- And welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annaliese Poorman. At the Monroe County Election Board meeting on August 7th, County Clerk Nicole Brown detailed new voter registration laws that have recently taken effect. The other thing, the two bills that seem to be the most, provide the most heartburn, House Bill 1679, which
- to touch on in a little bit but it's about the non-citizen people who have been issued temporary credentials as we are implementing that law which became effective June 1st. There's some heartburn in the community. Again, this is your legislative body. We are just
- that we're doing our best to wrap our arms around this new legislation and implemented as it was intended. But essentially it says you have 30 days to prove your citizenship. And so as I understand from Ms. Kiley, letters were sent out to all of the voters that were flagged in our statewide voter registration for having the temporary credentials.
- some people as i understand it have already come in to bring their proof of citizenship and as we look at as the iu students begin to make their way back to bloomington i just think it's going to be imperative we always remind you and we always encourage you to check your voter registration status on indianavotors.com or indianavotors.gov you know so that if there are any changes
- you want to make sure to address that in this non-election year so that by the time we are ready for the off presidential elections next year, we're ready to roll. And the final legislative thing that I want to bring to your attention, again, as the students are coming, Senate Bill 10.
- That is the legislation that says that we can no longer accept student IDs. I think it's going to be imperative that our friends who normally help us getting the word out about early voting and election day help us to also educate our student voters that that has changed.
- so that they can make decisions in the best interest of their voter registration. Next, Clerk Brown announced that the Democratic Party has a newly appointed party chair, Chrissy Gilles. In one of her first official acts, Chairperson Gilles appointed a new member, Penny Giffins, to the election board. Giffins introduced herself to the board.
- I'm Penny Githens. I'm a former Monroe County Commissioner and have been involved with county government now for over six years. And so I look forward to serving on this board. And I feel like I have a different kind of background and experience to bring to the position. Thank you. Attorney Dave Schilling then presented a retainer agreement for Barnes and Thornburg to assist the legal department in their federal district court case challenging Senate Bill 10.
- Thank you very much Dave Schelling from the legal department and I've presented you today with a retainer agreement for Barnes and Thornburg to assist the legal department in the federal district court case unite or count us in at all versus
- and that's a lawsuit that's been filed in federal court challenging Senate Bill 10, which prohibits the use of student IDs for voter identification purposes. And I guess I would direct your attention to the third paragraph of this retainer letter that basically states that the
- representation of Barnes and Thornburg is gonna be limited to assisting us in court conferences and hearings and compliant with discovery requests and so forth, and will not be with taking a position on the validity of Senate Bill 10 through this. We attempted, Molly had called the attorney general's office
- and had asked them to basically represent us on this, since we're subject to the same statute that the state election board is, and they refused. So that's one reason why we're retaining Barnes and Thornburg for this purpose. The election board will meet again on September 4th.
- At the Bloomington City Council meeting on August 6, Ryan Shaddy, chairman of the Bloomington Monroe County Human Rights Division, presented their 2025 Human Rights Award. This year, it was awarded to the Bloomington Severe Winter Emergency Shelter. One of those organizations is the Bloomington Severe Winter Emergency Shelter, or BSWRS.
- According to BSWR's nominator, in 2024, the organization provided shelter, community, and dignity to some of Bloomington's most vulnerable neighbors. As a new organization operating on a minimal budget, they mobilized quickly to open on the coldest nights of the year. They offered no strings attached shelter and support to those without other options. BSWR's is a collaborative effort led by a dedicated group of volunteers and local faith communities.
- Shelter space was provided by two downtown churches, First United Methodist and First Christian Church. Their nominator praised the tireless work of volunteer coordinators Ali Jewell and Caleb Hoagland, along with the BSWR's board of directors, the reverends John Nyota and Sarah Lynn Gershon, along with all the shift leads and shelter volunteers. 196 volunteers, to be exact, who tirelessly served 100
- unhoused community members over the 42 coldest nights of the year. They provided shelter, community, and dignity to some of Bloomington's most vulnerable neighbors who had limited to no resources to survive those evenings. The BMH, the BMC, HRC, that is such a mouthful sometimes, is pleased to present the 2025 City of Bloomington and Monroe County Human Rights Award to the Bloomington Severe Winter Emergency Shelter.
- This commission recognizes and appreciates your hard work, folks, back in the back here, and perseverance, and we look forward to seeing how you continue to serve our unsheltered neighbors in their most vulnerable times. Next, the council heard amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance involving the reduction of zoning districts. Development Services Manager Eric Grulick explained.
