This meeting will come to order with the wrapping of the commemorative Scott Robinson gavel. This is
a meeting of the Transportation Commission for September 2025. Can we please have a call of the roll?
Copic here Stramitis Volin here Flaherty here Davis Stossburg here
We have a quorum and I note that Shelly's tremendous is here for John Connell on behalf of Bloomington
Transit Just to review the agenda We're going to have approval of minutes reports and communications
from commissioners several reports from staff including an update on 190 day orders on the City Commission
parking study on the quick build project at 12th of Monroe and the 2026 proposed budget update and
We'll also hear four cases, a TCR 2505 parking on North Illinois Street, TCR 2506 parking on West 8th
Street from Maple to Rogers, TCP 2507, a 2025 resident-led traffic calming program on West 11th Street
between Monroe and Maple, and TCR 2508, Hopewell West and related code updates. We'll then have discussion
of topics not on the docket, general public comment on items not on the docket,
adjournment Let's move now to approval of minutes We need a motion for approval of the minutes of July
21st the previous meeting a Motion to approve the minutes. Is there a second second? We have a motion
a second. Are there any? Corrections comments or to other fixes to the minutes to my right
Mr. Flaherty Yes, only briefly just a question an opinion I guess with respect to narrative minutes
and if those are particularly owners for staff, I don't know if I Personally feel like they're necessary
I don't this is something that you could also ask the the city clerk about but I don't think generally
We're required to produce full narrative minutes, especially when there are video, you know videos of
the meeting and that kind of thing and so
more of like by way of summary and You know actions taken that kind of thing might be suitable just
for consideration Is that a question directed to staff or just a comment in general? Just opinion and
a comment Thanks Does staff have any care to respond? I Recognized that the meetings minutes were extensive
and that was not possible
done purposefully it was I Started with a program of would someone know that this is in the packet.
Oh, this is not in the packet I should write it down to some degree. I did try to be brief, but there
were some questions that folks asked That I felt I might want to be able to search for one day, but
it is my prerogative to try to be more brief Mr. Flair. Yeah, just briefly that
I don't have like a strong preference that we do one way or the other just noting that I have comfort
with Like I think there is value in in the more extensive and thorough Set of minutes to assist trade-offs.
So I'm just noting that I don't have I don't I don't see that as like a strict requirement By any means
and just my opinion as one commissioner Other comments to my right to my left and
Will add to mr. Flaherty's comment. I thought the minutes were great and very thorough a Couple of amendments
like to make first of all The first sentence says the first meeting was held and it was a copy of the
meeting from the actual first minutes this was the second meeting and
So that should be changed accordingly. I don't know what you need to number every meeting from now on,
but just I would fix that. I'd also ask that the time of adjournment be included at the end of the minutes.
And as for other changes, I have some thoughts about formatting to make it more optimal. I would say
that one of the benefits of narrative minutes, however long, is
Allowing people to quickly get the gist of what was discussed and if they want to they can use it as
a supplement to a video To help them reference what was talked about One other thing I might suggest
might be noting the time that An item listed on the agenda was started that also helps people find there
because most videos don't get bookmarked the way that the PDF
Packet does so but I'm happy to sit with staff and talk about ways that we can tweak the minutes format
so that it's more practical, but I do prefer airing on the side of completeness it's just a matter of
how to reference it and I want to note also that in addition to the the packet or the minutes being
thorough the packet and
very thorough and Bookmarks in the PDF very much appreciated. So thank you for that Without if there's
no other corrections to the minutes. I just wanted to correct the second meeting and the time of adjournment
All in favor of approving the minutes as proposed please signify by saying aye aye Opposed say nay All
right, these minutes are approved
Let's move on now to reports from commissioners. Is there any report from a commissioner on my right?
I wanna encourage you to report on anything if you have it. To my right. Okay. Let me make a brief report.
We are still in the process of inventing a commission from scratch. This is our third meeting and our
second one with any stuff on the agenda.
We are still working on our procedures So and we're taking over from three different commissions that
had different ways of doing things I'm gonna once again exhort my colleagues to ask questions no matter
how rudimentary We still are trying to figure out how this commission works I know that the bylaws are
on the website, but they're the initial ones adopted at our first meeting in June and not the ones that we
Approved in July. So hope that those will be corrected soon And I just want to say so generally to the
public sorry that we didn't have coverage at our Previous meeting and it because cats couldn't be here.
So there was a limited visibility for anyone
The only thing you could see that meeting was the day is because we didn't have the benefit of camera
operators So I'm glad they're here now should make the meetings easier to watch But it shows how important
The own presence of cats is for the public to be able to take part from afar and to understand what's
happening here If there are no other reports from commissioners Let's go to staff. Let's start with
an update on 180 day orders Andrew Seabor director of engineering Hello
City engineer just wanted to continue the trend as as or if there are new 180 day orders that we keep
this commission updated Since our last meeting to there's been action on two orders one was the essentially
renewal or extension of a prior order that was nearing Expiration that was regarding for always stop
intersections on 7th Street so just extending that another 180 days and
And then a new 180-day order regarding action that you took at your last meeting regarding stop signs
on two intersections of 13th Street at the Woodlawn and Indiana intersection. So I just heard from this
commission and then also just wanted to implement those changes before students were here to reduce
changes to the population. So it's just what they are accustomed to when they arrived. Happy to answer
any questions you have on these orders. Okay, are there any questions for Mr. Seabor?
180 D orders to my right To my left I do wanted to ask I wanted to ask how many orders are currently
in force right now The most recent one I issued was 25-08 so I believe eight So How I mean do you have
a what's a record number of 180 the orders you've had I
Calendar year I'd have to go through but my gut is eight is on the very high side Is there a complete
list of 180 orders available somewhere there are I guess if you went between this meetings packet and
our last meetings packet they should all be Of the current ones in those packets. Okay, that's helpful
Can we also make that available as a web page or is it you know, are those online? They are the packets
are online
Okay, but you don't you don't put up a hundred day order as a web page as a matter of course No, I don't
think it's people something I've heard people asking for from the public But it is something we could
entertain if we feel there's a need to put that Out there. I would definitely like to see that I'll
put my two cents in yes I'd like to see it would be a simple thing to upload the order as a Separate
web page. You can find it as a URL separate from
Any packet having to go digging so and if we can connect it to the Transportation Commission site, I
think that would be useful We'll think about that in and follow up with you on that idea. Okay, I'm
gonna keep asking till you do it. So that's fair Also, can you include the date of issuance of the order?
in references to it from now on as well as the date that it takes effect and
Because you you refer to it in the narrative But it'd be nice if those two items like when was it issued
and when did it take effect? And we know that we can add 180 days. I I can they are on the subsequent
pages actually lists when they are issued and when they're in effect for but if it needs to be added
in another spot I'm just like in the title or in any listing of it just so people can see when it was
issued. Okay Any other mr. Flaherty Yes, thank you
The memo at the top notes that the practice has been to submit changes to the City Council
for the consideration as an ordinance that modifies applicable section of Bloomington Municipal Code
I'm sure you recall Sometime in the last year corporate Corporation Council Rice was opining that in
fact the City Council has no role to play legally in a lot of infrastructure things including stop signs and
And others and I never I don't think we've reached a resolution on that point necessarily if this is
better deferred for Someone else to answer or for a future meeting. That's perfectly appropriate. I'm
just curious if there are any updates by way of the administration's legal position, I guess on Whether
or not these types of things will be coming to council at all whether or not we are seeking a different
type of code overhaul that would remove them from city code and leave it purely in the kind of administrative
Responsibilities of the city engineer any updates on that front. No that great question I don't think
there are any significant updates to that. I think the City Corporation Council's opinions are out there
That being said it is somewhat unresolved on how things will move forward in the grand scheme If this
Commission would like we can certainly reach out to the legal department to see if they are able to
come to a future meeting and that be a topic on the agenda But that that's a possibility
Thank you Thank you. Yeah, we'll entertain that Let's move on now to one more question. Mr. Flaherty.
