WEBVTT 00:00:00.706 --> 00:00:08.278 - Welcome everyone, we're gonna have an intimate town hall. We're gonna have a town gathering tonight. 00:00:08.278 --> 00:00:16.375 - I am Carrie and I'm the mayor here in the city of Bloomington and I have with me tonight our brand spanking 00:00:16.375 --> 00:00:24.098 - new interim director of planning and transportation, Lynn Coyne. And for those of you who haven't been 00:00:24.098 --> 00:00:25.822 - at a town hall before, 00:00:25.922 --> 00:00:34.876 - What we usually do is we start with some updates about what's going on in the city and then we do a 00:00:34.876 --> 00:00:43.831 - Q&A. Happy to do more of a conversational Q&A tonight because we're low on numbers. So feel free to 00:00:43.831 --> 00:00:53.054 - ask a question that needs a more in-depth answer. Lynn and I love the hard questions. Yeah, love them. 00:00:53.442 --> 00:01:02.138 - And then I'll just say again, you have to speak into this microphone, even though we don't need a lot 00:01:02.138 --> 00:01:11.089 - of projection because we have friends at home who are, it's like romper room, who are listening on cats. 00:01:11.089 --> 00:01:19.870 - So to include them, that would be awesome. We have time going on at the city, some celebration points. 00:01:20.322 --> 00:01:29.297 - our public works department just got accredited and that is a process that they have been working on 00:01:29.297 --> 00:01:38.183 - since 2023 and they got 100% rate of full compliance on their accreditation. So it was a whole team 00:01:38.183 --> 00:01:44.670 - effort to reach that accreditation and it is really an exemplary effort. 00:01:46.274 --> 00:01:53.623 - exemplary recognition so we are incredibly proud of them but we already knew they were doing great work 00:01:53.623 --> 00:02:00.972 - and taking care of all of our basic city service needs. Our police department also just got recertified 00:02:00.972 --> 00:02:07.614 - as CALEA certified and so that's the commission on accreditation for law enforcement agencies 00:02:07.810 --> 00:02:14.871 - This is their third time being CALEA certified and only 5% of all law enforcement agencies across the 00:02:14.871 --> 00:02:22.208 - nation reach that accreditation. So we're really proud of them. It entails a lot of different data points 00:02:22.208 --> 00:02:29.407 - that they have to meet in order to get accredited. And we just have a terrific police department that's 00:02:29.407 --> 00:02:33.214 - committed to safety and being welcoming to all people. 00:02:34.178 --> 00:02:43.790 - Another celebration point we just got awarded a 7 million dollar ready 2.0 grant that is that that particular 00:02:43.790 --> 00:02:52.965 - ready grant is targeted to create affordable artist studios and that'll be in the showers admin building 00:02:52.965 --> 00:03:00.830 - not to be confused with showers North showers or showers West. This is a building that is 00:03:00.930 --> 00:03:09.272 - up the street from City Hall and it's just north of 10th and Morton. So we're really pleased with that. 00:03:09.272 --> 00:03:17.372 - The arts industry is really growing in Bloomington. We've always had the gem of having lots of great 00:03:17.372 --> 00:03:26.035 - artists here and this will really help with business training and regional connections and new professional 00:03:26.035 --> 00:03:30.366 - opportunities for those artists. So really glad to be 00:03:30.466 --> 00:03:37.170 - in that partnership and the university and other partners are bringing match to the table for that grant, 00:03:37.170 --> 00:03:43.811 - including the new arts activities that are happening at Switchyard Park. So if you haven't been to Grand 00:03:43.811 --> 00:03:50.388 - Faloon this summer, I have been to two of my favorite nights in Bloomington this summer at Grand Faloon 00:03:50.388 --> 00:03:56.839 - concerts. And the next one is at the end of August. So look that up and come to that show. It's gonna 00:03:56.839 --> 00:03:57.598 - be awesome. 00:03:58.338 --> 00:04:07.383 - We published our budget book today. So if you are a sort of municipal government nerd, you might have 00:04:07.383 --> 00:04:16.340 - been on line waiting for that to come out. That went live at about noon. And if you're really nerdy, 00:04:16.340 --> 00:04:23.966 - you've fully digested that. I'm ready for all of your questions about it, not really. 00:04:24.066 --> 00:04:31.706 - We will be presenting in a series of four presentations. Each city department presents their budget 00:04:31.706 --> 00:04:39.652 - to the city council and those start two weeks from tonight. So we'll do Monday, Wednesday presentations 00:04:39.652 --> 00:04:47.522 - for two weeks. Those start at five o'clock instead of our regular 630 time. You're invited. The budget 00:04:47.522 --> 00:04:52.030 - presentations are really in depth and they really give you 00:04:53.282 --> 00:05:01.968 - pretty good snapshot of where we're headed as a city with programming and also services for the next 00:05:01.968 --> 00:05:10.740 - year. No surprise to anyone, we are really focused on essential city services. What can the municipal 00:05:10.740 --> 00:05:18.910 - government uniquely do? We have SEA-1 impacts, which was a revamping of the tax code which cut 00:05:19.266 --> 00:05:27.275 - funding to all counties and cities in the state. That is a very serious cut that we are accommodating 00:05:27.275 --> 00:05:35.127 - at this point. And by 2029, we will be losing at least $30 million a year in what we're used to. So 00:05:35.127 --> 00:05:43.371 - as things get more expensive, we are anticipating less income coming in. So things that are not critical 00:05:43.371 --> 00:05:48.318 - for the municipal government to do, we are gonna be looking at 00:05:48.514 --> 00:05:57.076 - and not doing them. And you will see in our budget that we're not expanding a bunch of new shiny programs 00:05:57.076 --> 00:06:05.315 - this year. We are committed to doing things like keeping our streets up and running, making sure your 00:06:05.315 --> 00:06:13.473 - water is clean and your trash gets picked up, and that we're seeking balance in all of those things. 00:06:13.473 --> 00:06:16.542 - Speaking of those essential services, 00:06:17.090 --> 00:06:27.763 - We have now as of today, this is a statistic I love, filled 8,661 potholes this year. So kudos to our 00:06:27.763 --> 00:06:38.644 - Public Works Department. Hi Bill, come on in. We also made a decision not to close Kirkwood Avenue this 00:06:38.644 --> 00:06:44.190 - year, that came to council later on and you may have 00:06:44.386 --> 00:06:51.665 - noted that I vetoed their resolution to reopen or re-close Kirkwood. I did that for a number of reasons 00:06:51.665 --> 00:06:59.295 - and there's a memo out there about it, but first and foremost it was because we had really a great listening 00:06:59.295 --> 00:07:06.014 - session and lots of input from the public that we're just not ready yet. That doesn't mean that 00:07:06.178 --> 00:07:13.373 - we're not gonna close it in the future. It means that if we do it and when we do it, we need to put 00:07:13.373 --> 00:07:20.783 - some significant investments into doing it right so it's safe for everyone, there's shade, it's a nice 00:07:20.783 --> 00:07:27.978 - place to be, and that it actually is, closing the street to cars means we're opening it to everyone 00:07:27.978 --> 00:07:33.662 - and everyone can use it. There really were significant barriers to being used. 00:07:33.858 --> 00:07:42.170 - well by people especially with limited mobility. I wanna talk for a minute about housing and homelessness 00:07:42.170 --> 00:07:50.403 - and then I'm gonna cut my updates a little bit short and hand it over to Lynn. Housing and homelessness, 00:07:50.403 --> 00:07:58.401 - we are partnering with Heading Home and a number of other providers launching a new initiative called 00:07:58.401 --> 00:08:00.126 - Streets to Stability. 00:08:01.122 --> 00:08:10.809 - This initiative will begin closing areas of downtown to sleeping and we will begin doing that this month. 00:08:10.809 --> 00:08:20.405 - When we seek to close a district to sleeping, we will partner with the people who are currently sleeping 00:08:20.405 --> 00:08:30.366 - there with a by name list that Heading Home is gathering. We will work with service providers and then those 00:08:30.466 --> 00:08:36.749 - individuals will be partnered with housing resources one by one on an individualized basis. So this 00:08:36.749 --> 00:08:39.262 - program is called Streets to Stability. 