- So I am here to present a series of UDO amendments tonight. There are five of them that are coming to the council tonight. These were part of a package of seven that went to the Planning Commission in July. Two of those were held back for further discussion for the next hearing coming up next week. So there were five of these amendments that left the Planning Commission that were forwarded on to you. So we'll step through those five tonight. So real quickly, there are five amendments
- that are coming to you, a total of seven that are packaged together. And a lot of these deal with reducing the zoning districts within the UDO where certain land uses can occur. A lot of these uses have certain negative effects that we've seen over the years in terms of a lack of street activity. A lot of these are vehicle-oriented uses. They are not high-employment generating uses. Some of them can be very environmentally unfriendly.
- They are not very employed. They don't.
- offer a lot of jobs, can have some negative impacts on adjacent properties, and in general, you know, these are things that we certainly feel like we have a lot of, and these take away from land that is available for housing. The changes to the UDO included amending the designated areas where uses such as self-service storage, fraternity or sorority house, artist studio or workshop, vehicle fuel station, vehicle wash, and tattoo or piercing
- parlor are allowed to be established. Council President Hopi Stasberg commented on the demand for storage units in Bloomington and the lack of benefits that storage units add to the city.
- I wanted to address Councilmember Asari's point about storage unit demand with an anecdotal story that last summer I did some research into if I needed a storage unit, was there one available? Kind of thinking to myself, if a lot of students need to store items over the summer, then that might be peak demand. There were plenty of units available, and I was honestly shocked about how much they cost, like hundreds of dollars a month. And I was just floored.
- at some of those prices in terms of speaking to Mr. Gulick's kind of early point that they are real money makers for whoever develops them, but they are not really beneficial to the city in terms of activating the street, in terms of being a place where community members can congregate and socialize and have activities, and they don't have employees, so they are not producing jobs, they're really
- not an economic benefit, and I think that we have at this point plenty of storage options. Once again, that is based on my anecdotal personal research. And then in terms of kind of your other concern, like who are people using self storage? Like do they care about this change? At the planning commission, there were zero public comments related to this ordinance.
- Um, and, and it was something that had to be noticed publicly on postcards, uh, to the entire city. And there was nobody who commented on it in any way. So, um, I will certainly be supporting this change this evening. All of the UDO amendment requests passed unanimously.
- Later in the meeting, the council heard a petition to vacate an alley located in the Elm Heights Historic District. Clerk Nicole Bolden read a synopsis of the request.
- A 12-foot public alley adjacent to 909 East University Street. The synopsis is as follows. The petitioner, Veronica Bardiner, requests a vacation of an alley right of way to her that is enclosed by fencing and not currently utilized for any form of access. The alley is oriented along the northern boundary of 909 East University Street.
- The petitioner, Veronica Bardoner, asked the city to vacate the alley between the properties at 909 East University Street and 910 East Second Street. The petitioner's representative, Dan Sear, from Paganelli Law Group, shared background information on the alley. Sear said that the alley is not currently being used as a walkway or for emergency services access.
- But we do want to emphasize that the 15-foot public alley does facilitate various modes of transport. Vacating the alley in question does not impact any pedestrian transit. It's not used for a walkway or pedestrian. Imagine this is an alley that has essentially
- encroachments across it throughout the entire neighborhood. It's never been used as a public alley as far as we can see. So it does not impede any service vehicles or emergency access. There's been no responses from fire or anybody else other than utilities. There's some overhead utilities regarding utilities. We can get more into that. It does not
- This will not limit any parking access. Assistant director of planning and transportation Jackie Scanlon presented the planning department's recommendation, which was to deny the petition. Scanlon said that the city of Bloomington utilities also opposes the vacation of the alley. Scanlon shared that the city does not normally vacate alleys saying the city prefers to keep ownership of rights of way in case of future use.
- It has not been the practice of council in some time to approve right of way vacations in residential areas.
- largely for the reason that Mr. Sur mentioned, which is potential future use. So 12 feet wide is wide enough for a path. If we were to want to do that in the future, we have paths that are eight or 10 feet wide here in Bloomington. And so we would typically request that right-of-way be maintained for those potential future connections. Additionally, with the request for denial from City of Bloomington utilities, that is something that they could use that right-of-way in the future if there were some need.
