done there. And so all of that is part of the public safety grant, public safety
 bond that we've had for several years. And if you were watching those council proceedings
 during the approval of that, of course, the fire projects were to be prioritized because
 those were the top safety issue at that point. So we have prioritized those. We have one
 more fire project to go. And then that bond is pretty well spent. So let's see. I want
 to talk a little bit before Anna talks about housing housing. I want to talk about the
 challenge that is on many people's minds, which is homelessness. And of course, homelessness
 has everything to do with housing, and it also has many, many other facets to it. What
 we are seeing now is that homelessness affects everyone in the city, whether you are experiencing
 homelessness yourself, if you have a loved one who may be unhoused in this moment, or
 you are seeing the impacts of people who are living unhoused on our city. We're not unlike
 other cities in having a rise in homelessness. Heading Home is the umbrella organization
 that is set up to set best practices and get the teams working together to address the
 system and service gaps that exist with homelessness. We are, in my administration, really
 committed
 to working on the root causes of homelessness. That is a lack of affordable housing, so we're
 working hard on that. We also are looking to county, state, and federal partners to
 help on the untreated mental illness. There is a real deficit in mental health treatment
 in our community and across the nation, and if you have read the president's executive
 order related to homelessness, you'll note that he orders mental health treatment. Unfortunately,
 that order cannot be fulfilled at this point because there's no funding and service providers
 available to fulfill that part of the mission. Otherwise, I agree, we need to increase mental
 health provision. While this is not unique to Bloomington, I am firm in my belief that
 if there is any city in this country that can solve homelessness, it is Bloomington,
 Indiana. Our numbers are relatively low compared to many other cities. We only have just over
 300 people who are experiencing homelessness, and what that means in a city as innovative
 and compassionate as Bloomington is that we really have an opportunity to create solutions
 that others have not tried, and try them, and work on them together until we actually
 figure out what is dissolving the problem. Some say that you need as many solutions as
 you have people who are experiencing homelessness. I think you need probably as many different
 combinations. It's a discrete math problem. They're not all unique. We need different
 combinations of services for different people, but we have a new Lilly grant through the
 Community Foundation that's going to fund a lot of caseworkers, and we have some new
 reunification funds coming from Community Foundation, and then also the city of Bloomington
 has some reunification funds in our next year's budget, and that can help people who may have
 come here thinking that there were enough services for us to house everybody to get
 back to where their safety nets really are, back to where their parents are, their siblings
 are, and to reunify with that support system. There are 126 shelters in Indiana outside
 of Indianapolis and Bloomington, and so part of this reunification is let's get you back
 close to home. If you do need to be sheltered, let's at least get you to a shelter in your
 home community that can connect you with further case management and solutions. Stride is the
 organization that has used the Community Foundation funds for reunification, and I want to make
 sure everybody understands what Stride does. Stride is a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year crisis
 center here in Bloomington. We have Stride's cards at the table out there, and I have one
 in one of my pockets. If you all are in a place as many of you all are, if you eat downtown,
 if you walk the beeline, if you walk other places in town, I'm sure you may encounter
 people who are actively experiencing a crisis. Stride is the crisis center, and they have
 mobile outreach. That means they are the best place to call unless there is a dangerous
 criminal activity happening, and then, of course, call the police. But Stride has full-time
 mental health professionals. They are at the center, and they're a division of Centerstone,
 and what most people need when they're in crisis is not an interaction with the police.
 It is an entry into care that actually will help them, ultimately. Again, I don't want
 to discourage you from calling the police if there's criminal or dangerous activity,
 but if somebody is in crisis and there is no danger to you or others, I encourage you
 to call Stride. We have learned from Stride that it takes several interactions, sometimes,
 for somebody to engage in longer-term care with them, so if you're seeing the same individual
 over and over again, feel free to call them. It's about relationship building and trust
 building, and this is an incredible community resource that many, many communities do not
 have. So take a Stride card, put it in your pocket, better yet, plug their phone number
 into your phone. Again, it's 24/7, so that is a good thing to have with you. You will
 see, and I want to give a big shout out to Cook, around the community, there will be
 added marketing and advertising about Stride, because Stride can only reach as many people
 as they know about, and so we want everybody to know about Stride and use that resource.