00:08:39.682 --> 00:08:47.251 - They are, they, Heading Home has a grant to fund some rental units that people will go directly into. 00:08:47.251 --> 00:08:54.820 - Others are gonna need something other than a conventional rental unit. And so as we move through this 00:08:54.820 --> 00:09:02.612 - process, we'll need to be looking at other resources as well. But the plan is month by month to increase 00:09:02.612 --> 00:09:09.662 - that area of downtown where sleeping is not allowed and to get people who are sleeping outside 00:09:09.826 --> 00:09:18.301 - inside. I'm going to talk quickly about Hopewell because some folks here have been involved in that 00:09:18.301 --> 00:09:26.861 - conversation as if you've been very involved in that you know that we had a unanimous vote from both 00:09:26.861 --> 00:09:30.590 - Plan Commission and ultimately City Council 00:09:30.882 --> 00:09:40.490 - to approve 98 new homes at Hopewell South. Those are compact lots. There's some multifamily there and 00:09:40.490 --> 00:09:49.909 - the core building is still getting ready to open, but will be opening soon. This is the first phase 00:09:49.909 --> 00:09:51.134 - of Hopewell. 00:09:51.426 --> 00:09:58.318 - Farmers Market is there every Tuesday. You all can help by sending people to Farmers Market Tuesday 00:09:58.318 --> 00:10:05.279 - afternoons. We're activating that with bands every single week during the summer. And it's right now 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:12.377 - an intimate gathering, but we would like to really expand that Farmers Market on Tuesdays at Hopewell. 00:10:12.377 --> 00:10:15.134 - This month we expect to plait Hopewell. 00:10:15.234 --> 00:10:24.223 - And so then we can get moving on construction thereafter. And just to set the expectations, getting 00:10:24.223 --> 00:10:33.303 - started on construction means infrastructure, not digging foundations for housing quite yet. So just 00:10:33.303 --> 00:10:37.438 - to set a municipal timeline that's realistic. 00:10:37.634 --> 00:10:44.879 - I am going to hand things off to our fabulous friend, Lynn Coyne, who's going to talk, I think, a little 00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:52.399 - bit about the permitting audit and whatever else he wants to talk about. Thank you, Mayor. Hello, everybody. 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:59.574 - Yeah, I thought this is my third week, I think. So I'm completely up to speed. Ask me anything you want 00:10:59.574 --> 00:11:06.750 - about the UDO. So I talk about a few things that are going on and what we're looking for in the future. 00:11:06.882 --> 00:11:14.409 - As the mayor mentioned, there was an audit of the planning process done by an engineering firm. And 00:11:14.409 --> 00:11:22.237 - they went in and looked at past cases, how that worked, and talked to our staff and others in utilities 00:11:22.237 --> 00:11:29.839 - and others and just how does this process work. And then suggestions on how it could be done better, 00:11:29.839 --> 00:11:35.710 - more efficient, and really quicker. Quicker is very important. Time is money. 00:11:36.738 --> 00:11:44.520 - getting a project in and out the door if it meets the qualifications is very important. And so two things, 00:11:44.520 --> 00:11:52.521 - two primary things came out of that audit that I see. One is the process improvement and two, communications. 00:11:52.521 --> 00:12:00.521 - So in the process improvement part, we've begun a staff-led program to organize all the different improvement 00:12:00.521 --> 00:12:04.958 - and approval processes. There are more than you can imagine. 00:12:05.570 --> 00:12:11.981 - and they're all segmented and whatever. And what happens is if you come in and ask for a permit, the 00:12:11.981 --> 00:12:18.329 - planning department goes down its checklist, what's your zoning, have you met the specifications of 00:12:18.329 --> 00:12:24.676 - the different parts of the UDO, which is the zoning code, and then there are others involved beside 00:12:24.676 --> 00:12:29.310 - us, for example, engineering and utilities, and then we hand it to them. 00:12:29.890 --> 00:12:35.927 - and then they do their thing, and then they hand it to engineering who does their thing, who hands it 00:12:35.927 --> 00:12:41.847 - back to us, and we take what they did, and we redo our thing and hand it back to them. So you could 00:12:41.847 --> 00:12:47.884 - imagine what that is like for a petitioner. It just looks like a game of ping pong, actually. So what 00:12:47.884 --> 00:12:53.922 - we're going to do is we're moving toward what we call concurrent processing. And with the help of our 00:12:53.922 --> 00:12:55.934 - consultant, the engineering firm, 00:12:56.418 --> 00:13:02.669 - and the help of information technology services at the city who are terrific, we have a software in 00:13:02.669 --> 00:13:09.046 - place. We just need to beef it up. And what'll happen is, is when you bring a permit application into 00:13:09.046 --> 00:13:15.672 - planning and we intake it into that system, we do a little screening with you and make sure you've filled 00:13:15.672 --> 00:13:22.049 - out the boxes and have what you need, and we put it in that system, it will automatically populate to 00:13:22.049 --> 00:13:24.862 - everybody who has something to say about it. 00:13:25.282 --> 00:13:32.797 - whether it's utilities, engineering, whoever it may be. So it will simultaneously go to everyone. There 00:13:32.797 --> 00:13:40.096 - will be timelines for responses so that within a certain timeframe, they have to get their responses 00:13:40.096 --> 00:13:47.322 - back. Those responses will all be centralized so everybody can see them at the same time, including 00:13:47.322 --> 00:13:54.910 - the applicant. There will be a portal for the applicant to watch that process and see what's being said. 00:13:55.330 --> 00:14:02.572 - Hopefully what that will do is coordinate, get things through the pipeline quicker, more accurate, which 00:14:02.572 --> 00:14:09.538 - gets to communications. But that's our goal. And right now our timeline is to have that completed by 00:14:09.538 --> 00:14:16.436 - the end of November. And we're coordinating this with utilities. Kat Zeiger over there is doing her 00:14:16.436 --> 00:14:20.574 - thing just like I am. And then we're coordinating together. 00:14:20.770 --> 00:14:28.644 - and feeding that into information technology so it gets into the software. And we're very, very optimistic 00:14:28.644 --> 00:14:36.150 - that we can get that done within the next three months, four months, at least by November. And what's 00:14:36.150 --> 00:14:42.846 - exciting about that is it's staff led. The staff of the planning department is doing this. 00:14:43.522 --> 00:14:50.289 - So they know the system. I mean, they are the experts. They know how it all works. And they are the 00:14:50.289 --> 00:14:57.192 - best ones to fix it. And so they're on board. We've had our kickoff. We're rocking and rolling. We're 00:14:57.192 --> 00:15:04.297 - ready to go. So that's moving along. The second part of it is communications. There's a number of things 00:15:04.297 --> 00:15:11.267 - that are under that umbrella. But one of them is how we communicate to a permanent applicant when they 00:15:11.267 --> 00:15:12.350 - file something. 00:15:12.802 --> 00:15:19.545 - If you file something and it doesn't meet the code, we will tell you it doesn't meet the code, but we 00:15:19.545 --> 00:15:26.354 - will also tell you where in that code that is so that you can go look at it yourself and find out what 00:15:26.354 --> 00:15:33.098 - we're talking about as opposed to just giving a random comment or something that it doesn't comply or 00:15:33.098 --> 00:15:39.907 - being a little vague. We will cite to the code every time possible so that you know exactly what we're 00:15:39.907 --> 00:15:41.758 - saying. A lot of times what 00:15:41.922 --> 00:15:49.911 - what happens is you may ask for an application or a certain permit, and we say, sorry, but you can't. 00:15:49.911 --> 00:15:57.978 - Well, we do that because our uniform development ordinance says you can't. We didn't make that up. The 00:15:57.978 --> 00:16:06.516 - city council passes the ordinance, we enforce the ordinance. So we want to make that very clear to everybody 00:16:06.516 --> 00:16:09.022 - why we say no when we say no or 00:16:09.218 --> 00:16:15.308 - where there's something missing, why it's missing, what the requirement is that you have to meet. So 00:16:15.308 --> 00:16:21.518 - that you have a clear, clear understanding all the way along the process. And that's, we think that'll 00:16:21.518 --> 00:16:27.788 - help greatly with people understanding, you know, it's not necessarily someone in our department saying 00:16:27.788 --> 00:16:34.421 - something, we didn't make it up, it's the way it is. So we're doing that. Also, getting out and communicating 00:16:34.421 --> 00:16:36.350 - that to the community at large. 