- Hello and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annalise Poorman. The Bloomington City Council unanimously approved
- a planned unit development for the Hopewell South project during its meeting on May 6. This comes after
- months of deliberation on the first phase of a project aimed at bringing more affordable housing to
- Bloomington.
- The Hopewell Project is a city-led redevelopment project that aims to transform the former IU Health
- Hospital site into a mixed-use neighborhood. City Clerk Nicole Bolden introduced the ordinance.
- Ordinance 2026-06 to amend the city of Bloomington zoning maps by rezoning a 6.3 acre property from
- residential urban lot and residential multifamily within the transform redevelopment overlay to plan
- unit development and to approve a district ordinance and preliminary plan. The synopsis is as follows.
- This ordinance amends the zoning of the property from residential urban lot and residential multifamily
- within the transform redevelopment overlay to plan unit development.
- Much of the discussion centered on balancing sustainability goals with long-term affordability. Council
- member Matt Flaherty said energy efficiency measures could reduce costs for future residents. My orientation
- to energy efficiency and electrification generally is about creating affordable, healthy homes. Gas
- appliances cause childhood asthma at very high rates. They're unhealthy for all of us. We shouldn't
- want those appliances. This is a health issue. Efficiency, similarly, it lowers utility bills over time, providing
- dramatic return on investment. And Achillean Hanson, Director of Housing and Neighborhood Development,
- warned council members about concerns from the Bloomington Redevelopment Commission regarding rising
- construction costs and affordability expectations. What happens if we can't build a unit for what you
- want us to sell it for? We don't have bottomless amounts of money.
- To be able to subsidize between the cost of build like for instance Let's say that a build is going
- to cost us fifty thousand dollars more just because lumber prices are going up gas prices are going
- up What is that dollar amount across the number of units? That's pretty significant. So You know could
- be millions of dollars that we would have to bring to the table just to get to your AMIs if
- If we can't build it for that cost if we can great, we'd love to deliver even more affordability But
- I just want to make sure that you guys have heard that the RDC feels like they really can only commit
- to the 25% right now Of course, we would love to report back as we're able to
- So not trying to muddy the waters, just wanna be perfectly clear with what they've authorized me to
- say. Next, Council President Hopi Stasberg considered how far the city should go with permanent affordability
- requirements in the project. I also like sticking with the 50% and I appreciate what Council Member
- Rosenberger just said about that idea, like we could amend it later if it really became impossible to
- practically do that, but that shooting for that goal might be really appropriate. The next Bloomington
- City Council meeting is scheduled for May 20th.
- The Bloomington Redevelopment Commission met on May 4. Angela Van Roy from the Housing and Neighborhood
- Development Department presented on Resolution 26-30 concerning various neighborhood improvement grants.
- The Spicewood Neighborhood Association requested funds for a native pollinator garden and they requested
- $2,350 and that was
- recommended for full funding. That one, a 16 year old in the neighborhood is the one who presented that
- project. So we were all quite impressed with that. The resolution proposed distributing a total of $30,000
- worth of grants in varying amounts among several neighborhood organizations. The resolution passed.
- Next, the commission opened public comment concerning a potential land swap relating to Seminary Point
- and College Square. A resident affiliated with Homes for All spoke on the power that the RDC has to
- support a land transfer intended to preserve affordable housing. Indiana Codes grant RDC's powers beyond
- the standard property transfer process to offer land to CDCs for the purpose of developing affordable housing.
- We interpret this Indiana code as a means of encouragement to redevelopment commissions to find properties
- well suited for affordable housing projects, projects just like Seminary Point, a property where super
- affordable apartments already exist. Homes for All has finalized a partnership with a qualified community
- development corporation, which will serve as our land grant recipient
- We are also finalizing a formal proposal for Seminary Point with a five-year development timeline and
- funding plan. RDC member Randy Cassidy concluded the discussion by acknowledging that the property remains
- under Capital Improvement Board ownership and suggested tenants work with the board to pursue lease
- extensions while negotiations continue. The next Bloomington RDC meeting is scheduled for May 18th.
- The Bloomington Board of Public Works met on May 4th and discussed a right-of-way on a multi-use path
- on Dunn Street. City engineer Neil Copper explained what the project entails.