 Cook has funded some marketing design, and we've already got at least one billboard up
 in town. You'll see a bus wrap soon. We really are advocating for people to use this incredible
 service. We really need everybody on the homeless front to be rowing in the same direction. We
 need high accountability. We need high service, and we need to make sure that we're proactively
 working towards solutions that actually work for our community. We have partnered deeply
 with many service organizations, all of them that are providing shelter, food, et cetera,
 and we are making progress on getting to solutions that actually work. This is not a short game
 though. This is not something we're going to solve tomorrow. It is something that's
 going to take years to truly get the systems in place that are going to solve this challenge.
 I am going to hand things over to Anna, because I've already talked for 15 minutes, and let
 her talk for a while, and then we'll take questions.
 Can you hear me? Is this working? Okay, great. Hi, I am Anna Killian Hansen. I am the Director
 of Housing and Neighborhood Development, and I'm also the Executive Director of the Redevelopment
 Commission. I'm a townie. I've been here my whole life. I've worked in real estate or
 been around real estate literally my entire life. I've had the pleasure of helping residents
 from all walks of life find a place to live for 25 years. One thing is for certain in
 the housing world, housing is an ecosystem. Your housing needs change over time. The first
 place that you live after leaving the nest is likely not the same place that will fit
 your needs over time. Space needs change. What you can afford changes. Physical needs
 change. How you live your life changes. The progression of needs through different stages
 of life is often referred to as a housing ladder. Unfortunately, right now Bloomington
 is the most housing cost burdened metro area in the state. High cost, low wage. 60% of
 our households are cost burdened spending more than 30% of their monthly income on housing
 costs. The demand for our housing has outpaced our growth of housing development. And 72%
 of our workforce do not live in Bloomington. A lot want to, but they can't. I don't know
 if any of you have bought or sold a house since 2020 or experienced what the market
 was like. But if you did, you likely understood that if you wanted to buy a house, you had
 to compete with at least eight other buyers. You had to likely waive inspections. You had
 to bid well over asking price. And oftentimes you had to ask for an appraisal gap. At that
 time interest rates were so low that it really was tolerable. The payments were tolerable.
 But right now we are experiencing something called the golden handcuffs. Folks are restricted
 from moving or buying a new home due to the low interest rate on a current mortgage. The
 golden handcuff effect occurs because refinancing or selling to buy a new home with current
 higher interest rates would significantly increase monthly payments, making it financially
 difficult to move even if other opportunities arose. Middle income households have been
 forced to either occupy lower quality housing that would traditionally be available for
 low income households or become cost burdened in upper income housing. So what exactly does
 that mean? It means we do not have the movement in our housing ladder that we normally would.
 People are staying put. Most homeowners tend to stay in their homes for around eight years
 and then move up or down in the ladder. That's not happening at the pace it normally would
 right now. If people are listing their homes, for the most part, we're seeing some reality
 checks. People can't afford to pay the prices they did when rates were low. Housing is an
 ecosystem. I talk to a lot of people and the perception of many is that we should just
 go build affordable housing, but it really is just not that simple. Developers face scarcity
 of available land, high land costs, zoning restrictions, high interest rates, and increased
 construction costs, tariffs, all of which add cost to the overall project. You cannot
 just go build affordable housing, not without significant subsidies. Projects just cannot
 pencil out. A lot of effort went into developing our current unified development ordinance,
 which is our land use restrictions. I believe that it was developed with the best of intentions.
 That being said, the market has changed significantly since that document was developed. Our local
 community has developer fatigue. Currently, developers have to sink a lot of money into
 fully-baked plans on the front end for projects that may or may not get approval. Only outfits
 with very deep pockets can afford to pay to play, many of whom are from out of town. Those
 costs add up on the project total and the overall price, and that's what we're feeling.