00:16:36.770 --> 00:16:43.631 - whether you're a builder or a homeowner, whatever it is, I'm available. We'll explain how it works, 00:16:43.631 --> 00:16:50.836 - how the system works, what we're looking for, and help people understand that better. The staff is super 00:16:50.836 --> 00:16:57.903 - busy. They have plenty to do, so sometimes they don't have time to do all that, but we're going to try 00:16:57.903 --> 00:17:05.108 - to find a way to make that happen, have a communication strategy and get out with everybody and be clear 00:17:05.108 --> 00:17:06.686 - about what's going on. 00:17:07.266 --> 00:17:15.306 - So those are a couple of things. The two main things are process improvement and communication that 00:17:15.306 --> 00:17:23.427 - we're working on right away. And it's been great. Staff's been terrific and they're on board working 00:17:23.427 --> 00:17:31.788 - hard on it as we speak. So that's the update there. There are other things as we move along and we find 00:17:31.788 --> 00:17:35.326 - little spots here and there we can improve. 00:17:35.458 --> 00:17:43.181 - There are often times that when we say to you, for example, you need a landscaping plan for this particular 00:17:43.181 --> 00:17:50.761 - site. And it turns out there's a 10 foot utility easement and you can't put landscaping in that easement. 00:17:50.761 --> 00:17:58.127 - So they conflict. Well, how do we resolve that? We do the best we can with what we have, but there may 00:17:58.127 --> 00:18:04.062 - be ways that the UDO could be adjusted to accommodate those things. More and more, 00:18:04.226 --> 00:18:10.799 - we see other regulations impacting us. They could be stormwater or wetlands or a fire department. We 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:17.308 - had one the other day, the fire department has their code that they have to comply with and we need 00:18:17.308 --> 00:18:24.076 - to adjust to that. In that case, we tell you that, we tell you where it is and if possible, we may seek 00:18:24.076 --> 00:18:30.910 - amendments to the UDO going forward to provide a way to resolve those conflicts. I think it can be done. 00:18:31.394 --> 00:18:37.211 - We also have the same firm that did our process audit. We'll soon begin an analysis of the 00:18:37.211 --> 00:18:43.667 - uniform development ordinance looking for conflicts like that. It's a 380 page document. It's not an 00:18:43.667 --> 00:18:50.123 - easy thing to do. So we will have them do that and also propose solutions. It's one thing, if you've 00:18:50.123 --> 00:18:56.643 - been in the business, it's one thing to have a problem, it's another to bring the solution, right? So 00:18:56.643 --> 00:19:00.798 - we're looking for solutions to those problems once we find them. 00:19:01.378 --> 00:19:09.120 - And that's gonna be a major emphasis probably after we get done with the process improvement, we'll 00:19:09.120 --> 00:19:17.017 - begin doing that and passing it along. So let's see. I think that about covers it. I'm still learning 00:19:17.017 --> 00:19:24.914 - the technology, thank you. But we have a wonderful IT department. Bless their heart. They're on speed 00:19:24.914 --> 00:19:30.334 - dialing. So with that, any questions? I will say a couple of comments 00:19:30.626 --> 00:19:37.426 - If you haven't seen the Showers Admin Building, it's really, it is one of the coolest buildings I've 00:19:37.426 --> 00:19:44.630 - ever seen. It's got an open floor plan on the first floor. This is where the Showers Brothers main offices 00:19:44.630 --> 00:19:51.699 - were, and it is quite nice. I highly recommend it. It'd be perfect for an arts program. It's just great. 00:19:51.699 --> 00:19:57.758 - It's the Showers Admin Building, which if you're like me, you don't even know it's there. 00:19:58.146 --> 00:20:07.771 - But as Kerry said, it's just north of 10th Street on Morton. On the west side of the street. It's tucked 00:20:07.771 --> 00:20:17.305 - in there. The next thing up would be the mill. And then behind it is a parking lot. But it's a terrific 00:20:17.305 --> 00:20:26.655 - building. Sample. That's on the corner of 10th and Morton. Yeah, the northwest corner. Maybe it's the 00:20:26.655 --> 00:20:28.030 - same building. 00:20:28.386 --> 00:20:36.681 - Could be, you're thinking sample building as in samples of material and things. Yeah, yeah, that's probably 00:20:36.681 --> 00:20:44.515 - correct. Yeah, yeah, I was thinking of the gates. No, that's probably what they called it, but it was 00:20:44.515 --> 00:20:52.350 - the headquarters, very nice building. With that. Let me just do some framing for questions. So we do, 00:20:52.350 --> 00:20:56.958 - we have 40 minutes, so feel free to ask the hard questions. 00:20:57.154 --> 00:21:04.437 - be aware though that we have plenty of people here that may want to ask questions. So we'll just make 00:21:04.437 --> 00:21:11.577 - sure that before anybody asks two questions, we will open it up for others to ask questions. So who 00:21:11.577 --> 00:21:18.860 - has a question or a comment inquiry? Well, thank you guys for doing the town hall. Super wonderful to 00:21:18.860 --> 00:21:24.286 - see you in the community and thanks for all the public service that you do. 00:21:24.930 --> 00:21:30.731 - My name is Dave Huber. I grew up here in Bloomington, went to Kelly for entrepreneurship, and then did 00:21:30.731 --> 00:21:36.815 - grad school in human-centered design, and now work remotely for IBM, leading their design thinking program. 00:21:36.815 --> 00:21:42.898 - Very fun. And I've applied some of that stuff to some cool city projects. I've worked on kind of a Hopewell 00:21:42.898 --> 00:21:48.530 - reimagining and a Kirkwood project reimagining. So I'm applying kind of technology and facilitation 00:21:48.530 --> 00:21:53.374 - to reimagine our public spaces. And so I guess my main questions are around, I guess, 00:21:53.570 --> 00:21:58.548 - density and infilling and creativity. You know, I really love, in another life I probably should have 00:21:58.548 --> 00:22:03.672 - been an urban designer. So that's why I keep kind of poking my head in these spaces. And I'm just really 00:22:03.672 --> 00:22:08.650 - excited about the opportunities for more community gatherings. I loved what you said about Switchyard 00:22:08.650 --> 00:22:13.579 - Park and the Grand Faloon. Those are my favorite moments too. And I just love seeing Bloomingtonians 00:22:13.579 --> 00:22:18.507 - out mostly for free, hanging out, having fun. I think that's what makes such a special city. It ends 00:22:18.507 --> 00:22:22.558 - up being kind of an economic driver as well. So whether it's Hopewell or Kirkwood, 00:22:22.850 --> 00:22:30.453 - or even now this new UDO, I'm also kind of a landlord and real estate owner here and I'm looking at 00:22:30.453 --> 00:22:38.665 - some infill opportunities. So I'm curious about the process for both infill density and just the creativity 00:22:38.665 --> 00:22:46.420 - that's there and how do we, in my mind, push the envelope around what's possible in those ways? Well, 00:22:46.420 --> 00:22:51.134 - a lot of that is underway. As you may have noticed, there was 00:22:51.554 --> 00:22:58.746 - Last year, a lot of conversation about plexus and things like that. We're looking at an ordinance now 00:22:58.746 --> 00:23:05.939 - amendment that allows the division of a lot, a large lot, into two. And that seems like a very simple 00:23:05.939 --> 00:23:13.131 - thing. No, it's not. Let's say if you have a large lot and you have a house on the front and you want 00:23:13.131 --> 00:23:20.182 - to have room for another house behind it, there are requirements about frontage and I mentioned the 00:23:20.182 --> 00:23:20.958 - fire code. 00:23:21.570 --> 00:23:28.082 - The fire code, more than you need to know, a standard fire hose is 150 feet long. And they have to be 00:23:28.082 --> 00:23:34.466 - able to get from that right away, the main street, 150 feet back. So the building can't be any more 00:23:34.466 --> 00:23:40.851 - than 150 feet from the, you know, from that truck on that hose, as measured by the hose. So we have 00:23:40.851 --> 00:23:47.427 - to work that in. You also have to, a lot of those rear lots don't have stormwater drainage facilities. 