- This is a project to construct multi use path on the east side of North Dunn Street from the bypass
- to Clover Lane. The project will require purchase of additional right away from up to nine parcels.
- If approved by the board, this resolution confirms that the project serves a public purpose and it authorizes
- the right of way acquisition. The board passed the motion unanimously.
- Next, Public Improvement Manager Maria McCormick from Engineering requested a public improvement bond
- for 15th Street. This is for the acceptance of a public improvement bond for the 15th Street sustainable
- subdivision. Their public improvement bond is in the amount of $12,036 and is for new sidewalk and street
- trees for this subdivision. The motion passed unanimously.
- Then engineering field specialist Zach Bell requested right-of-way closures for city utilities. Peditioner
- is requesting approval of temporary right-of-way closures along South Walnut Street from Dodd Street
- to Grimes Lane to accommodate water and sewer service updates. The work will be completed in a phased
- manner with closure shifting between work areas rather than occurring simultaneously.
- project is scheduled from May 8th, 2026 through May 29th, 2026 during normal construction hours with
- impacts limited to a single active work zone at any given time. And just received word from James that
- they will hold off on starting until after commencement. The motion passed unanimously. The next meeting
- of the Bloomington Board of Public Works will be on May 19th.
- the Bloomington Utilities Service Board met on May 4th and discussed the Bloomington fuel charge. Board
- member Amanda Burnham asked how it is determined since gas prices fluctuate. I guess just thinking more
- about our fuel this month with gas prices that are up, how are we charged? Like when there's a delivery
- of fuel and then we pay that rate until there's another delivery of fuel and then that's our rate, how
- do they determine our charge for fuel?
- A utility staff member responded that he did not know, but that he said he could ask. Next, Bloomington
- Capital Project Manager Dan Hudson presented on planned electrical maintenance at the Monroe Water Plant.
- About a year ago, we went under contract with a company to do maintenance on our large high voltage
- and medium voltage equipment. That includes taking the breakers out and cleaning them and
- and making sure everything works right and putting them back. But you have to shut down the plant to
- do that. And in our planning process, we've decided that it's a good idea to keep our servers running
- so we have data coming in and also keep the lab running because we do laboratory analysis like every
- hour. And this may take like up to 10 hours to do.
- So we would like to hire Electric Plus to help us wire an existing generator that we have, a portable
- generator that we borrow from T&D to run the servers in the lab. We also want to rent a portable generator
- to run one of the pumps. One of the pumps we can run because it is
- a high level pump, it's on 480 volts, and we have a generator, we can run a generator to do that. The
- idea is we don't want to lower the pressure in the system, so we have to have water notices during this
- time. Hudson said that right now is a good time to do maintenance because students are leaving campus,
- so water usage should be down.
- A utility superintendent said that there is a two-week lull between IU graduation and when people start
- refilling pools for Memorial Day. So now is a good time for maintenance. The board approved doing the
- maintenance on May 12th. Then Assistant Director of Finance, Matt Havy, explained a memorandum
- of understanding between the board and the retreat at Switchyard. The retreat at Switchyard is a development
- here on the corner of Miller and Walnut
- It was an affordable housing project that's been going on for several years now. And as part of this
- project, they hooked up to the sewer. And as developments do this, we charge them proportionally to
- the size of the sewer that they're going to use, what infrastructure that they're going to drive us
- to buy. And as part of this development, it was
- get the numbers that grow to say it's a little over $50,000 for them to connect to the sewer. Um, and
- I think there was some little confusion on both sides is that they thought that since they were building
- affordable housing, that they, this fee could be waived. Um, but then we took them through the city
- statute and pointed out to them that we can only waive fees for a single family residences for, for
- their connection fee. Um, and so.
- They explained to us they were having a lot of challenges with this development and financially and
- operationally. And so we, again, we communicated that we could not waive the fee. And so we had a meeting
- and talked to them and came to an agreement that CBU would agree to give them a payment plan for five
- years with no interest to pay this connection fee off.
- Board President Kirk White said the Finance Committee discussed the MOU prior to the board meeting.
- The subcommittee approved the amendment given that the property is sold during the agreed five-year
- period. I think it's good public policy for us to be flexible with a project like this that's been worked
- on by city government downtown, giving them this assistance more or less in
- the time it would allow them, because it's an affordable housing project, it kind of shows our support
- for helping those projects as they come along to us, because we all know that's a community priority
- now. So I think that's a good thing for us to do. The board tabled the vote on the MOU. The next meeting
- of the Bloomington Utilities Service Board will be on May 18th.