 Our permitting process may take more than six months, and if it does take more than
 six months, developers lose their financing. More time means more carrying costs. More
 carrying costs means inflated end price. Projects have to pencil out. So we have a lot of
 challenges
 right now, but this administration is working very hard to address these challenges. We've
 been focusing a lot on housing policy and the UDO, and we've been focusing a lot on
 our policy. Housing policy must be comprehensive and cohesive. We need to make it easier to
 build more types of housing in more places, for more people, without compromising unique
 neighborhood character. We want a UDO that supports a thriving diverse housing market,
 not one that inadvertently makes it affordability harder to reach. We're currently performing
 an analysis of our permitting process to identify obstacles to faster and more efficient approvals,
 and we're evaluating the UDO. Hopewell is the former hospital site, is one of the few
 areas within city limits that could potentially put a dent in our housing needs. We currently
 have a project going with the Housing Authority, who's working on an adaptive reuse of the
 former, the original hospital site, the core building. It's a limestone facing Rogers,
 limestone building facing Rogers. If you've driven by lately, you'd see the construction
 ongoing. But Hopewell is also an interesting case study, where the city is now a passenger
 to what developers go through as they try to navigate our own red tape. Our community
 has been incredibly vocal. Residents have asked for real options for first time home
 buyers, working families, long term neighbors, not just more of the same. In June, the Redevelopment
 Commission took a new approach that uses pre-approved home designs on platted lots to save time
 and money, welcome local builders to the table, and supports a healthy mix of attainable and
 market rate homes. This course correction reflects a more realistic community centered
 strategy that gets us where we want to go. This new path is geared towards providing
 a diverse mix of housing types at a range of price points, creating options for first
 time home buyers, the local workforce, and families, not just luxury apartments or student
 rentals. This pilot will demonstrate innovative solutions. We are also piloting an interest
 rate buy down program to help incentivize folks to unlock those golden handcuffs and
 climb up or down in that housing ladder, influencing the overall market. Our community needs attainable
 housing for the residents that work here. This administration is prioritizing just that.
 All right. So if you will, Paige is over here, Lucas is here, they have empty note cards.
 They will just raise your hand and they'll grab them from you, give you new note cards.
 While they're doing that, I'm going to talk for a minute about economic development. Thanks,
 Paige. Housing really is the backbone of economic development in any community. If you can't
 house the people who work here, they're not going to come to work. When we look at affordability,
 of course, the cost of the housing is one part of affordability, but how much you make
 is the other part of affordability. My administration on the other side of this is also looking
 at how do we grow wages in Monroe County. We are working with several partners on that
 wage growth and the 21st century economic development really surrounds innovation and
 entrepreneurship.
 What's happening in the trades district and at the mill is critically important to the
 future of our wages here in Bloomington and Monroe County. As we grow those companies
 through the trades district, we hope to be able to house many of those folks not only
 at Hopewell, but in the upcoming summit development as well. We hope that the new UDO, whatever
 changes are made to the existing UDO is how I should say it, will help facilitate great
 housing. That's housing that really works for Bloomington and keeps Bloomington's character
 and the cohesion of neighborhoods alive. You'll be seeing some branding coming out in the
 next four months or so that will really speak to who Bloomington is and who we want to attract
 after we've been working with a group called Civic Brand to help tell that story and we've
 had lots of stakeholder involvement on that. We're also just incredibly excited about the
 new convention center. That is rolling along quite nicely and we hope to get the hotel
 rolling around along just as nicely. Now we have so many questions, I'm going to be quiet.
 Let's see. I think this is a comment, not a question, but you can ... There's a comment
 that CDFI-friendly Bloomington can help finance housing and hope well. True, there are many
 possibilities to add to the original capital stack or to the mortgage possibilities there.