00:23:47.427 --> 00:23:49.406 - And how do you deal with that? 00:23:49.666 --> 00:23:56.752 - because it's a small parcel. So those are some of the challenges we make. But we're working on it. We 00:23:56.752 --> 00:24:03.769 - think we've figured out ways to do that. And we're excited by that. That's exactly what we're trying 00:24:03.769 --> 00:24:10.786 - to do. And so you need to find ways to make that work. Because at first blush, it wouldn't work. But 00:24:10.786 --> 00:24:18.011 - I think if you're creative, you can make that work. So that's what we're doing. And then as things like 00:24:18.011 --> 00:24:19.262 - Hopewell come up, 00:24:19.906 --> 00:24:26.068 - How do you use that land in the most efficient way like they're doing with 98 lots, I think you said, 00:24:26.068 --> 00:24:32.231 - which would be terrific. And also the summit development is the same way. So that's a major emphasis. 00:24:32.231 --> 00:24:38.453 - That's in everything that I think the city council is looking at and that we're executing on. And this 00:24:38.453 --> 00:24:44.555 - process improvement then will help speed that up. If we get it right the first time, then you should 00:24:44.555 --> 00:24:49.630 - be able to come in. That's called a class two permit. And then we just move you on. 00:24:49.986 --> 00:24:59.418 - and help you get there. So that's our, one of our main goals or targets. I don't know, does that answer 00:24:59.418 --> 00:25:08.668 - your question? Okay. So, you know, we talk about wanting to do more through the UDO. And what we also 00:25:08.668 --> 00:25:19.006 - are cautious about is that every time we complexify the UDO, we create opportunities for it to contradict itself. 00:25:19.362 --> 00:25:27.364 - we create pathways for things to actually make it harder to build good things. And one of the comments 00:25:27.364 --> 00:25:35.211 - that we frequently get at the mayor's office is, why do you keep letting people build all these ugly 00:25:35.211 --> 00:25:43.058 - apartments? Well, because the UDO allows them. And so, you know, what I would love is that we get to 00:25:43.058 --> 00:25:48.574 - a place where we have a checklist of things that you really need to do 00:25:49.506 --> 00:25:59.053 - But we want it to be ultimately very easy to build great things and difficult to build bad things. 00:25:59.053 --> 00:26:08.986 - Right now, sometimes we have that backwards. And just to give an example for folks, accessory dwelling 00:26:08.986 --> 00:26:17.086 - units, great idea. I own a piece of land. It has room for another small unit on it. 00:26:17.762 --> 00:26:26.123 - I want to build it there. Well, by right you can. Yes, go do that. But unfortunately, financing means 00:26:26.123 --> 00:26:34.484 - that you have to, unless you are personally wealthy, you have to remortgage your primary house to get 00:26:34.484 --> 00:26:43.419 - a loan for that ADU, unless you can divide the lot. If you can divide the lot, you get a different mortgage. 00:26:43.419 --> 00:26:46.206 - And so in today's interest rates, 00:26:47.234 --> 00:26:53.961 - Almost nobody wants to remortgage their main residence in order to build an accessory dwelling unit. 00:26:53.961 --> 00:27:01.021 - So in theory, the by-right zoning should perhaps even double the number of homes that we have for people, 00:27:01.021 --> 00:27:07.815 - but the difficulty in getting there, which is not just about the UDO, makes it harder to do that. Who 00:27:07.815 --> 00:27:09.214 - else has a question? 00:27:12.706 --> 00:27:19.388 - Hello, I'm Colin Nielsen. I've lived here since I was seven, and I graduated the O'Neill School with 00:27:19.388 --> 00:27:26.004 - a Master's in Public Affairs and Environmental Science. And I recently became employed with Patriot 00:27:26.004 --> 00:27:32.885 - Engineering doing construction materials testing, mostly with concrete testing. So I've actually gotten 00:27:32.885 --> 00:27:34.142 - to see some of the 00:27:34.498 --> 00:27:40.637 - projects that are going on right now like with Kirkwood and the you know seeing things that I've advocated 00:27:40.637 --> 00:27:46.431 - for in the past like curb bump outs and speed humps and things like that actually seeing those built 00:27:46.431 --> 00:27:52.398 - is a pretty cool process and yeah well I used to complain about the construction during the summer back 00:27:52.398 --> 00:27:58.078 - in the day but now it's keeping me employed so but anyways I have one question you mentioned about 00:27:58.434 --> 00:28:05.711 - You first mentioned about Kirkwood and how there needs to be significant investment into that rather 00:28:05.711 --> 00:28:13.420 - than a half approach. But I, you're also mentioning that you've had funding cut like in 30 million dollars 00:28:13.420 --> 00:28:20.625 - from state law. So I'm wondering is Kirkwood, are Kirkwood improvements something that would not be 00:28:20.625 --> 00:28:27.902 - prioritized with a budget shortfall like that or is that something that would still be on the table? 00:28:28.642 --> 00:28:37.389 - The way the budget works is the administration presents a budget and the council can cut things, but 00:28:37.389 --> 00:28:46.135 - they can't add things, right? That seems like a pretty straightforward approach. Our administration, 00:28:46.135 --> 00:28:53.150 - my administration really tries to lead collaboratively in everything that we do. 00:28:53.282 --> 00:29:00.378 - The council, we've invited and the council has provided their priorities to us for the past two years 00:29:00.378 --> 00:29:07.335 - and then we get those ahead of when we prepare the budget. We respond to those in terms of here are 00:29:07.335 --> 00:29:14.431 - our priorities and here's where we see some common ground and then we do our best to prepare a budget 00:29:14.431 --> 00:29:20.414 - that meets those priorities. Talking about funding for something like Kirkwood is not 00:29:20.674 --> 00:29:28.859 - as straightforward as just how much do the dollars, how many dollars does it cost to make these improvements? 00:29:28.859 --> 00:29:36.449 - Because of course, a major improvement to Kirkwood could potentially increase economic development in 00:29:36.449 --> 00:29:43.964 - the area, and that would have tax implications. And so it's not a, we have to look ultimately at the 00:29:43.964 --> 00:29:49.694 - total anticipated ROI, including our investments in quality of place, right? 00:29:49.794 --> 00:29:57.918 - And so it's not as cut and dry as, because we don't have a lot of money, we're not doing this. We have 00:29:57.918 --> 00:30:05.805 - an RFP out for the Kirkwood corridor plan, and that takes the transportation plan into account. The 00:30:05.805 --> 00:30:13.850 - transportation plan calls for Kirkwood to be a shared street, which means it's shared by all modes of 00:30:13.850 --> 00:30:16.926 - transportation. That doesn't mean that 00:30:17.346 --> 00:30:25.343 - It needs to be a big wide two lane 30 mile an hour road. It can be many things. And so I envision working 00:30:25.343 --> 00:30:33.038 - not only with the council, but importantly with the public on how I'm getting input for that corridor 00:30:33.038 --> 00:30:40.582 - plan and then trying to find a best case scenario for Kirkwood, whatever that may be for all of the 00:30:40.582 --> 00:30:43.902 - people who live here and want to live here. 00:30:50.882 --> 00:30:57.499 - Hi, my name is Emerson Aronte. I am actually not from Bloomington. I grew up outside of Boston, lived 00:30:57.499 --> 00:31:03.987 - in Denver or Boulder for about 15 years. I married a girl from the Midwest who went to IU. And when 00:31:03.987 --> 00:31:10.604 - we had our second kid, she said, we're moving back to the Midwest. And so I thought, well, OK. And we 00:31:10.604 --> 00:31:17.092 - picked Bloomington because it's a great community. I affectionately described Bloomington as 70% of 00:31:17.092 --> 00:31:19.038 - Boulder for 50% of the price. 