Sorry one more on the on 7th Street specifically Are we tracklet tracking and cycling volumes? Is that
something we're still tracking on 7th Street with respect to the 7 line, you know, I have to double-check but we do
Have a permanent bicycle counter on 7th Street, but I want to say I don't know the status because it
did have a malfunction Several months ago, and I'm not sure if that's been resolved. So I don't know
if we're actively getting data Currently, but we can always do short-term data points, but we don't
have anything right now But I'll look into the status of that permanent counter. Yeah, if you wouldn't
mind letting us know Yeah, if it's being resolved or not, I'd be curious of
If there's been an impact at all on a usership. Yeah, absolutely Further comments on this item or questions
Seeing none. Thank you. Mr. Seabour. We will move on now to an update on the City Commission parking
study who is here to present on this Is while welcome
Very distant, which one which one are you? Hello. Thanks for waving All right, well, please go ahead I
I will introduce them now. The first one is John and Mark, and the second one is Lauren all around.
If anyone wanna go ahead and take over, unmute, and go on camera, they're going to be providing you
with an update of the parking rate study that was started in March of this year. John and Lauren, are
you there? Yes, yes, yes.
I tried to undo my camera, but I can't share it. So you can't see me, but that's okay. Okay. I'm going
to share my screen. I'm going to leave it to them. Thank you. Can you guys see my screen? Okay. Okay.
Thank you. I'm Lauren Algram with Walker Consultants. I will jump right in. For some of the tasks that
we have completed, we have done a 32 question survey in collaboration with Bloomington Parking Services.
We did receive about 1,500 responses
and had 483 open comments. Additionally, we've held multiple stakeholder engagement sessions with 19
participants. We've also done a benchmarking analysis of five peer cities, as well as IU Bloomington.
We did select the cities based on population, region, and
proximity to a university. We've also done various site visits in spring, summer, as well as IU's move-in
week. We've observed the various parking facilities operations as well as utilization and had meetings
with parking services staff and the city clerk's office.
We did ask survey respondents to choose the option that they best identified with. You can see we got
a lot of other responses. Many of those were Bloomington residents. They just did not identify as a
downtown resident as well as Monroe County residents.
Some of the comments we received on the survey was that people felt that enforcement hours should be
reduced and that parking should be free on the evenings and weekends. People also really like the coin
option for paying for the meters and do not want to see that be taken away. And they feel that there
should be designated loading zones for the delivery drivers.
More than 77 percent of the respondents stated that they visited downtown at least once a week for dining
and retail purposes. Most respondents reported being in downtown Bloomington for one to two hours. Ninety-six
percent of downtown Bloomington visitors utilize their private vehicle.
And people mostly try to park on street at the meters and they pay for parking through all the various
methods credit card coins and park mobile that question did allow for respondents to choose multiple answers.
For the user experience, 35% of respondents felt that their experience and time to find a space was
good to excellent for on-street parking. For the city garages, that went up to 45%. We felt it's really
important to note that 28% of respondents do not utilize the city-owned garages. Many people reported
that they didn't know that the city-owned parking garages
and they did not know that the city garages were cheaper than on-street. John will talk about some of
the stakeholder findings. Sure. Thank you, Lauren. These are the in-person meetings that we had with
stakeholders, just summarizing the comments that were brought up. One, it was a common theme that everyone
acknowledged and
the importance of parking, public parking on the businesses. If there was a lack of accessible short-term
parking, it would be impactful on the customers. Some of the comments we heard were that ticketing,
the citation issuing, some people thought it was aggressive and they felt like if that could be a negative
experience to someone that's visiting,
they would not likely want to come back because of that. We did hear examples of that at some of the
meetings. It was also expressed that businesses are generally under some strain. Over the next five
years, there's some turnover, the potential turnover that was expressed and they felt like parking could
be a contributing factor to these businesses if they don't stay.
Um, and then just finally, uh, just kind of the, sorry, the, the, um, just some concerns about enforcement
and, and policies regarding rates and the benefit to the, uh, to the community. And some of the perceptions
we are, we kind of looked at that and said, okay, they were about profit. It's about making money, it's fines.
Parking is kind of a hassle, maybe confusing. And then kind of across the board, I use academic calendar.
That is definitely a factor. And I think that kind of sums those perceptions. Get the next slide. Okay,
here we go.
Um, and I think the, you know, some of the comments about policy enforcement, again, this, this picked
up on the, uh, how Bloomington may be different because the community, uh, with the, with the college
campus, the flexibility and in times, uh, and that aggressive enforcement, some people commented more
than one person commented about getting more than one citation a day. That was, that was definitely
perceived as negative. Um, and,
They've looked at the enforcement times. They thought they should be reconsidered. They felt they were
longer than they needed to maybe end at five or six instead of I think nine o'clock off the top of my
head. And then that overall transparency. So they wanted more information to be public facing. And then
as far as the infrastructure goes, we did hear some,
some messages were about the mobile app. The park mobile app was maybe inconvenient or inaccessible
to maybe older citizens or lower income residents. We heard that. Um, and then a lot of times they might,
they indicated the meters don't always work. That was seemed to be frustrating. They're the single space
meters that they're, they're definitely getting, uh, they've been around
since it was restarted, so their age is a factor. The garages, we heard that, hey, some people would
say, oh, we didn't even know that were garages. We already heard that in the survey. But maybe the signage,
maybe some concern of safety and unawareness of the cost. So the $0.50 an hour, that was not something
people were aware of. And then they talked about, we heard about the bike removal,
the parking for bike lanes on 7th Street that that was, didn't go over well. People weren't happy about
that. Okay. And then some of their ideas were maybe to have some free period. They talked about 15 to
30 minutes or maybe a little longer. So some free period of parking, they talked about
Maybe some in the summertime when IU students aren't in session actively to have some different rates,
lower rates, and maybe some kind of promotions, improving garage signage, and kind of mention maybe
a circulator to maybe improve circulation within the downtown. And then again, that data and making
that publicly available.
Thank you, John. I will review some of the findings from the benchmarking analysis. So the cities included
Ames, Iowa, Lawrence, Kansas, West Lafayette, Indiana, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Iowa City, Iowa. Bloomington
is the hashed lines on the graph. So population and enrollment is similar to these comparison cities.
Similarly the number of parking spaces Ann Arbor is a larger city they do have significantly more garage
spaces but otherwise Bloomington falls in line with the other cities.
Here are the enforcement hours. You can see Bloomington at the top in red has longer enforcement hours
than any of the other cities and just a couple hours shorter than IU Bloomington. The garage hourly
stay for average length of stay being two hours. Bloomington is lower than any of the piers.
The exception of Ames, Iowa is they do not have any garage spaces. Similarly, the off-street hourly
rate, Bloomington is lower. Again, with the exception of Iowa City, they do offer the first hour of
parking free and then it goes to $2 an hour. The off-street daily max,
Bloomington is higher than Lawrence and Ames, but lower than Ann Arbor and Iowa City for off-street
parking. If you were to park during the entire time of enforcement hours when a city requires parking,
Some cities do have a daily maximum. If you stay to a certain period of time, they wouldn't charge you
past that max. Or monthly garage rates. City of Bloomington does offer various monthly permits depending
on if you want to reserve space or not.
So you can see how they compare to these other cities. Again, Ames doesn't have any garage spaces, so
Bloomington has higher monthly rates than Lawrence, Kansas and West Lafayette, or sorry, higher rates
than those cities and then lower than Iowa City and Ann Arbor.
The monthly rates for surface lots, Bloomington only offers these monthly permits in lot five. West
Lafayette does not offer surface lot permits and you can see how the rates compare to the various cities.
Bloomington is a little bit higher than some and a little bit lower than others.
Or the on-street hourly rates, the dollar an hour. That's the same rates as Ames, Lawrence, and West
Lafayette, but is lower than Ann Arbor, Iowa City, and IU Bloomington. Citation fees for an expired
meter. Bloomington does have the highest citation fee.
Iowa City does offer a warning for your first violation and then has an escalated fee scale where the
more violations someone has, the higher the ticket price goes up. Our tasks in progress, we are almost
complete with the policy review, which includes looking at Title 15, comparing
Title 15 to these peer cities municipal codes, finding the best practices and that will allow us to
form our recommendations. We are working on a financial review to look at the parking services, revenues,
and expenses to identify areas of improvement and see where there's opportunities to enhance revenue
generation.
and providing cost estimates to implement the changes that we do recommend. Additionally, we're working
through an operations review for the various parking facilities, including the surface lots, garages
and on-street. We are reviewing the existing parking equipment and looking at the alternatives as the
parking meters are nearing the end of their useful life.
and doing an overall general operations review of the parking services department. And looking ahead,
we will complete the in-progress tasks this month. Next month, we will submit our recommendations, our
implementation plan and review the findings, and we'll finalize the report before the end of this year.