 We do plan to have a larger conversation with lenders about providing mortgages at hope
 well. CDFI-friendly, of course, we are incredibly lucky to have them here in Bloomington and
 know that we will engage them for those conversations. This is another comment maybe. Lack of input
 from real estate professionals in planning and zoning considerations and their actions
 which ignore the realities and vacancies in the new apartments and building more and more
 apartments geared to students. We actually have had quite a bit of input from realtors
 and we will continue to have stakeholder involvement as we get input on what might go into any
 UDO changes and we don't have a great way of actually tracking vacancies in Bloomington
 and those apartments. There is some indication that some of the newer student apartments
 have vacancies and that's why my administration's priority is to create new housing that really
 targets people who are working here rather than that student population. Occupancy rates
 are really challenging to track because apartment complexes or property managers have to self
 report. So there's a number of platforms that actually are tracking but it's limited
 data and it is self reported. I actually took an intern team last year and we did some secret
 shopping of all multifamily complexes that were over 50 units. Of that study, we were
 around 98% occupied. However, I will say that I do believe that that rate has dropped significantly
 since that time. What I've been hearing pretty consistently that there are vacancies in properties
 that had never had vacancies previously. So we are starting to see that occupancy rate
 drop. I will tell you that HUD calls a healthy rental rate 60% occupied. So we know that
 we're higher than that at this time. I know it's misleading. You see some of these buildings,
 you think that they're probably not occupied. But look, we have an undergraduate admission
 rate of 48,000 students on campus at IU. They only have about 13,000 beds on campus. So
 there is demand for some of these apartment complexes. But again, it is really difficult
 to try and track. It is something that we're kind of keeping our eye on the ball, both
 with the platforms and the data that is available and then trying to privately track what's
 going on. Okay, this question is what happened with Crawford and Union? And I'm assuming this
 means Union at Crescent. But I can update you on what happened with Crawford. Crawford
 was well out of rental code compliance. We worked with them really over years to try
 to get that back into compliance. My history is with a housing organization. I was committed
 to building decent housing so people who lived there could actually get on their feet and
 really thrive. When you are living in an apartment that is not safe, there is no possibility
 that you can do much more than just trying to meet your basic human needs. So we are
 very serious about our housing compliance. And these are not the only two properties
 that we have taken action on this year. We also took action on a number of other properties
 which have also been in the press. The Crawford is a permanent supportive housing unit. And
 in order to really take people who are in highest need and offer them housing, they also
 need a lot of support or the housing won't be maintained. The housing was not maintained.
 The support was not adequate. We talked and talked and talked and made agreements that
 were not met. And so ultimately we did file suit because we believe it is not safe for
 people to be living in those kinds of units. I am pleased to say we have gotten a long,
 long way with the physical state of that property. We are very nearly in physical compliance
 and we just need to get the supportive services operational as well. So that's where we are
 with Crawford. Union at Crescent has been a different kind, it's a different kind of
 housing development, a different process. We are equally serious about getting that into
 compliance and because of a couple of various things that have been out of our control,
 there's been delays. So we're not as far down the road.
 Yeah, I can comment a little bit. I think you've covered Crawford, but Union at Crescent,
 their rental permit expired earlier this year and they did schedule an inspection with our
 department which is we inspect and permit all the rentals within the city of Bloomington
 limits. We did perform an inspection, however, they had a deadline of I believe September
 5th to make all of the necessary repairs. Unfortunately, they were unable to make those.