00:31:19.778 --> 00:31:25.599 - And I know Bloomington has a cost of living issue. I'm not trying to be tongue-in-cheek about it. But 00:31:25.599 --> 00:31:31.363 - if you did the math, it is literally half the cost, which is insane. So I'm very optimistic and very 00:31:31.363 --> 00:31:37.071 - invested in this community, so much so that I've decided to start a business, which has prompted me 00:31:37.071 --> 00:31:42.892 - to engage with planning. And depending on the day, I can't tell if I feel bad for city planners or if 00:31:42.892 --> 00:31:48.542 - I just disdain them. And I think the interpretation I've come to after looking at the UDO is that, 00:31:48.834 --> 00:31:56.071 - I mean, they are doing what they're supposed to be doing, but in doing so, it strikes me as so nonsensical, 00:31:56.071 --> 00:32:02.974 - the conclusions. And so I'm hoping you could elaborate on this concept of interpreting the UDO and how 00:32:02.974 --> 00:32:09.608 - we can make it more sensical. And I'll give you an example. We're redoing the outdoor landscaping. 00:32:09.608 --> 00:32:14.366 - We have a, I believe it's called Bradford pear. It's an invasive tree. 00:32:17.154 --> 00:32:24.026 - The planning department emails me, we'd love you to get rid of the tree, we can't force you, but we'd 00:32:24.026 --> 00:32:30.965 - love you to. Well, cutting trees now is expensive, you know, it's a big part of the canopy, I want the 00:32:30.965 --> 00:32:37.702 - shade, I can't get rid of it, I'm sorry. Next email, okay, you need a tree protection plan for this 00:32:37.702 --> 00:32:44.574 - tree. Right, and this person's doing their job, they're a very hardworking member of city government. 00:32:45.218 --> 00:32:51.897 - But on my end, I think, OK, I'm paying an architect $125 an hour. They have to resubmit plans. It's 00:32:51.897 --> 00:32:58.910 - another week of my life. I already signed the lease. My lease is now up for a week. And you do the math, 00:32:58.910 --> 00:33:05.789 - and you think, that's real money for me. I mean, despite how I look, I'm not a millionaire. And so I'm 00:33:05.789 --> 00:33:12.735 - putting a lot of personal capital in this business. And so these things, they just really piss you off. 00:33:12.735 --> 00:33:15.006 - And so again, can you talk about? 00:33:15.202 --> 00:33:22.702 - interpretation of the UDL and maybe how we can make it a bit more common sense. Well, a longer answer 00:33:22.702 --> 00:33:30.129 - than you probably anticipated, but the way the system works is there is a state statute that enables 00:33:30.129 --> 00:33:37.850 - Bloomington to do zoning. Any community, just any community. And it has a lot of things in it. You gotta 00:33:37.850 --> 00:33:44.542 - do this, you gotta do that. So that's our overall. Then it comes down and the city council 00:33:44.642 --> 00:33:53.630 - adopts this ordinance. And then it comes to planning, and we have to enforce it, right? We have to interpret 00:33:53.630 --> 00:34:01.958 - it and enforce it. Interpretation is, we don't like the beer. We'd rather it told us what to do. And 00:34:01.958 --> 00:34:10.369 - part of our communications plan I mentioned earlier is when you have a situation, you have a Bradford 00:34:10.369 --> 00:34:13.502 - beer. That's an invasive species. OK. 00:34:14.978 --> 00:34:21.799 - we can say, you know, that's an invasive species, but we can't tell you to get rid of it. And if you're 00:34:21.799 --> 00:34:28.490 - gonna keep it, any tree needs a protection plan. I realize that seems contradictory. Yeah, but that's 00:34:28.490 --> 00:34:35.180 - not for us to say. And what our communications plan, in the future when we would communicate that, we 00:34:35.180 --> 00:34:42.198 - would tell you that the UDO does not require you to do this. And whether you do it or not, your permission 00:34:42.198 --> 00:34:43.838 - will not depend on that. 00:34:44.258 --> 00:34:50.974 - We need to take that out of the equation. You know, you won't be held back. You won't be penalized just 00:34:50.974 --> 00:34:57.496 - because we suggested something. We won't do that. And as far as coordinating all that, that's what I 00:34:57.496 --> 00:35:04.018 - talked about in this process of approval. We're going to look at just what you said. We do hear that 00:35:04.018 --> 00:35:10.604 - quite a bit. Okay, wait a minute. Let's get organized here. Let's understand what we're doing and get 00:35:10.604 --> 00:35:12.606 - you to that yes a lot quicker. 00:35:13.346 --> 00:35:19.597 - Now, sometimes if you want to do things the UDO doesn't allow you, we will tell you and we will cite 00:35:19.597 --> 00:35:25.849 - you the provision of the UDO that says you can't, okay? The UDO says you will have a tree protection 00:35:25.849 --> 00:35:31.605 - plan, okay? Then you will. And that is it, okay? But we should be able to make that clear to 00:35:31.605 --> 00:35:38.228 - you, understandable. Some of it we can explain, some of it we cannot. It was a policy that was established 00:35:38.228 --> 00:35:42.622 - a long time ago. And often what we do is we learn from your situation. 00:35:43.170 --> 00:35:50.105 - We go, wait, this is not practical. It doesn't work here. And then we have a process by which we keep 00:35:50.105 --> 00:35:56.904 - a constant list of that, and we propose amendments to the UDO to eliminate those. Now, that doesn't 00:35:56.904 --> 00:36:03.771 - help you. You don't want to be the guinea pig for this, but we are constantly doing that and looking 00:36:03.771 --> 00:36:10.978 - at how we can make that better. But first, we start with our communications with you to make sure they're 00:36:10.978 --> 00:36:12.542 - clear, they're timely, 00:36:13.474 --> 00:36:19.112 - and we don't have you coming back and forth. I've been on your side of the fence for many years, have 00:36:19.112 --> 00:36:24.806 - been involved in zoning for many years, and I understand cost. Okay? And we talk a lot about that now. 00:36:24.806 --> 00:36:30.333 - You know, what does it cost when you walk in the door, how much have you spent by the time you come 00:36:30.333 --> 00:36:35.916 - in? When we tell you to change something, you've got to go to your engineer and your architect. What 00:36:35.916 --> 00:36:41.499 - does that cost? Okay? If you've borrowed the money, what's the cost of carrying the money? Those are 00:36:41.499 --> 00:36:43.102 - real costs that delay causes 00:36:43.394 --> 00:36:49.963 - what you're saying, your costs continue to increase, and there's nothing coming in the door. We're aware 00:36:49.963 --> 00:36:56.219 - of that, and we do talk about that, and that's one of the main drivers of getting this process more 00:36:56.219 --> 00:37:02.662 - efficient, quicker, and get it out the door. Or not. If it doesn't meet it, we'll tell you right away. 00:37:02.662 --> 00:37:08.980 - But it's a speed thing, it's a process thing. I don't have a good answer for you right now, but I'll 00:37:08.980 --> 00:37:12.734 - look at it, and we'll see where you are and what we can do. 00:37:13.378 --> 00:37:22.179 - That's the best I can do. Have I sort of answered your question? No, you haven't. OK. I wanted to say 00:37:22.179 --> 00:37:30.807 - more. Did you create a destruction plan for the invasive species? Yes. A protection plan. Well, no, 00:37:30.807 --> 00:37:35.294 - we don't have a budget for it. We can't reward you. 00:37:44.674 --> 00:37:51.794 - Good evening, this is Chris Broomsey from the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. Thanks for having 00:37:51.794 --> 00:37:58.643 - this, it's always fun. And I have not gone through the budget yet, Mayor Carey, so. So you would get 00:37:58.643 --> 00:38:05.559 - off the hook tonight. So I'm gonna make this a question and a comment for the ageless Lynn Coyne. One 00:38:05.559 --> 00:38:13.086 - of the things with our members I've been sort of tracking for a while is that reuse. So property that has been 00:38:13.474 --> 00:38:19.987 - unused for a while and then a leasy comes in, they want to say, the second street, I think was an example 00:38:19.987 --> 00:38:26.499 - of emergency vet that took a long time and a lot of cash. We've had one with an insurance agent on third. 