Thank you.
Report Yes All right, are there any comments or questions from commission members, I know I have some
Councilmember Flaherty sure first just could presentation slides be made available I suppose online
as well as sent to commissioners. That'd be helpful a second question just about the and thank you for
the presentation
What happens after the report's submitted? Will it be presented to this body as well? Will there be
some type of endorsement or approval sought? Will there be opportunities for feedback and potential
rounds of edits? What's anticipated following completion of the work underway? Yeah, I can take that.
I mean, it's issued as a draft, and then the process with the city, that's up to the city. We'll issue
it to Michelle Wall,
at the parking, that's who we report our findings to. And then that process is kind of, that's how it
gets reviewed, that's an internal process. But I would anticipate typically, we would have meetings
and discuss it, and certainly address questions that will come up. I guess, thank you, and I guess to clarify,
If staff want to weigh in on any of the questions I'm asking, if they are in a better position to answer
the question, please feel free. Yeah. Hi, this is Michelle again. Yeah, what will happen is this is
just like an interim report. And so once they give me more information with the financial on all the
other reviews that they're doing with our organization, then we will come back and update you. Absolutely.
I'm sorry. Can you clarify by internal report? Like will we see the final report and get a presentation
on it? Well that what's that? I'm sorry. I didn't hear Yes, okay. Thank you Questions other questions
from members Let me ask a couple first of all With respect to what mr. Flaherty just asked Can this
commission expect to have literal?
Input before the report is finalized or are you saying that this is a report of the parking services
department? As well Yes, so what will happen is this is an interim report once we get the next report
we will come to Come to you guys again Let you ask questions
And then, of course, there will be a review period that we will come to you before and discuss all these
concerns, if there's any concerns or issues, and then finally, if we agree on the recommendations, we'll
go to council. So you're saying that there will in fact be an opportunity for this body to have meaningful
input and make meaningful changes to the report before it goes to the council?
meaningful input I don't know about. It depends on what the changes you're requesting. Well, that remains
to be seen, I suppose. Correct. All right. Well, let's talk also about the individual stakeholders that
were consulted on this. You had a meeting on March 24th. Can you describe the individual stakeholders?
Can you characterize them at all?
Is there a list of the people you consulted? There is a list and it was all department heads and directors.
And clerks from the appeals office and I can supply you with the list. That's not an issue. Yes,
in fact, in addition to that list. I'd also like to ask that those slides be sent as soon as possible
to already online Steve.
They're under the webpage, our webpage under the parking review. What's that? Okay, very good,
thank you. You're welcome. Sorry? You're welcome. Okay. Does this commission count as a stakeholder?
Just to clarify.
Yeah, hey, Mr. Bowlin, Adam Ways and Public Works Director. I'm sorry, I couldn't be there in person
tonight at a high school athletic obligation for my daughter, but can you hear me okay? I'm going over
right now. Yes. Yeah, perfect. Hey, so yes, the Transportation Commission is absolutely a stakeholder.
It's why we came here tonight to give an interim update. We knew we had made some meaningful progress
on data collection, on peer community review,
and then wanted to let you all know what those next steps that Lauren outlined were as far as these
next phases. So we'll issue out any of the information up to this point. We do expect that you'll have
meaningful input and such. This is gonna make some big recommendations on technology uses,
on rate structures, on things like that.
Not everyone's going to agree on what is probably going to be presented as final information, but we
certainly value the Transportation Commission. Their input and you know, over these next 30 to 4560
days is a real big period of time where.
a lot of this information is going to come to light on the operations study on the financial impacts
of the financial review of the recommendations on different technologies and payment options and all
those different sorts of things. So we'll plan to come back probably not at your next meeting because
that agenda looks pretty full but then probably maybe in the November meeting and in the meantime be
sharing out the information that Walker is
able to so that you have the ability to start reviewing that and thinking about what input you want
to provide. I appreciate that context. I will point out that this body in its first two meetings has
Conceived for having three different types of items before it petitions resolutions and what planning
staff is called transportation inquiries or what we've together named and This seems to fall into that
third category and we're still talking about how to conduct a meeting to hear it But effectively it's
like a steering committee meeting or a if you recall the old committees of the whole I think that such a meeting
We would be more than happy to schedule a special meeting to address this because the topic is so big.
So if it would be amenable to us creating a meeting just to talk about this issue, I think it would
be in order. How do you feel about that? We certainly will take that under consideration, try to get
it scheduled soon.
We'll look at all the schedules and where we're at with the information from Walker and their next steps
and how far along they are and try to figure out the best time to make something like that happen Well,
we also have to schedule ourselves as well. So I hope that we'll do that in consultation with each other
That's what I mean. That's exactly what I mean. Great. All right. Thank you One last question for Walker
I noted that you had charts with the five peer cities that all had major universities. You also listed
IU Bloomington data. Did you study the data of the universities in those cities as well? It seems incongruous
to include IU if you don't also include the universities of the peer cities as well. Do you have that
data? No, we were looking at peer cities.
And then we were asked to include IU because it's right there on the campus. So we went ahead and did
that. We did not specifically go into details of each of the universities, only the, only the, we were
really focused on municipalities. That was the intent, but we were asked to go ahead and include the
IU campus since it's right here. Cause that would, oh, we knew that would come like a question because
it's right, right here in the same area.
and it's a missed opportunity, can we expand their remit slightly to have them go back and check the
status of the universities so that we can? I'm not sure that we'll be able to change the contract terms
and things like that to do that right now. We can talk with Walker, see what data points they collected
from IU and see if the information's readily available and see where it goes, but I can't commit to
anything right now in terms of changing the project scope without really digging deeper on what that means.
Okay, are there any other questions from members before we move on Mr. Coppock Is there is that broken
down into times of day and is that gonna be data that's available to us And when you say times a day
as far as the question goes I'm sorry like how much money do you bring in from?
seven o'clock to nine o'clock at night, say. Was that data that will be available? Like for each of
the peer cities? Just by Bloomington's. Oh, well, we're not necessarily doing a financial analysis.
This was, those comparisons were really just to focus in on how that rate compares. So again, we're not,
We're not necessarily doing a financial analysis, so that was not directly part of the scope. Rick,
this is Adam again. Mr. Coppock, we can definitely pull information from our own system and provide
that out, though, on how much the meters bring in different times of days and such. We can definitely
extrapolate that information. Thank you. We can make that part of a
the conversation at the special meeting we convene further questions from commissioners One
more councilmember Flaherty, thank you It sounds like I mean this is there were things in the slides
and in the presentation indicating I mean essentially this is a set of policy recommendations That will
be coming from this so there was mention of identifying best practices making recommendations and
Implicitly all of those things are underpinned by a set of value choices and I'm wondering where Specifically
those values if at all if those values are articulated our goals are articulated for what we're trying
to achieve with any policy changes I'm certainly familiar with the comprehensive plan and other You
know formal policy documents that define some of those things but often we need to go further the the
now defunct parking commission did have a
Policy framework that it adopted and used for a number of years as well. For example So yeah, just curious
a little bit more for a little bit more either from staff or the consultants are both about How we're
making those recommendations, I mean they don't They all follow from some value framework. What are
we trying to optimize for? Etc. So could someone please speak a little bit more to that? Thank you. I
Yeah I'll jump in here just to start and ask that Walker or Michelle and her team but yeah we can certainly
try to provide that framework of what we're trying to do here generally but I think it's to have an
efficient parking system that values all users and does it at a fair cost and tries to do it equitably
and all those things you know we can certainly make sure that that's part of a set of
how we frame where we come with these recommendations from, you know, we want to look at all the different
users and user types and try to balance that with the different needs of all the users. And so, yes,
we can certainly try to articulate that more formally as part of our reporting back and the conversations
with the Transportation Commission, even in those one in those, you know, stakeholder meetings we'll
have with you all.