- For example, further west in the same neighborhood, there are east-west alleys that are not improved, that are 12 feet wide, that are used largely by those neighbors and neighborhoods as pedestrian connections. Again, this alley is not being used that way at this time on this block because it is blocked off by fences on almost the entirety of this block. But as the city in the future or now, we could request that those encroachments be removed.
- and allow that space to be used by more people than just the adjacent property owners, which is, again, improved alleys, or excuse me, unimproved alleys further to the west that are being used by pedestrians and do have some City of Bloomington utility infrastructure in them, so something that could be done here in the future.
- Scanlon said that the petitioner is requesting the city vacate the full 12 feet of the platted alley, which could create an issue with the neighboring property. So I mentioned here a little another issue that could be created in the fourth paragraph in the memo. If you if you vacate the full 12 feet, then now you they can put a fence at that 12 foot line. And that is would be
- 12 feet closer, obviously, than now to the existing accessory structure to the north. So when that accessory structure went in, I'm sure a long time ago, there was an expectation that there was a separation there. There's a platted alley there. So instead of splitting like you would in a normal vacation situation, they're asking to retain all of the 12 feet, and now they've got their neighbor's fence 12 feet closer to their property than anyone could have expected.
- previously, so that's just something to consider. That also means that any new structures or expansion of that garage that can be built can be built much closer to the existing garage of the neighbor as well if the vacation is approved. In opposition to the petition were the neighbors of the petitioner. Their legal representative, Jim Bohr, said that the residents at 910 East 2nd Street, Tim Miller and Jenny Southern, did not want the council to approve the petition. They opposed the petition because Bardoner was requesting that the city vacate the
- full 12 feet of the alleyway instead of asking for the alley to be split in half with six feet given to them and six feet given to Bardonner. Typically, as was just mentioned, the alley would be vacated one half to each of the adjoining owners. But that's not what's being asked of you this evening by Dr. Bardonner. She's being asked that the entire alleyway be vacated to her. And that's what we object to.
- Councilmember Isabel Piedmont-Smith said that she will be voting no on the petition because she sees no public benefit. I will be voting no for the reasons some of my colleagues have already mentioned. I see no public benefit to vacating this alley and it could in the future be a detriment to the development of the city. I also recognize the impact on
- garage access for the property owner at 910 West 2nd Street, which is problematic. I find the whole framing of this question to be somewhat disturbing to me because the arguments have been made based on so-called payment or investment by the petitioner, including the tree removal at $6,500,
- but it was removed because the petitioner wanted it to be removed. It was not removed because it had to be removed. Following council members' negative responses to the petition, council member Isakasari encouraged the petitioner.
- I think you have every right to come and ask for your rights and your interests to be respected. And, you know, we represent you and we want to make sure that you have every opportunity to have the best life you can in Bloomington. So even though we might disagree on this case, you know, it certainly is no disrespect to you personally. The council voted unanimously to deny the petition.
- The Monroe County Board of Zoning Appeals met on August 6th and approved variance requests for the expansion of Shake Veterinary Service on North Smith Pike. Variances were approved for impervious service limits, landscaping and parking. While board members expressed concern about the lack of landscaping, they concluded that the needs of a veterinary hospital leaned toward fewer trees and more grass. The reason I feel comfortable with that decision
- is because it's a veterinary hospital and the dog's gotta pee. It's a special situation because the dog's had to be walked and the trees are going to obstruct the intended use of the property.
- Board member Margaret Clements said maintaining the functionality of the facility is more important than landscaping requirements, especially given its significance in the community. Veterinary services are really important in our community that we have lost, as we've heard, a lot of valuable veterinary services and I know I don't have
- a dog or a cat, but I know I have friends whose animals suffer and they have to drive very far to get them treated. So we're lucky he's expanding. A variance request regarding the sidewalk requirement for the property was not decided and will be discussed at the board's November 5th meeting.
- The board also approved a conditional use request for the Center for Thriving Relationships. The business owner, Brett Earthhart, had an event at his home independent of the business, which prompted an anonymous complaint about operating a commercial business in a residential area.
- The Center for Thriving Relationships has six offices around Bloomington and operates mostly virtually. However, the Earth Hearts occasionally hold client meetings at their home. The board expressed concern about the event, but after Earth Heart explained that it was unrelated to the business, the board was satisfied. I think my biggest concern centers around the events, and I think he's done a good job of explaining that it's maybe once a year, and I think a neighbor could have
- family over once a year that could have 20 cars too, so I think I'm less concerned about that, knowing that it's only once a year. And it's not associated with the business. The board approved the conditional use request for the home-based business operations.