00:38:26.499 --> 00:38:32.643 - What can we do on that one to make that sticker shock of going into code maybe a little bit better? 00:38:32.643 --> 00:38:39.033 - And then a couple other items, I was just curious, three weeks in, what are a couple like, oh, I didn't 00:38:39.033 --> 00:38:40.446 - know that, coming from 00:38:41.218 --> 00:38:48.196 - not a planned department, you know, you're not, you just didn't come from West Lafayette. You've been 00:38:48.196 --> 00:38:55.448 - doing in Ivy Tech and BDC, some other things. What surprised you like the most coming in to this position 00:38:55.448 --> 00:39:02.426 - and the department itself? Good questions. Well, let's deal with the change of use. The change of use 00:39:02.426 --> 00:39:09.677 - is one of those, you know, every square inch of land in Bloomington is zoned. It's in some classification 00:39:09.677 --> 00:39:10.430 - somewhere. 00:39:11.106 --> 00:39:16.578 - But it doesn't matter to you until someone builds something next to you or you need to build something. 00:39:16.578 --> 00:39:21.945 - Then all of a sudden it's top of mind, right? And so these things have been out there a long time but 00:39:21.945 --> 00:39:27.469 - all of a sudden you just crash into them. And change of use is one of those that tends to be a surprise. 00:39:27.469 --> 00:39:32.994 - A property goes vacant and it sits there for a while and then a new tenant comes in or a new owner comes 00:39:32.994 --> 00:39:36.414 - in and they assume they'll just unlock the door and do business. 00:39:36.866 --> 00:39:43.538 - No, what that does is trigger a change of use. When a change of use is triggered, you have to bring 00:39:43.538 --> 00:39:50.410 - it up to current standards, and that includes landscaping. Maybe you have too much parking because now 00:39:50.410 --> 00:39:57.148 - we have maximums and you're over the maximum, and you need to take some out and put some landscaping 00:39:57.148 --> 00:40:03.887 - in and do some other things, accessibility and so forth. And that's what Chris is talking about. And 00:40:03.887 --> 00:40:06.622 - we are looking at an amendment right now 00:40:07.010 --> 00:40:13.493 - cooperation with Jane Cooper Smith from the Economic and Sustainability Development Department. She's 00:40:13.493 --> 00:40:19.976 - very interested in this for obvious reasons because we need to get those properties occupied. We need 00:40:19.976 --> 00:40:26.459 - to get those people employed. We need to get the economy going and delaying five, six months and then 00:40:26.459 --> 00:40:32.879 - costing tens of thousands of dollars doesn't get that done. But it is the way it is in the code. And 00:40:32.879 --> 00:40:35.294 - so we have, working with her, we have 00:40:35.618 --> 00:40:43.998 - A proposed amendment that will relieve some of that, maybe hopefully help that process out a little 00:40:43.998 --> 00:40:52.462 - bit more. And then clear communications with the people who are involved. And again, what happens is 00:40:52.462 --> 00:41:01.094 - we're not the only department involved. For example, if you have 15 parking spaces and the code allows 00:41:01.094 --> 00:41:04.446 - 10, then you have to remove five, okay? 00:41:04.802 --> 00:41:11.635 - But when you remove five, you may crash into a stormwater problem. Well, that's not anticipated in the 00:41:11.635 --> 00:41:18.468 - UDO. That's over in utilities and stormwater. Well, there are ways you can say, well, you will do this 00:41:18.468 --> 00:41:25.633 - unless it contradicts another policy, and then they make the choice which one takes priority. If stormwater 00:41:25.633 --> 00:41:32.798 - takes priority, there you go. That's the answer to that question. So we need to draft those kind of things. 00:41:33.154 --> 00:41:40.415 - and also to the speed and what really is necessary to get that property turned around. It is the way 00:41:40.415 --> 00:41:47.676 - it is right now, but we are looking at how we can make that a little better. And Jane Coopersmith is 00:41:47.676 --> 00:41:55.152 - very focused on that. As far as the things that surprised me, so having been on the outside for decades 00:41:55.152 --> 00:42:01.694 - and done lots of things, I am very, very happy with the staff. They're very knowledgeable. 00:42:02.082 --> 00:42:09.855 - They care a lot about the UDO and making sure it's accurate. They absorb a lot, unjustly sometimes. 00:42:09.855 --> 00:42:17.939 - And that's part of the communication. Make sure that we explain why it is we're doing what we're doing. 00:42:17.939 --> 00:42:25.867 - And it's not because we don't like you or you're in some disfavor group or something like that. It is 00:42:25.867 --> 00:42:31.230 - the way it is. When we do that, then you have a better understanding 00:42:31.714 --> 00:42:39.319 - of why it is and whether you want to do something about it or not. But we will help you with this process 00:42:39.319 --> 00:42:46.493 - and be as clear and transparent as we can with you. And the staff's been terrific. I mentioned this 00:42:46.493 --> 00:42:53.667 - staff-led process change. Who else knows it better, right? And so they've been super helpful to me, 00:42:53.667 --> 00:42:59.550 - very, very cooperative, and I've been thrilled with that. So that's been a great, 00:43:00.482 --> 00:43:09.106 - I won't call it a surprise, but it's been very pleasant. It's been really terrific. I'll call it a surprise. 00:43:09.106 --> 00:43:17.098 - They're great. And I also have been surprised at the number of new friends I have. I do not bring my 00:43:17.098 --> 00:43:25.406 - own UDO to this party, right? I already have one, so we'll have to deal with the one we have. So I don't 00:43:25.406 --> 00:43:28.254 - know if that answers your question. 00:43:28.898 --> 00:43:38.915 - And I'm looking very much forward to speaking with the chamber or any group at all about how it works, 00:43:38.915 --> 00:43:48.348 - what we're doing, what you can do to help. So I'm available. Second Wednesday of the month, 1.30 00:43:48.348 --> 00:43:58.462 - this evening. OK, send me an email. And I am the interim. So the mayor may decide to find someone else. 00:43:58.690 --> 00:44:05.333 - pretty sure I don't know. No, I plan on being there for a while. Don't get your hopes up, Lynn. Lynn 00:44:05.333 --> 00:44:12.107 - came out of retirement for the 15th or 16th time to serve the city in this way. We're really grateful. 00:44:12.107 --> 00:44:18.881 - And I will also say the other department heads have been terrific. I mean, I didn't have to reach out. 00:44:18.881 --> 00:44:25.524 - They all reached out to me and want to help, want me to help them and communicate. It's been really, 00:44:25.524 --> 00:44:28.286 - really great. The mayor's office has been 00:44:29.090 --> 00:44:40.495 - Gretchen has been super helpful, the deputy mayor. So it's been a very, very pleasant experience. Hello. 00:44:40.495 --> 00:44:50.597 - Is this on Zoom or is it? Be careful. I speak loud enough you don't need the mic, but I have 00:44:50.597 --> 00:44:59.070 - more observations and concerns than I have questions. First of all, I support 00:44:59.394 --> 00:45:08.688 - the closing of the not closing of Kirkwood around town in my bicycle mostly and closing Kirkwood to 00:45:08.688 --> 00:45:18.632 - traffic makes it much more difficult for me to go through there on a bicycle than when it's in its current 00:45:18.632 --> 00:45:24.766 - condition. So I'm glad you didn't do that. I have a concern about 00:45:26.978 --> 00:45:38.376 - of the city's reactions to developing. My neighborhood, I've lived in this neighborhood like a couple 00:45:38.376 --> 00:45:49.774 - blocks from here. Initially on Kirkwood and now on 8th Street since 1971. So it's longer than most of 00:45:49.774 --> 00:45:56.702 - you have been alive, I think. The previous administration had 00:45:58.082 --> 00:46:08.417 - our neighborhood under attack. And we've been trying to resist that. And we've felt less under attack 00:46:08.417 --> 00:46:18.751 - since the change of administrations. And we're happy about that. And we appreciate, you had mentioned 00:46:18.751 --> 00:46:27.262 - clearing, sleeping in downtown area. We appreciate the fact that the big encampment 00:46:27.458 --> 00:46:36.881 - just north