- Monroe County Board of Commissioners met on May 7th. Financial Director Carly Woodroof from the County
- Auditor's Office provided an update on American Rescue Plan Act funds. She says a federally funded projects
- are supposed to come in under budget and the county wants to keep ARPA funds local. We have two projects
- that we're aware of right now that are expected to come in under budget
- And so that means if we don't re-obligate those dollars to another project that we may have to send
- that money back to the federal government and we do want to keep those dollars local if possible. The
- amount that we expect as of right now to come in under budget is just north of about $315,000.
- We have received some requests from projects that are open that we think may be able to use some of
- those fundings. One of them is for parks. It looks like they have some drainage situations going on.
- The second project is another park project and because of the turf
- extra traffic we've had going in with all the big trucks. They have some interest in getting some paving
- done and that would fall well within an open project they have right now. The third project is for the
- Monroe County Fire Protection District. That is also an open project and we would fund some of those
- extra costs needed to get those ambulances up and going. And then the last one that would be most feasible
- would be the airport stormwater drainage. Commissioner Julie Thomas asked if the county departments
- could realistically spend the remainder of ARPA funds by the end of the year. Woodruff responded. So
- that money does not technically have an expenditure deadline. We're just putting that on your radar
- because it is closely tied to ARPA. And this money, while it doesn't have an expenditure deadline set
- forth by the federal government,
- They do have a chart and that last day on that chart that they provided is 2027. So our ARPA advisors
- have advised that we spend those money prior to the end of 2027. The county commissioners also discussed
- a separate related funding source that advisors recommend spending before the end of 2027. All in all,
- Thomas said that the commissioners and the county council need to set a hard deadline with a plan to
- spend ARPA funds.
- We're going to need a drop-dead date. We're going to need a date that says, as of November 1, if this
- isn't spent, we're allocating it here. But that's the decision that we have to make jointly as to where
- to allocate those dollars, correct? Correct. Monroe County Auditor Breanne Gregory says at least three
- out of the four projects could get done on deadline.
- At least three of the four that we've received that are in the green on the memo. At least three of
- those, I believe we could turn that money around very quickly. And so I would say Monroe Fire and the
- two parks. They could spend it before the end of the year and get us receipts so we're not losing any money.
- I believe as long as we give them enough time. So if we're making this decision in November, that's
- a very short period to turn around. But if we're making that decision in June, I believe at least those
- three projects would be able to get that out very quickly. Except they might not get money.
- So that's the issue, right? Next, the commissioners considered approval of a partnership agreement with the U.S.
- Fish and Wildlife Service for a prairie restoration project at the Monroe County Nature Preserve. Monroe
- County Parks Director Kelly Whitmer presented the program. They are the same project as 14 acres of
- prairie grassland at the Monroe County Nature Preserve. DNR is going to give us around, and I'm going
- to round these numbers, $3,700 and
- We get money, we pay for the seed and whatnot. We also, last week you approved Jettle Farms for not
- to exceed 6,500. That's for our beans for the grassland area that we're planting. We will also be, we,
- Monroe County is responsible for upkeep and maintenance, 10 years for the prairies for US Fish and Wildlife.
- three years for DNR, served concurrently. So it's only 10 years. This is a wonderful opportunity because
- on another note, we are also going to buy 10 more acres. That has nothing to do with these agreements
- of the same grassland seed. So we can connect our two prairies around our gas well, which we don't want
- to plant anything else beside grass around the gas well.
- So this will be like 16 acres of contiguous prairie land. In total, it'll be 24 in the whole end of
- it. Whitmer says the whole project will cost about $13,000. The commissioners approved the measure by
- a three to zero vote. Lastly, Commissioner Jody Madeira reminded residents that it is graduation weekend
- for Indiana University students and encouraged the community to plan accordingly. Just stay safe. It
- is graduation weekend.
- And we wish our IU graduates the best of everything and stay safe and have a wonderful celebratory graduation
- weekend. The next Monroe County Commissioner's meeting will take place on May 14th. And that is all
- for Cats Week. Thank you for joining us. For Cats and WFHB, I'm Annalise Poorman.