Thank you and maybe for Walker and are you all familiar with all the formal policy statements of the
city of Bloomington with respect to parking policy like are those things you have in hand to help inform
your review of best practices and recommend any any policy recommendations Yeah, I think I think part
of what we know we've done is we have definitely reviewed, you know the code we've reviewed previous
reports and
I think some of the recommendations that we have kind of evolved around, let's make sure that that value
is documented and a clear statement. I think the findings that from the stakeholders that input that
a lot of the things we heard and in the survey too, we heard what people understood and how they use
the system, what they appreciated, what they liked. So we gained knowledge that way. And that then some
of the things that we heard
were didn't necessarily line up with what we thought we would say, hey, these are not issues. So the
comments that when we got in the stakeholder meetings about being aggressive, meaning the technology
doesn't work, that doesn't necessarily surprising because the age of the equipment. I will say, I do
personally, I focus on technology at Walker.
The equipment in the garages is the useful life for that line of equipment is ending, I think in 2027
is when the support ends. So there definitely needs to be a change. That's something that I don't think
it's a surprise, but if you're not in the parking technology realm, you may just look at that equipment
and say, oh, it looks okay to me.
But yeah, the company that sells it is not supporting it after 2027. So we know that this is gonna be
a change and the age of the single space meters, I followed the stories of over the years of the equipment,
because I've been at Walker 22 years, I was involved in a study, I don't know, 2007 maybe in Bloomington.
So I've definitely followed the story and I find it interesting
to see how it's evolved. So those comments are very helpful and in our report, the draft report will
definitely outline recommendations and policies in line with what we've read and understand. Thank you.
I'd like to just point out that in the packet for the Transportation Commission are a number of items
brought to us by staff that we'll be considering later. And each one comes with a staff report that,
and I just want to read to you the items, the way that staff, planning and engineering staff consider
each item is consistent with the city code that defines this commission. It calls for us to consider
four things in order.
They have to see if the proposed change is consistent with the comprehensive plan and other applicable
city adopted plans That's the first item Secondly is consistent with the best practices for eliminating
all transportation related fatalities and serious injuries within the city That's probably a lesser
concern for parking but still a concern number three is consistent with advancing a
a sustainable transportation system and equitable access to all transportation facility users while
prioritizing non-automotive modes. And that precedes the final concern, which has adequately conducted
public engagement and considered community-centric design tied to targeted outcomes. I note that this
presentation started with public opinion about parking, which is important, but it's not the sole concern,
and I believe that
this order which we're here to observe and act under would be useful to Walker as they continue their
study. We hope that the study takes into account all four of those items in that order. I see that Director
of Engineering, Andrew Seaborg, has come to the microphone. Please go ahead.
The way just to organize things for the Commissioner's sake and then and then I'll certainly follow
up with with parking services that their team is prepared but With that we're when we're just doing
staff reports. We haven't followed that outline, but when we ultimately are taking things that request
Action or vote by this Commission. We will be following that all things in your packet so
When this this parking study is likely to result in title 15 changes, which is certainly something that
will require action or a recommendation from this board So that packet would have to follow that so
I'll provide it to Walker and parking And there will certainly be more dialogue as they work to finalize
their report and then ultimately if there are recommendations this body will definitely have that chance
I appreciate that. I also just want to point out that it's not too soon to be asking for a
Everyone to be thinking in this way. That's why we're here. Absolutely. I appreciate you highlighting
that I'd also like to point Walker to the last complete study of the parking commission from 2018 which
goes into some more detail than I've heard I might expect from this report up to an including a financial
analysis not just of You know budgets but also of
You know meter transactions even in 2018 2019 Cash was dropping as a use and park mobile was booming
as a use. It's only gotten I mean, I've seen the data as all the way through 2022 and I know that that
was a consistent trend even during the pandemic so I think that they would find it interesting and I
recommend that they take a look at it while they're preparing their report and
If there are no other comments on this, we can move on. Any other comments? Thank you for the presentation.
Appreciate everyone being here. We hope to see you at a special meeting that we schedule as soon as
it can make it community for everybody. Let's move on now to a staff report on the quick build project
at 12th Monroe. I see Hank Duncan. Hello, my name is Hank Duncan, bicycle and pedestrian coordinator
in planning and transportation.
This is one of the fun projects we're working on in May of this year the Indiana Department of Health
division of nutrition and physical activity Awarded the city of Bloomington a $10,000 grant For their
tactical urbanism and demonstration grant to support a quick build project at the 12th in Monroe Street
intersection This project is designed to improve safety of children walking to and from Tri-North Middle
School the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington and other nearby destinations
Identified as a priority corridor in the city's safe streets for all action plan The project will reduce
pedestrian crossing distances through the installation of curb extensions Using delineated post and
parking blocks the city street department plans to complete installation This fall in 2025 and I'm happy
to answer any questions or comments you may have Are there any questions from mr. Duncan on my left
is Davis? Could you explain
little bit more about what the what curb ins what curb extensions and delineator posts and parking blocks
Look like sure, of course actually Kindle Kenoki our project engineer has been working on the concept
I don't know if you would like to come up and explain it a little bit more Sure thing Kendall Kenoki
engineering department
We have some park it parking blocks in storage that we've been trying to utilize and We first put them
out on East 3rd Street They didn't hold up super well in that environment. Mr. Kenoki. Can you what
is it? What is a parking block a parking block is? When you go and pull into a parking space This stops
you from moving all the way forward your tires. That's its primary design and use they have other uses
these are rubber parking blocks and
So in this case, we're using a combination of rubber parking blocks and delineator posts Which you also
see out on East 3rd Street right now about half of them been knocked down But there are they are out
there and this basically creates a space in the roadway that used to be Allocated to vehicles that is
now an area where pedestrians can occupy and vehicles have to slow down and go around
So in this case, it's a quick build more of an interim setup until a more permanent concrete Bump out
solution might happen or they can all be removed and the road can go back to what it was before so Miss
Davis, did you have a follow-up? Further questions I Have a basic one
Define quick build project. What does that mean? Sure, of course. So Essentially, this is any type of
project that is not made with permanent materials not concrete So there are different versions of this
some demonstration projects may last months three to six months quick build may last three to five years
essentially it provides that first step of seeing what this type of project will do in terms of changing
behavior changing safety along the street or intersection and
So if and when we have funding for a more permanent project, we have the answer already in hand We can
go in and do it without having to study it Wait, did you say that the quick build can last 35 years?
Sorry, three to five years Okay, but the permanent project supposed to last only six months So demonstrate
some demonstration projects depending on what type of material you use could last months. This could
last years Thank you. We got it further questions
Not thank you for the report. We appreciate it Let's move on now to the 2026 proposed budget update
who is presenting this item. Mr. Seabor I Guess I'll introduce myself again Andrew with city engineering
Just wanted to take this opportunity to provide the Commission an update on the city's draft budget for 2026
Really presenting this as you review the Commission's, you know, why does it exist? It's to review all
projects and to make recommendations about things like capital planning and program implementation So
just thought this was important to highlight Also just for those not into the weeds this year
the administration and City Council are working to rethink how the budget is presented it's kind of
an interim step as we work forward to the future and
But one of the major priority areas or buckets that the budgets being presented in is the transportation
bucket And so roughly that part of the city's budget comprises you could see roughly 33 million dollars
spread out between multiple departments and divisions within departments As in the pie chart that I've
taken much more is in the City Council's budget packet materials
And and within the transportation priority area multiple departments work together to develop a list
of projects that are basically underway this year in 2025 and then also projects that are anticipated
in 2026 Assuming the budget as presented was is approved. So Just wanted to provide this opportunity.
I know this Commission. This is our third meeting just wanting to at least put out there what we're
working on and if
Just give an opportunity to identify projects or topics that this commission wants us to go deeper into
I'm happy to answer any questions that you have Thank you for the report. Are there any questions from
commissioners? Am I the only one who's going to ask questions? All right. Well, first of all, could
we get something as simple as just a table of actual dollars and not just a percentage of things and
You say it's $33 million roughly, you know, where is the bulk of that money going? Which projects is
there any kind of breakdown like that? I think at least I think in the report had a link to the more
full packet that was presented to city council so that would get a more of a table format of Specific
dollars to departments and types of programs So so some of that is is embedded within there right now and
And does staff have any opinion about the next budget process and to what extent? This commission will
be involved in the setting of priorities. I Think at this point, we're just we're wanting to share this
information and curious for for Comments and questions as we move forward That's I guess my initial
answer I mean but you can understand why we might be interested in taking part in
Absolutely. And ultimately the the budget and the projects that are selected from my perspective are
Should be focused on implementing adopted plans that this commission would also be viewing. So so hopefully
there aren't major surprises But just to make sure that's that's the direction we're going forward Okay.