of the track over here has been closed for over a year now. And we really appreciate that, 00:46:36.881 --> 00:46:46.120 - because it is creating a lot of trouble. The previous year, I cleaned up four encampments on my own 00:46:46.120 --> 00:46:55.358 - property. Last year, it was zero. Right now, there is a king-size, extra-thick mattress in my wood. 00:46:56.898 --> 00:47:06.050 - I don't know how they got it. I'm going to have to cut it in pieces and put it in my trash, fill up 00:47:06.050 --> 00:47:15.477 - my trash for several weeks to get rid of it. My neighbor is a little bit concerned that keeping people 00:47:15.477 --> 00:47:24.446 - from sleeping downtown will move them back over here again. So we need to be cautious about that. 00:47:29.122 --> 00:47:40.884 - One problem we had recently, there is an out of town national developer, with not a very good reputation, 00:47:40.884 --> 00:47:52.423 - building a huge apartment complex on Roger Street, when it backs up to Fairview. There are two problems 00:47:52.423 --> 00:47:58.526 - that we have with that. Well, somebody mentioned ugly. 00:47:59.074 --> 00:48:10.729 - ugly buildings. They are pretty nice brick facing and the lower levels on the top. They're doing cheap 00:48:10.729 --> 00:48:22.724 - work. When you see the building from our neighborhood is going to be ugly. But that's not a real problem. 00:48:22.724 --> 00:48:28.382 - The real problem was the city decided to let them 00:48:29.346 --> 00:48:39.088 - off you know the city rather than comply with the tree requirements rather than having the required 00:48:39.088 --> 00:48:49.025 - number of trees they are having almost no trees and they're paying the city to do this they said well 00:48:49.025 --> 00:48:57.598 - we are buying trees for the city they're paying the city city has been buying trees for 00:48:58.242 --> 00:49:07.873 - for as long as I've been in town. There are probably more newly planted trees in the cemetery right 00:49:07.873 --> 00:49:17.600 - over here that borders my property than there are graves in it. The city has access to lots of trees 00:49:17.600 --> 00:49:27.134 - that can plant. So allowing this developer to forego having the number of trees on his development 00:49:27.682 --> 00:49:36.452 - and laying and buying the city some trees really bothers me and other people in our neighborhood. The 00:49:36.452 --> 00:49:45.307 - other problem with this development is that they're having one access for, I think there are 700 beds, 00:49:45.307 --> 00:49:53.819 - 750 beds in this thing projected. So it's a big, big apartment complex. Five buildings, I believe. 00:49:53.819 --> 00:49:57.086 - You know, five stories tall, I think. 00:49:58.594 --> 00:50:07.215 - They have one entrance onto Roger Street, which is a busy street. That entrance is right next to the 00:50:07.215 --> 00:50:15.921 - V-Line Trail, so there will be issues with bikes and pedestrians. And they're having another entrance 00:50:15.921 --> 00:50:24.627 - onto Fairview Street. Now, those of you who are not walking, when you leave here, go to the corner of 00:50:24.627 --> 00:50:27.870 - Fairview and 8th Street, right at the 00:50:27.970 --> 00:50:37.857 - no corner of the school property. Okay, very briefly. The city allowed them to put do a traffic study. 00:50:37.857 --> 00:50:47.455 - They hired some of the new traffic. So when you hire somebody to do a traffic, say they're going to 00:50:47.455 --> 00:50:56.190 - give you the answer you want. They are putting an entrance on the very narrow street right 00:50:57.186 --> 00:51:07.664 - by school. One way out is over by the funky intersection by the river overpass on 11th. And the other 00:51:07.664 --> 00:51:17.937 - is right by the school on 8th Street. And the traffic backs up there every day, like 20 cars backed 00:51:17.937 --> 00:51:25.950 - up there picking up kids. And they're going to dump hundreds of cars onto the 00:51:27.234 --> 00:51:37.079 - And we think that they should not be able to do that. They should put the seats up, put the cars on 00:51:37.079 --> 00:51:47.121 - the busy street. Thank you. Thank you. Let me just address, I was trying to take notes on the various 00:51:47.121 --> 00:51:56.670 - topics. I will address the trees and the traffic study briefly and then talk about homelessness. 00:51:59.330 --> 00:52:09.924 - I think you're closing Kirkwood comment probably stands on its own. So this concept that the city would 00:52:09.924 --> 00:52:20.213 - be planting trees no matter what is actually not true. We do buy those trees. We are not able to buy 00:52:20.213 --> 00:52:25.918 - as many as we used to. And there are various reasons in 00:52:26.434 --> 00:52:35.769 - both in code and because of the new stormwater ordinance that trees can't just be planted anywhere on 00:52:35.769 --> 00:52:44.097 - a new development. And so those trees are valuable to the city, even if they're not on the 00:52:44.097 --> 00:52:54.622 - actual development. And I'll just tell you as the mayor, my priority in looking at how we balance development with 00:52:54.850 --> 00:53:03.963 - the lived environment is that we are really going to strive every step of the way to make the pedestrian 00:53:03.963 --> 00:53:12.903 - experience as pleasant as possible, which means having spaces that can be shaded during the summer and 00:53:12.903 --> 00:53:18.718 - that are at sort of a human scale wherever possible. And there are 00:53:19.106 --> 00:53:26.845 - While we are a tree city and we have a lot of trees and we have been planting them by the thousands 00:53:26.845 --> 00:53:34.660 - every year, the truth of the matter is that trees don't live forever and we have to be on a constant 00:53:34.660 --> 00:53:42.476 - replanting. And so if a developer is removing trees, replacing them is necessary. And on a site like 00:53:42.476 --> 00:53:44.798 - the one you're talking about, 00:53:45.058 --> 00:53:55.163 - doesn't have any tree cover really it's an old scrap metal site and so the addition of trees is is an 00:53:55.163 --> 00:54:05.665 - addition to the city so I understood yes and so I just I want to sort of it sounds like there's a concept 00:54:05.665 --> 00:54:14.878 - that the city's taking a bribe to not not put trees on this site that's not happening we are 00:54:15.010 --> 00:54:23.275 - going to invest those trees, the developer will pay for those trees, they will be planted and they will 00:54:23.275 --> 00:54:31.381 - be in excess of what we already have. Those traffic studies are fairly expensive to do and that's why 00:54:31.381 --> 00:54:39.646 - the city does not do them ourselves. While I appreciate that data can be skewed in many different ways, 00:54:39.746 --> 00:54:47.949 - It's really important for us to have those traffic studies and we are trying actually to disperse traffic. 00:54:47.949 --> 00:54:53.086 - That is part of our Safe Streets Initiative, not to put all of the 00:54:53.314 --> 00:55:00.663 - cars onto one road, but instead to use some side streets as through streets, that is how a healthy, 00:55:00.663 --> 00:55:08.600 - thriving community with safe streets actually works. And so while it's counterintuitive, hey, this street's 00:55:08.600 --> 00:55:16.244 - kind of quiet, why would you add any more cars there? It's actually intentional. And that's the science 00:55:16.244 --> 00:55:22.270 - and engineering behind the Safe Streets Initiative. I do wanna just speak to the, 00:55:22.466 --> 00:55:30.799 - The homeless encampments, we have at last official count, 120 people sleeping outside in our community. 00:55:30.799 --> 00:55:38.971 - My administration has been very committed to when an encampment gets to be unsafe, we close it and we 00:55:38.971 --> 00:55:47.063 - keep it closed. We have been very successful. In fact, we have been perhaps more successful than any 00:55:47.063 --> 00:55:51.550 - other place in the state at keeping those camps closed. 