 The owners do have a right to file an appeal if they're not able to get material in on
 time or their circumstances outside of their control or they don't agree with what our
 reports say or requests. So they did file an appeal with the building housing quality
 appeals board. Unfortunately, when that was set to be heard, I believe the middle of September,
 the board did not have quorum. So it has been continued to this month that board only meets
 once a month. And so they have until the middle of October where the board will either vote
 to approve their appeal or extension of time or not. So that's where we are at this point
 with that particular property. They had a tax abatement on the property. We did indicate
 that they were not in compliance with that tax abatement because of the number of vacancies
 in the property. There were some 60s, some vacancies. And it is an affordable project
 which requires a certain level of occupancy. The City Council did find that the property
 owner was not in compliance but due to circumstances outside of their control. So they were able
 to keep that tax abatement at this time. Okay. I applaud the City effort toward preapproved
 housing plans. I also applaud this effort. It is -- I really think it's going to make
 an incredible difference not only at Hopewell but these plans will be approved for expedited
 permit approval throughout the city once we get through them. So it's a big deal. And
 we have a first draft of some of those plans. Not final at all. But they're gorgeous. And
 they range in size and also therefore in cost from truly affordable to build without government
 subsidy. And if you have not experienced the process of government subsidy, not only is
 it slow but it also can sometimes make things more expensive. And what we want is housing
 product that people can actually afford to build conventionally. So these plans I'm really
 excited about because of the variety of them, because of the look of them and because they're
 really created for Bloomington to fit our community. It goes on to say have you considered
 an RFP for 10 to 12 modular homes in Hopewell? At this point we are only working on Hopewell
 South. That's where we're digging into the detailed plans. And that's the area that is
 directly adjacent to McDowell Gardens. And so we really want that area of the neighborhood
 to sort of talk to McDowell and be a good transition from McDowell into Hopewell. We
 may look at things like modulars for other parts. And for those of you who are not in
 the building industry right now, modulars are great looking houses these days. And there
 are various kinds of modulars and they're well built. It's just that they get built
 in a factory and brought to you. So it's not the modular that you're thinking of that was
 created in the 80s and 90s. So I will tell you, when I started as mayor, I did not know
 how to make Hopewell work financially for the people to live there or for the city to
 finish it. And at one point I was the largest private home developer in the county for nine
 years running when I was with Habitat for Humanity. And so I have a good deal of experience
 making the finances of affordable housing work and Hopewell was a puzzle. We have gotten
 to a place that is not only hopeful, but it's really exciting. And I think Hopewell can
 really set the tone of what attainable housing can look like throughout the city and it can
 really be inviting to the young professionals we're trying to attract and keep here. You
 know, MCCSC is losing school population. We need those young professionals here in our
 community. We love retirees and we need to keep great schools if we're going to keep
 our economy going. So we're looking at all kinds of things for next phases of Hopewell
 with the standard of it has to be excellent. And it's really going to be the crown jewel
 of our downtown housing. And so it's walkable. It's got this awesome park. It's right next
 to Kroger. It's right next to two other parks. It's really going to change the tone and it's
 going to create really linkage to the rest of that economic development that's sort of
 coming down college and Walnut with the convention center going in. This goes on to say, I disagree
 with Heading Home's decision to serve those from outside our region. I'll make a note
 about that. I have been very public in my comments about our lack of ability to keep
 our heads above water if we're going to continue communicating to the world, really, that Bloomington
 is a place that has adequate services for everyone. My mind was shifted deeply when
 I sat at a listening session at New Hope for Families and had a mom tell me she moved to
 Bloomington because she was told there were services here, but we only have enough services
 to keep everybody homeless. That's not where we want to be. We want to be the community
 that gets our head far enough above water that for those people in our region, we actually
 know how to serve them so well that they can thrive and that they get into permanent housing,
 whether it's permanent supportive housing or permanent independent living. And so that's
 my goal. And every area of our entire state is broken down into a HUD region. So if every
 community would commit to just serving people from their region and they would do that well,
 we could be in a very different place in our state. So I have convened the mayors of Indiana
 in a roundtable on homelessness. We're working together proactively on plans for what best
 practices we can share, how we can agree to work together and importantly making sure that
 people in our region know how to get services in the region. So nobody should have to travel
 200 miles to find a homeless shelter. They want a lot closer. So thank you for that comment.
 This one is written just to make Anna Killian Hansen blush. You're welcome. Recently Ms.