Well, I look forward to digging further into the budget packet to find the data. It's you say it's linked
here in the packet Yeah, I think it's that where it's a page we're seeing on that blue. I think it would
take you there. Okay, I see it great
Any further comments or questions? Let's move on. Thank you very much. Let's now move on to cases. Let's
start with resolution TCR 2505 parking on North Illinois Street. Is there someone who wants to introduce
it? Good evening, everybody.
My name is great style with the city engineering Jason who? Dries thank you Nice and close to the mic
appreciate it this time with the city engineering department, so We received multiple Concern about
illegal parking on the west side of Illinois Street between 12 and 15 Street and one of the main issues
was vehicle blocking the stop and
the bus stop, which creates problems for buses and for riders trying to board safely. And the current
situation is on the west side. Signed no parking, but drivers still park there frequently. And on the
east side, parking is legal, but cars often park too close to the intersection blocking sight line.
Enforcement in the neighborhood is limited. So the current restriction are not working as Intended so
that's why we proposed on the west side the blunt No parking signs and alone when parking except at
the bus stop Where new no parking sign will be installed like like it's shown on the west side of Illinois
Street in the plane there
and on the east side we will keep parking legal but Add short no parking buffers at intersections to
improve visibility for the traffic so and the benefits of that this will improve safety at intersections
at the bus stop and it provides more legal parking for residents and it might also help with traffic
calming sense and
Cars park on both sides can visually narrow the roadway and slow the driving drivers down So and I also
want to highlight something to the commissioners so When it comes to parking restrictions when we install
no parking sign It requires an ordinance update this by city cool and
So it's reflected in the city code, Title 15. But when we install or extend the yellow curve, that doesn't
go through council and it's not COVID-19. So anyway, I will go back to that. From resident perspective,
signs are more effective because curves can fade or covered by snow.
by snow so while signs are visible year-round and clearly communicate the rules and this Illinois project
Is a good example where both yellow curb and Signs will work together, but signage provides the long-term
Clarity needed for residents and for the enforcement. I will stop here, and I'm happy to answer any
questions may you have
Thank you. Are there questions for this case? Mr. Midas not a question just a comment that this has
been reported for us for a few years So I really appreciate staff looking at it if and then if this
is not the ultimate solution I know there's a possibility for also installing some sort of bus island
That would potentially provide more parking in the future, but I'm very happy with this as a as a solution.
Thank you. I
We're still on questions here. Any questions from commissioners? Mr. Flaherty yet to thank you. Thank
you for the presentation. First is em this My assumption is this will increase the number of Legal parking
spaces on the street or is that right? Correct and the west side there's no parking right legally currently
but alright in practice Yes, but that's if we do that project. Maybe we'll give more spaces parking legal
Yeah, even with the additional yellow line extensions for sight distance. Yes side Excuse me. Do you
want me to? Why we extended on the east side. Oh, I don't think I think I understand the rationale.
I was just confirming the net Gain of parking. The second question was just is this based on like the
street with Does this make it function a bit more like a queuing street where you wouldn't necessarily
be able to fit a
Parked-car two cars passing and another parked car all at the same time Like I'm guessing is that has
that something that has come up has been looked at so These were measured in the field by engineering
staff so the length correspond to intersections side distance or the best clearance for from our measurement,
so I'm pretty sure the road it's
Will be like Can to traffic or to vehicle pass fine there? Gotcha, I'm not sure I 100% followed but
Isn't that the definition of a queuing Street? Oh, maybe I just misunderstood. I don't maybe you someone
could define queuing Street I Do I colloquially define killing the street as maybe we should have an
engineer definition instead as one where it's uncomfortable potentially impossible for two cars to pass
one another if fully parked out and so that you have to wait a moment for your oncoming neighbor to
to pass Prior to it like like how street is one that I'm familiar with which is functions a bit like
a queuing street Based on a relatively narrow width for instance Which is generally positive for safety
and speeds Yeah, I think so again Andrew
I think there is a fair likelihood that where parking exists on both sides It will feel very narrow
and likely would function as a queuing street Given there's some back and forth on each side of the
street and with driveways that those pinch points will be pretty narrow or limited but but ultimately
We are supportive of having that is that people are already parking there now but also We think it's
it has that safety benefit from a traffic calming perspective. Okay. Thank you. I
further questions on this case Okay, I don't have any others should we go to public comment on this
it's time for let's go open the floor to public comment on case number TCR 2505 if If you want to speak
you must sign in before being recognized by the chair and you're limited to one three-minute term turn
per issue and
Direct dialogue or questions are not permitted. All remarks must remain respectful. Zoom participants
may use the raise hand feature to be called on to speak. Is there anyone in the room who would like
to speak to this case? Is there anyone online? No? Last call for public comment on this case.
Seeing none, we'll come back to the commission for debate. If there's any final comment.
This might have started weighed in on behalf of transit to anyone who has any thought to my left to
my right Seeing none. Let's call the question on case TCR 2505, please call the roll I'll have the vice
chair do it from now on go to just make a motion to adopt this recommendation
Second second we have motion to second, please call the roll Bowlin yes Flaherty yes Davis. Yes Stossburg.
Yes Copic yes Sturmitis. Yes That's adopted 6-0
We now move on to the next item I've moved to introduce the next item TCR 2506 parking on West 8th Street
Maple Street to Roger Street Second I Appreciate that you actually don't have to do that one But I appreciate
well, we're gonna do it now anyway, so yeah, that's fine. Please present mr. Robling Thank You Ryan
robing planning services manager
Planning and Transportation Department the city received a request from the second Baptist Church Which
is 321 North Rogers to extend the limited parking zone on West 8th Street from two hours to four hours
You can see that here on the map. Hopefully everybody can see that. Oh, it didn't do it the way I wanted
to So from two hours to four hours so
This would be on the 500 and 600 blocks of West 8th Street between North Roger Street and North Fairview
Street there again currently a two-hour on-street parking from 8 a.m. To 5 p.m. Monday through Friday
with an exception for residents who own Hold a zone 10 residential permit and they would be able to
mark park 24 7 regardless of the rule change so the Proposal here would change
roughly It would sorry it would modify the two-hour limit to a four-hour limit on the north side of
West 8th Street between Rogers and Jackson and on the south side for the entirety between North Rogers
and Fairview we reached out to the Elementary school and have not heard comment back so we did we did
receive that they heard our
But haven't heard any comment one way or the other So with that we have some proposed findings
the transportation plan identifies this portion of West 8th Street as a neighborhood residential And
gives guidance to allow for unmarked on-street parking the comprehensive plan in currency it encourages
the expansive use of on-street parking in the downtown in mixed urban or mixed urban residential areas
of which this is both and
It is consistent with the best practices for eliminating all transportation related fatalities and serious
injuries within the city well utilized on street parking Has a traffic calming effect by creating side
friction that narrows travel lanes as we were just kind of speaking about this portion of West 8th Street
is approximately 34 feet wide and accounts which accounts for 20 foot travel away and seven to seven
foot parking lanes so while this typical cross-section
Is up for it is a typical cross-section for neighborhood resident residential streets. It is unusual
for streets without consistent on-street parking So this change will allow for more consistent on-street
parking as it will not have to turn over every two hours It is consistent with advancing the sustainable
transportation system and equitable access to all transportation facility users So while on-street parking
does not directly advance sustainable transportation
or prioritize non-automotive modes of transportation. It does provide for safety benefits through traffic
calming and providing buffering between travel ways and integral sidewalks, or occasionally referred
to as monolithic sidewalks. So this will provide an additional buffer between people on the sidewalk
and the roadway. And finally, has adequate, has this petition has adequately conducted public engagement
and considered community-centric design tied to targeted outcomes.