00:55:52.162 --> 00:56:01.761 - we plan to do that even while we are closing zones of downtown to sleeping. This is really SB 285 was 00:56:01.761 --> 00:56:11.549 - a Senate bill that illegalized sleeping outside on public property. It is in many ways forcing our hand 00:56:11.549 --> 00:56:21.054 - in a way that's a little more rapid than what we're prepared for in terms of housing. It can also be 00:56:21.250 --> 00:56:29.864 - looked at though as a real opportunity to call the community together and say, people can't sleep outside 00:56:29.864 --> 00:56:38.152 - anymore. And so we know we need to get people inside. I personally have always believed a human being 00:56:38.152 --> 00:56:46.278 - cannot thrive if they're not living inside. And so I think it creates a real call to action for our 00:56:46.278 --> 00:56:49.854 - community. We already were working on this. 00:56:50.242 --> 00:56:57.325 - now we need to work on it a little faster. And so when you, Bill and I have talked about this before, 00:56:57.325 --> 00:57:04.615 - but it's very important to say this publicly. If you see people who are starting to sleep on a property, 00:57:04.615 --> 00:57:11.837 - it's really important that you let us know at the city, because usually when one person starts sleeping 00:57:11.837 --> 00:57:12.670 - in an area, 00:57:12.834 --> 00:57:19.660 - Soon you will have four people sleeping in that area. And it's much, much harder once people get established 00:57:19.660 --> 00:57:25.985 - in an area to relocate them. And we don't want to disturb people any more than we need to. And so as 00:57:25.985 --> 00:57:32.309 - soon as they come, we need to get them services that they need so that they're not sleeping outside. 00:57:32.309 --> 00:57:33.374 - Other questions? 00:57:40.354 --> 00:57:46.791 - Thank you, Mayor. My name is Clark Greiner. I'm with the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation. 00:57:46.791 --> 00:57:53.415 - First of all, I'm here purposely to say thank you for the progress you're making on the built environment 00:57:53.415 --> 00:57:59.852 - and the development standards. I think the report that came out from the consultant on our development 00:57:59.852 --> 00:58:05.726 - standards was very spot on, and I applaud you for taking that effort to address those things. 00:58:06.050 --> 00:58:10.731 - Number two, I think Mr. Coyne is absolutely the right choice for this because we're really 00:58:10.731 --> 00:58:16.080 - good at enforcement, we're good at the administration, but we also have now a good economic development 00:58:16.080 --> 00:58:21.378 - side of that, so really taking a look at that. Number three, I think the process review and evaluation 00:58:21.378 --> 00:58:26.572 - of that is critical because I think understanding those steps, and that's how our developers and our 00:58:26.572 --> 00:58:30.430 - development community really looks at things, it's a very process-oriented 00:58:30.754 --> 00:58:35.686 - type of program that they're in. And then the other vital thing that you mentioned, I think, is the 00:58:35.686 --> 00:58:40.864 - communication side of it. On the communication side, not only internally into the development community, 00:58:40.864 --> 00:58:45.845 - but one of the things that I think, and I guess I really don't have a question, I just want to make, 00:58:45.845 --> 00:58:50.924 - I guess, a statement, my apologies for that, but Hugh's gonna get me on it anyhow, is that I think the 00:58:50.924 --> 00:58:55.856 - communication should also go beyond just that, the development community, and also talking publicly 00:58:55.856 --> 00:58:56.990 - about it through these 00:58:57.218 --> 00:59:02.684 - town hall meetings, because one of the things that's happening in our industry from an economic development 00:59:02.684 --> 00:59:07.998 - perspective is that AI is becoming more and more prevalent by site selectors. And those are the deciders 00:59:07.998 --> 00:59:13.109 - and decision makers of site locations. And so when they go out and scrape all the publicly available 00:59:13.109 --> 00:59:18.272 - information that's out on our public systems, they'll see certain things that have been written about 00:59:18.272 --> 00:59:23.383 - that. And I think it would behoove all of us, because we have a wonderful community, you've heard it 00:59:23.383 --> 00:59:24.446 - from everybody here, 00:59:24.546 --> 00:59:30.347 - wonderful things that are going on. If we could start that process now and talk even about some of the, 00:59:30.347 --> 00:59:36.037 - even if they're small wins, it's worth talking about to start to populate that information out there. 00:59:36.037 --> 00:59:41.783 - And it is great information to talk about. We'd be happy to work in collaboration with that if there's 00:59:41.783 --> 00:59:47.473 - anything that we can do. But it's all about that. The housing that you're doing right now in Hopewell 00:59:47.473 --> 00:59:52.382 - is gonna help bring more opportunities for people to live here, which is gonna increase 00:59:52.802 --> 00:59:59.132 - you know, hopefully revenue with regards to the assessed value and everything else. So I think you're 00:59:59.132 --> 01:00:05.772 - absolutely in the right track. I think being able to extend sewer out to the airport, if that need arises, 01:00:05.772 --> 01:00:12.226 - I applaud you for that too. So thank you for all those considerations and moving in the right direction 01:00:12.226 --> 01:00:18.680 - from an economic development perspective and from how we look and view that side of the world. So thank 01:00:18.680 --> 01:00:20.542 - you very much. Thanks, Clark. 01:00:26.626 --> 01:00:35.270 - Okay, thanks for joining us for a while, Bill. We have some here who have not asked questions. It's 01:00:35.270 --> 01:00:44.000 - not required, but if you have a comment or wanna ask a question, please feel free. We're right about 01:00:44.000 --> 01:00:52.990 - time, but I just wanted to not exclude people. Nobody's jumping up. Can you do it in like one sentence? 01:00:58.658 --> 01:01:05.952 - Okay. Yeah, I suppose. I guess I suppose I could ask you a question about how your priorities might 01:01:05.952 --> 01:01:13.391 - have changed regarding big projects such as, you know, the College and Walnut Corridor, the Third and 01:01:13.391 --> 01:01:19.518 - Atwater Corridor, the Kirkwood improvements, or in like Second Street, for example. 01:01:19.650 --> 01:01:26.906 - be putting in a bike lane there as well. I'm wondering if your priorities might be different compared 01:01:26.906 --> 01:01:34.304 - to like the previous planning director or like what projects you care about more or which or what might 01:01:34.304 --> 01:01:41.560 - be different going forward. There's actually no change in priority. Just want to make sure we're data 01:01:41.560 --> 01:01:47.678 - driven. We know what we're doing. The background support for that is there and it is. 01:01:48.290 --> 01:01:54.557 - The studies that have been done are solid. They use good information. And so when we come up with a 01:01:54.557 --> 01:02:01.074 - plan or a strategy, we know that's the right way to go. And that's really what I've been doing, is just 01:02:01.074 --> 01:02:07.529 - asking those questions. And it is. It's there. The data's there. So as we look forward to implementing 01:02:07.529 --> 01:02:13.795 - those various things, so that you and I and everybody in the community can feel solid that it's the 01:02:13.795 --> 01:02:17.054 - right thing to do. And that's been my presentation. 01:02:20.226 --> 01:02:28.642 - Glad to have you, Lynn. Glad to have each and every one of you. Thank you for participating in the civic 01:02:28.642 --> 01:02:36.897 - process today. And we are, I just want to wave to Jennifer. Jennifer is my assistant. She is sometimes 01:02:36.897 --> 01:02:43.550 - the front door to getting things done, so it's important that you know who she is. 01:02:44.002 --> 01:02:49.808 - We do, every other month I do a traveling town hall. The months that I'm not doing traveling town halls, 01:02:49.808 --> 01:02:55.503 - I do traveling office hours. And so next month we will have traveling office hours. You do sign up for 01:02:55.503 --> 01:03:01.142 - those because they're one on one and we don't want to waste your time waiting for other people to get 01:03:01.142 --> 01:03:06.782 - done talking. But everybody is invited to traveling office hours if you have something that you need. 01:03:06.946 --> 01:03:14.133 - some one-on-one time or just some more focused attention on. So enjoy the rest of your summer. Summer 01:03:14.133 --> 01:03:21.178 - goes until the 21st of September. So we are, towny summer is about to end, but summer is still with 01:03:21.178 --> 01:03:25.758 - us. Enjoy the rest of your summer and I'll hope to see you soon.