 Killian Hansen was quoted in the HT is saying more or less that the administration is focused
 on streamlining the development process and not getting in our own way. I wanted to say
 thank you for that comment and attitude because it is very positive. One of the things we
 are committed to in my administration is pulling back every piece of red tape we possibly can.
 We want to make it really easy to build great things in Bloomington and hard to build junk.
 So we are committed to this. It is more difficult to get the zoning process simplified than any
 of us could probably imagine even if you've been entrenched in it. But we're committed
 to that and we're also committed to finding other ways to pull back red tape and that's
 one of the reasons that I really love to just be out in public talking to people in these
 forums and others because you all can tell me the areas that it's really hard to figure
 out how to get the government to help. So that's why we're here. Thank you for your
 comment, your positive comment. Anna, for those of you who don't know her whole history,
 she was raised in the housing industry and she comes from generations of builders and
 we are so, so fortunate to have her expertise leading our housing at the city. So thank
 you for your service, Anna. Okay, I'm running out of questions. So if you have more, wave
 your hands and we'll come get them from you. College mall is losing tenants. Lots of parking
 is there, which is made of impermeable materials, which is bad for the environment. College
 mall is privately owned, but what would the city like to see happen to this property if
 the city could influence college mall owners and decision makers? Well, I'll tell you,
 one of my ultimate visions for Bloomington is that we stop thinking in this way of we
 only have one downtown, because Bloomington has a city center, but then we have economic
 centers, commercial centers, both east and west, and we have a good little pod developing
 south and even some new interest north. And that's the way, as we grow population, grow
 wages, we really need to think of ourselves that way, that you can go to many different
 places and have a great experience in Bloomington, dining or shopping or going to a hardware
 store, et cetera. So my ultimate vision for college mall would be that it becomes vibrant
 again, that that piece of real estate becomes vibrant again. I think we know that for many,
 a traditional mall is no longer how people want to spend their time. And so we've seen
 lots of great redevelopment of mall properties in many different ways throughout the country.
 And so ultimately, if we could activate that area, I think we'd have a lot more vibrancy
 throughout that east side. And I will say that I think the stores that are facing outward,
 that little section that faces College Mall Road at the intersection of 3rd and College
 Mall, that does pretty well. So that should tell us something. But we've seen malls get
 redeveloped into housing, get redeveloped into mixed use, and really thrive. And so we have
 a real opportunity there should the owners of College Mall want to do something really
 fun in Bloomington, which we would love it if they did. More questions? We got one more.
 We never keep you past an hour either. I always promise to end so that you don't feel obligated
 to sit here. This may need to be answered by Anna. And sometimes what we say is we're
 going to have to check and get back to you. So I'm going to read the question, but I'm
 not sure that I'm aware of the answer. We do house the Historic Preservation Commission.
 We are the liaisons to that commission. But I'm not sure that I know the answer to this
 or that this has come up. What has happened to the historic restrictions that said the
 streetscape of East 10th between Washington and Dunn should remain as it was. However,
 lots of homes have been demolished. I'm not sure. I'd need to check. We have 13 historic
 districts within the city of Bloomington limits. Each district has their own restrictions on
 what they can and cannot do. And those are written by the neighborhoods in which they
 reside. But I am not aware of which district that is off the top of my head. We have quite
 a few. So I'd be more than happy to get back to you. My card is actually out on the table.
 So if you want to let me know who you are, how to reach you, I can absolutely get back
 to you with that answer. And if you're not aware, it says -- so one of the things it
 does say is lots of homes have been demolished. So we actually -- if it is in a historic district,
 we have something called the demolition delay process. So it has to go before the historic
 preservation commission if it is a notable or outstanding structure. The HPC as we call
 it has to either designate it as historic or release it for demolition. So likely if something
 has been demolished, it wasn't a notable or outstanding structure and the HPC voted to
 release it and not forward it on to City Council for nomination.