Again staff contacted Fairview Elementary, but have not heard back and then oh of note though 20 neighborhood
resident residential permits are allotted for Fairview Elementary Employees and that's not proposed
to change with these rules and the proposed changes will not affect portions adjacent to residential
properties only to the commercial and Elementary school
So with that staff recommends the Transportation Commission adopt the proposed findings and forward
the resolution for an amendment to section 15 32 0 8 0 Related to the four-hour limit on West 8th Street
with a positive recommendation and I can answer any questions Thanks for the presentation are there
questions from commissioners on this case Mr. Flaherty Thank you
I believe you just articulated some proposed findings, but if I'm not mistaken, I don't think those
are in our packet They there was an updated packet. There was an error in the packet. If you refresh
it, it should work now Okay, I think I did see that email go out this afternoon and I will I will do
that now I do have a second question if that's okay which is Have we just thought about removing these
sections of street from zone 10 neighborhood and parking zone which I
Best of my recollection is like sort of massively undersubscribed relative to the available spaces already
Great question. We did not in this petition. It is something we are considering long term though We
it did spark a conversation about zone 10, but we haven't resolved that we wanted to address this one
As the church has been waiting a bit for a while now Got it. Thank you Further questions to my right
to my left I
Did did you look at the? Performance of the block of West HG that has meters on it like just west just
east of Rogers is a tiny meter zone Because that might also give you an indication of how much is used
in the block to the west of it We did not look at that for this petition no that was there any
Data collected like any Spot checks of how many cars were parked at a given place at a given day. Yes
staff did go out and look for vehicles We did not it was unfortunate that it was not school year. So
we had a handful of residential but didn't see any along the elementary school or Commercial properties
just to be clear you saw no use of the parking at all during went out to look at it
Yes during the two spot checks again, that was not during the school year. So I don't know how reliable
that is long term Further questions before we go to public comment Seeing none, let's go to the public
if you'd like to speak Please sign in you'll have three minutes
Hello, my name is Daniel Pierce I'm not here for this topic, but I do have children who attend Fairview
Elementary and I can say that that stretch of 8th Street is used for the drop-off line and pick up and
drop-off line And there is I personally do use the parking along that street when picking up and dropping
off my children So I know there is no response from the school, but I know that that is a
the state of things there Thank you Thank you Is there further public comment if there's somebody online
who would like to speak you may use the raise hand feature in zoom to be called on to speak I See no
other speakers in the room. That's anybody online last call for public comment on Case number TCR 2506
Seeing none, let's move on
Debate are there any final comments on this case is presented To my left To my right I'll say a couple
things first of all I Think it's safe to say that we would like to see data If you have data that should
be part of the staff report any data and if data isn't
I mean, in the case of a neighborhood parking where it's not easy to get data because we don't have
meters tracking it, some kind of collection. I know that we collect traffic speeds, and I mean, we might
want to talk about what would be a simple, pragmatic way for staff to collect data, but it's better
than ANIC data. Nevertheless, I also take to heart the
of this particular neighborhood zone. I mean, the neighborhood zones all were started in reaction to
people commuting to IU, and zone 10 was the first zone that skipped over downtown, and it might have
been an overreaction. And something that I think that we need to think about, the commission and staff
need to think about how to evaluate neighborhood zones.
The last I knew from the parking commission five of the ten remaining neighborhood zones were undersubscribed
and five were oversubscribed and it might lead to an assumption that we should change the price in those
zones that are Undersubscribed to be lower and the ones that are oversubscribed to be higher so Something
to think about when we take that I take that it was a transportation inquiry I
Having said that, if there's no other comment, can we please call the roll on TCR 2506? You still have
to make a motion. Sorry. We did that at the beginning. No, you have to make a motion to adopt the proposed
findings, if that's what your goal is. Sorry. I move that the Transportation Commission adopt the proposed
findings and forward the resolution for an amendment to section 16 to council with a positive recommendation.
Second there's your motion. Thank you. I appreciate it Clerk, please call the roll Flaherty, yes Davis
Yes Stossberg, yes Copic yes Sturmitis. Yes Boland. Yes That is adopted six zero Do I hear a motion
for the next item?
I move that we hear the TCP 2507 for Resident led traffic calming program on West 11th Street Second
we have motion in a second here to present apparently is Hank Duncan Hi again, Hank Duncan bicycle and
pedestrian coordinator
The resident-led traffic calming program provides Bloomington residents with the opportunity to request
and shape traffic calming measures in their neighborhoods. Applications require signatures of support
from adjacent residents and letters of support from neighborhood associations or community organizations.
Applications for 2025 were reviewed and scored using the program's criteria, which prioritize safety,
demand, and equity.
Out of the four complete applications the West 11th Street corridor received the highest score and was
therefore the highest priority location for the 2025 program After sending mailers to nearby residents
hosting a public meeting at the boys and girls club Publishing an online comment form and coordinating
with other stakeholders like try North Middle School EMS and Bloomington Transit City staff narrowed
on a concept that reduces the posted speed limit from 30 to 25 miles an hour and
which will implement three sets of speed cushions along the project area to slow motor vehicle speeds
and encourage safer pedestrian crossings. Staff recommends that the Transportation Commission adopt
the proposed findings, approve this project concept, and forward the proposed amendment to section 15.24.020
of title 15 related to the posted speed limit on West 11th Street to the City Council with a positive
recommendation.
I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you, Mr. Duncan. Are there questions on this item from commissioners?
To my left. To my right. I have one question. I see a bump out for a mid-block crossing there, and I
wonder if that
I mean, this is a neighbor with monolithic sidewalks Can that bump out be made big enough to put a tree
in? So the bump out that you're describing at Blair Street Currently so that currently exists that was
a part of a crosswalk program a couple of years back and
Essentially what this project attempts to enhance is the pedestrian crossing at that specific crosswalk
You have a lot of children and students walking to and from China North Middle School at that crosswalk
and so with this project two of the three sets of speed cushions are Alongside that crosswalk to slow
down traffic there That tree plot exactly. I don't know the width of it, but it looks to be about
Three-feet wide maybe for max which would be too narrow for a tree that said I can still talk to our
senior environmental planner to Discuss that possibility. I guess what I meant was can we is it perhaps
possible to make it policy that tree plots added to monolithic sidewalks be widened enough that it could
conceivably have trees in them because it's not actually a tree plot as it is and
Yes, so in general, yes, absolutely. We support that for this specific location Again, this was a project
that was done before I came into this position but I believe the width was of this mid-block crossing
was designed to allow for Narrowest streets but not so narrow that it detracts from EMS accessibility
transit service, etc Thank you
The other question I had was about can you in the prioritization scores for the different blocks that
applied? You have an item called walk potential. Can you please define walk potential? Yes, and actually
I might pass this off to Commissioner Stossberg who developed this Commissioner Stossberg, I believe
you have something to contribute to this discussion. Yes so this walk potential metric defines Pedestrian
demand throughout the city
by looking at 20 different categories of interesting destinations which you might want to walk to. Could
be a barbershop, church, various things. And the more categories of interesting amenities that are nearby,
the higher your walk potential. This is not a metric for comfort, for walk, what you might call walkability.
So it's useful in a planning context because you can
Use it to locate places where you say this has a lot of potential There's a lot of things that
are interesting nearby to walk to but yet the sidewalk is missing or it's in poor condition or so forth
so the there were four given here two of them including the block we're considering Where it had a score
of four point six seven one had a score of eleven point six seven one at a score of fourteen What is
the maximum possible walk potential? so
If you use the wrong number of categories, there's about 20 In some in some context you might scale
it to 100% So I don't know in which well, I mean how was this used was it used as out of 20 or out of
100 or what? This was used. Let me look at the rubric if I can pull that up because every category has
a specific weight to it and Essentially if that block is
Had a walk potential of a hundred that it would have received the full weight of that category. Yeah,
oh The blue in ten-minute walk score rubric and it's up to 14 points. Yes, so the highest score is 14
points if that project area had a walk score of a hundred and The entire partition score is out of a
hundred points. Yes. Okay, very good. So this one scored at 86 percent and
Seven versus 1752 and it was a pretty easy choice. Yes The last one was only scored at 21 percent. Is
that because there were no measurement of motor vehicle speeds there? Because it says motor vehicle
speeds of zero on North Woodburn Avenue between 17th and Vaughn Clipway Yes, so that was an interesting
case where? actually half of the street is privately owned half of it is publicly owned and so
While we would like to Implement some type of traffic calming that it's just not a feasible street in
this process to do so got it But that people applied to have that street be calmed. Mm-hmm. What did
you advise them about? I mean they must have been dismayed by this very low score so essentially what
I recommended them and I actually did this myself a couple of years ago when they first applied is attempt
to contact the
that multifamily complex along the street that takes care of a maintains the street and I wasn't able
to actually reach anybody with influence in that After many phone calls quite honestly, but that that
would have been my right that was my recommendation to those residents to Contact them about traffic
calming on that part of the street. Thank you Any further questions before you go to public comment?