- Bloomington Mayor Carrie Thompson held a traveling town hall at Morgenstern's Books and Cafe August 4th. Thompson recapped some of the most important points from her press conference the previous week surrounding the issue of homelessness. We have partnered with a number of nonprofits through Heading Home on a housing action plan.
- And together with the community foundation and some of those nonprofits at Heading Home, we wrote a Lilly grant. We're really grateful to the community foundation for their work on that grant. The great news is that that grant was funded to the community foundation and it will be providing 10 new case managers to work
- with folks that are experiencing homelessness in our community. That's really important because one of the principles that the Heading Home Plan originally had in it and that I have asked them to consider putting back in it, but one of the policies that I definitely support is reunification. And that means when somebody comes here from out of town
- thinking that there are plenty of services for them here and then they find that there actually is no room in the shelter and there are not enough services that we put them together with case management right away and we help them get back to the communities where their existing support networks are. With homelessness, the people most likely to experience homelessness are people who have experienced homelessness. So we need to make that as brief
- as we possibly can, and frequently with some good case management, we can do reunification before that episode of homelessness is really extreme or chronic. But in order to do that, we need good case managers that can help us with that reconnection. Later, Thompson spoke about the goal of increasing workforce housing in Bloomington. We need to grow our workforce housing. We have more than 70% of the people who
- who work here do not live here. They're not able to, many of them. Some of them choose not to, totally fine. But if you can't afford to live in Bloomington, but you have to work here, it causes more expense and really a lifestyle that many people don't want to sustain. They wanna be in the communities where their kids are in school, where their kid is in daycare. They wanna a short drive back and forth to work.
- So growing that housing helps us grow our workforce population for the companies that wanna grow here. And growing those companies helps us increase our wages. And we need to increase those wages because obviously affordable housing is tied not only to the cost of the house, but also to the income that you have to pay for that house.
- and many people are housing costs burdened in Monroe County as a whole. Thompson also discussed the Indiana Supreme Court's decision to hear an ongoing lawsuit surrounding the annexation of various lands surrounding the city of Bloomington. The mayor shared that while she fundamentally disagrees with the previous administration's approach to annexation, the work put into this process already seemed too great of an investment to abandon.
- I have never agreed with how annexation came to be. And when I came into office, it was clear that we were already so far down the path and could not adjust the path without scrapping the whole thing, which was a lot of funding, frankly, to do the study and to figure out the financial plan, et cetera.
- And so we have chosen to see this suit through. I did that for a couple of reasons, but the most compelling reason, and that's the one I'll share with you tonight, happy again to talk further about this with folks. The most compelling reason is that it has been conclusively data-driven shown that cities that have zero elasticity,
- The boundaries are firm and they don't grow. What happens is that not only the city, but the region around the city start to go into economic decline and in fact population decreases. Thompson said that she hopes to properly welcome newly annexed citizens, making them feel a part of the community of Bloomington.
- During the Q&A portion of the meeting, a question was asked about unhoused citizens in public areas exhibiting distressed and threatening behaviors. Thompson responded by assuring that the city is working hard to help these citizens while also urging people to call the Stride Crisis Center in non-violent situations. If you see somebody
- whether they're housed or you think they might not be housed. It doesn't matter. Anybody who's in distress, who is not of danger to others, you can also call Stride. Stride has a 24 hour, seven day a week, 365 day a year mobile outreach. And Margaret has cards for Stride in the back. You can put it in your wallet.
- They'll go anywhere, so this is not just down at Winslow, anywhere. I hear from people all the time, you know, I saw somebody, I didn't know if they were okay, and I didn't feel safe going up to them and asking, but they were laying on the sidewalk in the hot sun, and I was afraid for them, but I didn't want them to get in trouble with the police. First of all, our police are not seeking to get anybody in trouble, they also are there to help,
- But stride is a much more appropriate resource if nobody is in danger at the moment, because they have mental health professionals. And what they have told us is that frequently they'll respond once, and they'll be able to just sort of settle the situation or make sure that person's safe for them, but they won't
- get the person engaged in ongoing services during that first visit, they have to get to know people. And so they want to be called repeated times until there's enough trust built that they can get that individual whatever services it is that they need. And that is all for Cats Week. Thank you for joining us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annaliese Poorman.