 >> This question is would the administration consider out of the box thinking regarding
 development standards? For example, if sidewalks and something else weren't always required,
 then those costs wouldn't have to be passed on. That's just one example. There are many
 of fast track approval processes and other. The City will absolutely consider out of the
 box thinking. In fact, we're hoping that the input sessions come with some out of the box
 thinking. Whenever we have a builder or a developer with a challenge to how things are
 working now, we are sitting down with them and trying to figure out how we could have
 done it better. How we can stay committed to having great building form and make things
 easier. We will be creating, we won't call it a fast track probably, but we'll have expedited
 permitting for certain cases where essentially you're going to meet all of the codes and
 you don't need any variances. Right now things sort of get stuck in the queue no matter when
 they come in. And when I used to pull permits, we could get a permit in two weeks. That will
 not happen today. I want to get back to a similar timeline for the no variance, really
 clear this is going to meet all of the requirements. I'm going to put a plug in for tech week which
 is the first week of November. They're going to have a GovTech day. We are looking at things
 like AI to help us read through our UDO and find complications in it. There are many ways
 that we can innovate around simplifying the process. And that's what we seek to do. Is
 to, again, make it easy to build great things and hard to build bad things. And so we're
 open to ideas and anything's fair game for discussion. Sometimes there are surprising
 reasons that we can't say yes. But we -- I think we have a team that's committed to trying
 to get to yes whenever we can. Sometimes it's a yes and.
 >> You know, the other thing too I have to say is that this administration, Carrie's been
 in development and construction. I've been in development and construction. So we see
 it through a little bit of a different lens. We really are trying to make this what it
 needs to be for our community to thrive. >> If there aren't any other questions, I don't
 know if you're invited to participate in basketball practice or not. But we thought it would be
 kind of fun. I'll just note that we have some fun things coming up, including trick or treating
 downtown. There are many live music events and arts events happening. And of course this
 is the final month for summer farmers market. And then of course we'll have winter farmers
 market again this year. So lots to do in Bloomington. I know we have a couple football weekends
 left. And those have been exciting for Bloomington. >> Do you have other things to add? >> If you
 know any new renters, we actually have an R101 or how to be a good runner in Bloomington
 class coming up in a couple of months. There are some flyers out on the table. If you want
 to register, there's a QR code. But we go over everything from financial management
 to housekeeping items. Know your rights and responsibilities of both tenant and landlord.
 And then navigating just Bloomington, our sanitation process, our rental code, everything.
 So it's a great class. We also give you discounts or we get you discounts through some property
 management companies. And then also, if you know any new homebuyers, we do have a down
 payment and closing cost assistance program. So feel free to reach out to us. It is income
 eligible, but it can provide up to $50,000 in down payment and closing costs for homebuyers.
 We also have rental assistance, so deposit assistance as well that is income eligible.
 So Hand has a number of programs to help residents through all of their housing needs. Just feel
 free to give us a call. We also have a housing counselor on staff if you ever need foreclosure
 avoidance or bankruptcy counseling, anything like that, we're here to help. So please let
 us know how we can do it.
 I'm going to put a plug in for the Hopewell session, which is October 20th. We'll be going
 over a preview of what we're looking at for Hopewell. That's October 20th at 3.30 p.m.
 You can find more information on the website, and all are welcome, but we're really excited
 about what's happening at Hopewell. If you want more information, I just want to say Randy
 Cassidy is a member of our redevelopment commission. He's here tonight and has been heavily
 invested
 in Hopewell for years, as well as other projects. You heard that we didn't have quorum at an
 important public meeting. If you're a resident of the city of Bloomington and you want to
 serve one of these boards, we would welcome your application to any of the vacancies.
 I'm going to give you six minutes of your life back. I'll hang out to answer some additional
 questions that you may not have wanted to ask publicly, and thank you all so much for
 coming tonight. I see some of our neighborhood leaders here. I see some rental property owners
 and others that are invested in housing. Really appreciate you coming to be with us tonight
 and investing in your community. Thank you so much.
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