Seeing none, let's go to the public for comment on case TCP 2507. If there's anyone in the room who'd
like to speak, please come to the mic, sign in. If you're online, please raise your hand in Zoom. You'll
have three minutes. Seeing nobody in the room, there's anybody online. Last call for public comment.
Coming back to the commission,
Are there any is there any debate on TCP 2507? Am I right? On my left Seeing none is there a motion
I Move that the Transportation Commission adopt the proposed findings and for the proposed amendment
to section 15 To counsel with a positive recommendation second a motion and a second will the
Whoever is acting as the clerk, please call the roll Secretary secretary. Sorry. No, you're okay Davis
Yes Stossberg, yes Copic. Yes Sturmitis. Yes Boland. Yes Flaherty. Yes TCP 2507 is adopted six zero.
Let's move on to the next item. I
I move to discuss TCR 2508, Hopewell West and related code updates. Second. We have a motion and a second.
Here to present is Mr. Kenoki. Thank you, commissioners. Good evening. Kendall Kenoki, engineering
department. So I'm here to present to you the Hopewell West Jackson and Rogers Street project, specifically
under your consideration tonight.
Amendments to the Bloomington Municipal Code. So first is to amend schedule a of 15 12 10 to add a stop
sign on the new Jackson Street and then the second item is to amend the 15 32 100 schedule Oh loading
zone to add a loading zone on Jackson Street, but wanted to give you a overview of the project so this
is the first phase of the build out of the Hopewell West site and
Which is the site of the former IU Health Bloomington Hospital. This is the Site where the main hospital
building was if you remember the old hospital site the primary purpose of this phase of construction
is to build infrastructure to support the redevelopment of the former core administration building which
is now redeveloped into the core community flats, which is an affordable housing project and
A ready grant was received from the Indiana Economic Development Council or committee or something the
IEDC 1.8 million dollars so a large portion of our construction and design costs were covered by that
grant which was great and this includes the construction of a new block of Jackson Street adjacent to
the core building so just west of the Project there you see that new street
Within the orange outline that is the new section of Jackson Street There's also a new alley to the
north of the core building. It goes about halfway That's part of this project and then the entire length
of South Roger Street So everything's being built per the current transportation plan standards. So
Roger Street is getting protected bike lanes and
A new 10-foot wide sidewalk and five foot wide tree plot on the west side, which is where the subdivision
is First street was recently reconstructed in accordance with their transportation plan and Jackson
Street is a new street It's being constructed in accordance with their transportation plan. So Again
the item for you all tonight is those two changes to the Bloomington municipal code so I will go ahead
and read the
Recommendation here. Excuse me, give me a moment here. There we go.
Staff recommends that the Transportation Commission adopt the proposed findings and forward the resolution
for an amendment to schedule a Stop intersections and schedule Oh loading zones of title 15 to the council
with a positive recommendation Happy to answer any questions. Thank you Thank you for the presentation
Are there questions from commissioners on? the measure under consideration To my right To my left
So just to be clear, these are streets that are being, I'm looking at the diagram, this is a street
that's being added, right? Yes, South Jackson Street and the alley are new streets. And they don't have
any controls on them yet and you're just asking for the controls to be put in? That's correct, yes.
Thank you. Mr. Flaherty.
Further the rationale with the alley not extending through to Rogers the East West alley there Yeah,
I that was a decision that was made before my time at the city But I believe there were issues with
the grading to get that to connect at the time I can find out more for you if you'd like the as in the
differential in height between Rogers and we're okay. Yes. Thank you Any further questions
Seeing none, we'll go to the public for a comment on TCR 2508. If there's anyone in the room who'd like
to speak, please come to the mic, sign in. If you're on Zoom, please raise your hand and you'll be called
on. You'll have three minutes. I see no takers in the room. Do you see any takers online? Last call
for public comment on TCR 2508. Seeing none, we'll come back to the commission for a debate.
Any comments to my left? To my right. Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion. I move that the Transportation
Commission adopt the proposed findings and forward the resolution for an amendment to Schedule A for
stop intersections and Schedule O for loading zones of Title 15 to counsel with a positive recommendation.
Second. Motion and a second. There's no objection. Will the secretary call the roll? Stossberg. Yes.
Topic. Yes. Strabitis. Bowlin. Yes. Flaherty. Yes. Davis. Yes. That's adopted 6-0. That completes our
cases for tonight. We now move to discussion of topics not on the docket. Does any member have any item
they'd like to bring up? Mr. Coppock.
Asked Andrew maybe about if they've ever looked at the intersection of third and college for traffic
accidents Someone asked me to bring it up because they have quite a few accidents there And wondered
if that had ever been looked at for any possible way to remediate those Yeah, I feel like I've gotten
that question before and I wish I had a better memory than I do but I know that intersection is is has
been looked at and
I also know I have a great team that almost every day checks to see any note significant crashes that
have happened throughout the city I also know there's a lot of changes coming at that location Beyond
the convention center. There's there's also the college and walnut corridor study. So so really right
now from my perspective Looking forward to further discussion on that that upcoming course already and
expect this commission to get an update in the coming months on that as well
Thank you. I must confess. I thought he said third in college mall and so I thought that's a that's
another state state highways, but is there a handy list of Crash like data like the top ranking crashes
easily found There is the city or excuse me the Bloomington Metro Bloomington Monroe County Metropolitan
Planning Organization recently launched
A crash dashboard which has a map of all the crashes that have taken place in the last five years It
also has a bunch of interesting data like highest risk intersections So you can look on that online.
I'll link it to the Transportation Commission website. I'll also send it to you all and that's not just
state roads That's all roads in the city every road in the county. Well, that's wonderful. Yeah, that's
wonderful Any other items for discussion I've got one or two
Mr. Flaherty just briefly when we were speaking about parking earlier and and some other things we were
talking about to head occasion to revisit city code for that authorizes this commission and spells out
its duties and just wanted to remind us to that we've got an Item d7 which is to produce or oversee
an annual analysis of parking asset management Including when I limited to reporting all costs and revenues
for city-owned structured parking surface parking meter parking neighborhood zones, etc
Documenting real utilization rates including longitudinal trends conducting or contracting for parking
data analytics and recommending changes to that system based on our city goals And I did have to miss
a meeting earlier of this Commission So I don't know if we've discussed this at all yet, but like that's
a big undertaking. It's probably one that will entail some resourcing to have Consultant support is
my guess that we don't have that in house capacity necessarily or expertise
but this was an important part of the formation of this this Commission to make sure that we weren't
going to lose Some of the really valuable data that the parking Commission produced an analysis Even
if had we had fallen behind based on the the sheer magnitude of that Work to produce it. So just wanted
to bring that to our attention. I know we got started halfway through the year here and
Maybe it's not feasible this year. I don't know but we do need to be thinking about it and proactively
planning for how we're gonna get there. Thanks Is there any discussion of this item? Does any commissioner
have a new thought? I'll just want to echo mr. Flaherty then I note that it sounded it did not sound
like the Walker study was going to do as much as what mr. Flaherty just described and
and so we are a little late to their show and I hope that we can still get them to Consider some of
the things that is our remit But I appreciate you bringing that to our attention and I would like to
you know to talk with staff administratively about how we can organize to produce that kind of report
Any other items from commissioners
Mr. Oh, how about the well ahead before you do that? I think mr. Robling had something to say about
all this. Oh Let's go to let's go to mr. Coppock first mr. Coppock you reference it close to the mic,
please you reference the 2018 study on parking is that available online? it's on the old parking Commission
website, we will endeavor to make sure that it and other items from the
Preceding commissions the traffic and the bikebed Commission get linked onto the Transportation Commission
site as soon as possible Again another thing for an administrative session to try to get all this data
planned Mr. Robling Yeah, I just we planning and transportation is having a couple of upcoming meetings
the noteworthy one before the next meeting is the 10th Street safety improvement project and
We will be meeting at 530 on 10th Street at mr. Copy if you're familiar with that It is 501 East 10th
Street. It'll start at 530. We'll have some proposed designs Engineered designs to go over with the
public. So if you're interested come on out, thank you Thank you other items for discussion of topics I
One question I have is is there a master list of all the corridor studies that are currently? That have
been done or being done and if so, we're the ones that are done available. Are they on the engineering
website or Planning corridor studies would be on the planning and transportation website. We haven't
completed any as of yet, but once we get that Completed they'll start to come online on there
How about past studies? I think there was a self-wallet study for example years ago Oh sure, we could
go back that far. Absolutely. We could link those actually that would already be on the planning and
transportation plan or excuse me planning and transportation department Clearing house page, but I can
update that and link it on the Transportation Commission webpage Finally I wanted to ask I know that
I spoke with Commissioner drama Johnny before this meeting and I had a similar request both of us have
observed that
Near where we live an example of a place that could use attention in the way that we had with case TCR
2505 tonight there's a block that could use a sign not just a yellow curb that there's a Visibility
problem where there's a lack of a crosswalk or something and we both had the same sort of Loathing to
to put it forward because we live near it and
And yet we also want other people to bring forward such ideas. So I don't know if there's any discussion
to be had except maybe administratively how to do it, but I'd like to propose that somebody look at
the corner of University and Henderson. He'd like to propose somebody look at Smith Road near Hoosier
Acres and Gentry, that there's no crosswalk there. These are not formal requests yet.
We don't know how to proceed or what staff has in mind for Addressing such concerns and how can we then
teach the public to use this process? We have yet to create Mr. Seabor Yeah, I think the the answer
I usually give is I encourage the public to use the city's you report system that's I think the best
weight for the public and for staff to be able to track requests and
And to initiate discussion and in some of the cases I think that you saw today started as a you report
so so that so that's my first thing then where I would point most folks to as commissioners, I'd also
suggest that We are staff here to support you and so you're more than welcome to shoot us an email as
well And we'll follow up with that Okay. Thank you very much Any other
Discussions for the topics of topics not on the docket. I Just asked for I can report that I submitted
the you report yesterday and before 9 a.m. Today I had an initial reply and by 11 it was resolved and
my experience was submitting your reports over the year has has always been positive in their received
prompt attention, so Our government is working well for us in that regard and I I second the recommendation
to use your report if you
find something in our city that needs fixed. Thank you. Ms. Davis. Mr. Robling, I wonder if you could
say again what exactly is happening at Mr. Copy on 10th Street. Also, and I'm asking because I don't
believe Mr. Copy is accessible if one had to go inside for whatever is happening.
Okay, great question. It is outside so it should be accessible and there will be no cars in the parking
lot I mean you can park in the parking lot is what I mean It'll be after the minister copy closes. We
are that there's a 10th Street Safety improvement project that is taking place. It is between Kendall's
not here so I can't double-check with him park and let's say Rogers, but that's not right. It must be Morton so
There is a it's a high priority stretch in the safe streets in roads for all safety action plan So we've
prioritized this as a potential project and so we have some improvements that We are looking to complete
and this is the second public meeting So this is the first where we come with a roughly engineered design.
It's not a hundred percent design It's more of a thirty percent design of what we're thinking is
To get feedback from the public and like I said that will be on September 22nd at 530 in the mr. Carver
copy parking lot Okay, did you have any follow-up I Guess no. No, you're good. All right Let's go now
to general public comment on items not on the docket if there's any member of the public who would like
to speak to the Commission on a topic we've not already brought up today, please sign in and
And you'll have three minutes Good evening, my name is James Ferguson. I am representing the petition
for the Blue Ridge Community the last meeting We discussed this petition which was originally Presented
to the old
Commission which was dissolved immediately after We presented this and I know there was interest from
this Commission to See the minutes and possibly somehow get those approved but in barring that I have
brought the copy of the petition and the proposals for the
the changes to North Walnut Street that we are asking for it Came to our attention that Planning or
engineering department had done a study and determined that the light was not something that was necessary
Although we're still hopeful and pushing towards that goal because there are the speeds on North Walnut
Street and
Excessive there have been well, let's see just from the data one of our constituents found for the last
four years there was three rear-end accidents one side swipe and One person ran off the road. That's
in the last from 2019
Previous to that, there have been multiple other accidents in that region, which I presented a list
of accidents, et cetera, et cetera, and there had been at least one fatality at that intersection. So
we are very concerned about the safety of this intersection. We've noted the changes that the engineering
has come up with as far as adding two dedicated turn lanes.
to that intersection, although in our proposal we are requesting for two more dedicated. One is a shared
right turn lane which would share the current bicycle lane that turns into Blue Ridge. This would make
it much safer for people to turn into Blue Ridge because right now people are illegally using
Bike lane as a turn lane because they're afraid they're going to get rear-ended and I don't know how
many times I Personally have had people honking and road rage kind of situations while trying to turn
into our neighborhood And the other one is a dedicated turn lane into the chiropractic center, which
is just north of the visitor center And that is because they too have had accidents and near misses quite
Often in that location. So if you would like I will present you with this information give to the secretary
and thank you for it and let me just say that for anyone who might want to present a petition in this
way that that that he's done it in the proper way and that Commissioners can can take up the petition
and ask to put it on the agenda as they see fit. We have 134 signatures now
Voting age residents. Thank you. Thank you for your thank you very much your comment. Is there any other
public comment? Please come to the podium sign in and state your name If you've already signed in that's
okay, okay Yes, my name is Dana Pierce. Hello again I'm here in support of the safety improvements that
mr. Ferguson was just talking about walnut and Blue Ridge I'm a resident of Blue Ridge petition
My experience with that intersection is that, in particular, turning towards Bloomington out of Blue
Ridge does not feel safe. And it has become routine for me to not use that intersection when traveling
into Bloomington, even at times when that would be the most convenient and the most expedient way to
get to my destination. For example, when taking my children to school at Fairview,
Taking the route that goes on North Dunn Street adds at least two minutes, if not more, to the travel
time and an additional half mile of distance, but I don't feel safe, especially at rush hour times of
the day to drive with my children trying to turn left at the intersection. So yeah, I support safety
improvements at the intersection, particularly when turning out of
Blue Ridge heading towards Bloomington. Thank you Thank you. So any other public comment on items that
are not already on the docket? Please come to the podium sign in and state your name. You'll have three
minutes Hello, my name is Carrie Floyd my husband if you could please bring the mic down close to it.
Thank you. I
Okay. Hello. My name is Carrie Floyd My husband Kevin and I live in the Blue Ridge neighborhood and
we are concerned over the safety of the intersection of North Walnut Street and East Blue Ridge Drive
Walnut Street is heavily traveled and the cars are often going very fast This makes turning onto Walnut
Street from Blue Ridge Drive dangerous at times, especially when making left turns Kevin and I are cyclists
and we use the existing bike lanes on Walnut and
It's challenging and scary sometimes to make a left turn onto Walnut Street going across two lanes of
traffic. I hope you all consider putting in a traffic light and make this intersection safe. It's a
dangerous place for cyclists as well as cars. Thank you. Kevin Floyd, Kerry's husband.
Yeah, we do cycle out of Blue Ridge, and it's quite challenging to get across. I don't know how pedestrians
would get across there. I guess there's no way for a pedestrian to get across the street. Now,
on game day, that's a whole other story. This Walnut gets just clogged up, and it's almost impossible
to get out onto Walnut safely.
on game days. Usually if I know there's a game, I just plan on just staying home during that time. The
proposal they've got now of putting in a double turn lane on Walnut, that only encourages the traffic
to keep flowing, so it doesn't do anything for people making a left turn out of Blue Ridge. A stoplight or
or some kind of at least signage saying there's a street there and traffic coming out because there's
nothing and a stoplight would be the safest thing. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any public comment
from people watching online? Please raise your hand in Zoom and staff will call on you. This is on
Items not on the docket Any takers last call for general public comment Seeing none this period is closed.
We now go to just matters of schedule the next meeting of the Transportation Commission is Monday October
20th at 530 in this room and I want to encourage anyone who has a
Done like the residents of Blue Ridge to make their concerns known to an individual commissioner if
they know them can send email to transportation.commission at Bloomington.in.gov to contact this commission
generally with any concerns they might have and we will consider it in forming the next agenda. Is there
any other any other announcements from members? Seeing none this meeting is adjourned.