and welcome to Cats Week. I'm Annalise Poorman. At the Bloomington Redevelopment Commission meeting
on August 3rd, two development teams pitched their plans for the future of Bloomington's College Square
site, a key parcel connecting the new convention center with downtown. The first proposal from Concord
Hospitality, TWG Development and Ratio Design, would build a 160-room hotel alongside mixed-income housing.
The team proposed a $4 million land swap with the Capital Improvement Board and estimated the project
would require about $12 million in public subsidy. Ratio Designs' Adam Tease said the proposal would
include affordable housing along the Beeline Trail.
The competing proposal submitted by Dora and Partners calls for a 135 room hotel, 80 to 100 market rate
housing units, retail space, and a pedestrian promenade linking College Avenue to the Beeline Trail.
Unlike the first proposal, Dora and Partners said that they would purchase the property for $1 million
and seek a $5 million tax increment financing incentive with no additional public subsidy.
Developer Travis Wenzel said the housing would be aimed at residents rather than students. We think
that there are 27 units that would be low to moderate income units that would be included in this development
and it would be right along the beeline trail.
Indora also hinted at plans outside the College Square proposal, saying that they are exploring affordable
housing on the city's south side to replace units that will be lost through upcoming demolitions. During
public comment, Bloomington resident Audrey Smith questioned whether downtown needs another hotel. We
don't have a whole lot of market rate.
apartments that aren't associated with student properties. We clearly don't want student here. The RDC
has been clear that they don't want student here. We don't think students appropriate here. So that's
how we arrived to the product mix. And that's why we're still somewhere between 80 and 100 units, because
we'll still vet that out as we continue to work on our design. The commission took no action on either
proposal, but will evaluate both submissions before selecting a development team for the College Square project.
The commission will meet again on August 17th. Mayor Carrie Thompson held a traveling town hall on August
3rd at the Banneker Community Center, where she was joined by the city's new interim director of planning
and transportation, Lynn Coyne. Mayor Thompson warned that the city's long-term finances are tightening,
telling residents that the impact of recent tax changes will be felt for years. So how many hotels do we need?
That's my question. And who are we making space for in downtown Bloomington? Thank you. On homelessness,
the city is preparing a new strategy that pairs tighter rules on sleeping downtown with individual housing
plans. The mayor said that the goal is to steadily bring people inside instead of managing permanent
encampments.
by 2029, we will be losing at least $30 million a year in what we're used to. So as things get more
expensive, we are anticipating less income coming in. So things that are not critical for the municipal
government to do, we are gonna be looking at not doing them. And you will see in our budget that we're
not expanding a bunch of new shiny programs this year.
We are committed to doing things like keeping our streets up and running, making sure your water is
clean and your trash gets picked up and that we're seeking balance in all of those things. Speaking
of those essential services, we have now as of today, this is a statistic I love, filled 8,661 potholes.
this year. So kudos to our Public Works Department. Hi, Bill, come on in. We also made a decision not
to close Kirkwood Avenue this year. That came to council later on. And you may have noted that I vetoed
their resolution to
to reopen or reclose Kirkwood. I did that for a number of reasons and there's a memo out there about
it, but first and foremost, it was because we had really a great listening session and lots of input
from the public that we're just not ready yet. That doesn't mean that we're not gonna close it in the
future. It means that if we do it and when we do it, we need to put some significant investments into
doing it right so it's safe for everyone
their shade, it's a nice place to be. And that it actually is closing the street to cars means we're
opening it to everyone and everyone can use it. The Hopewell redevelopment is also entering what city
leaders describe as its first major housing phase. The mayor pointed to a recent decision by planners
and council that clears the way for dozens of new homes on the south end of the site. We are partnering with
heading home and a number of other providers launching a new initiative called Streets to Stability.
This initiative will begin closing areas of downtown to sleeping and we will begin doing that this month.
When we seek to close a district to sleeping, we will
partner with the people who are currently sleeping there with a by name list that heading home is gathering.
We will work with service providers and then those individuals will be partnered with housing resources
one by one on an individualized basis. So this program is called Streets Disability.
They are heading home, has a grant to fund some rental units that people will go directly into. Others
are gonna need something other than a conventional rental unit. And so as we move through this process,
we'll need to be looking at other resources as well. But the plan is month by month to increase that
area of downtown where sleeping is not allowed and to get people who are sleeping outside
inside. Inside City Hall, planning staff say that they're trying to make infill and small-scale housing
projects more workable within the City's complex development rules. Interim Director Lynn Coyne said
one of their goals is to make it possible to add new units on large existing lots. You know that we
had a unanimous vote from both Plan Commission and ultimately City Council.
to approve 98 new homes at Hopewell South. Those are compact lots. There's some multifamily there and
the core building is still getting ready to open, but will be opening soon. This is the first phase
of Hopewell.
Farmers Market is there every Tuesday. You all can help by sending people to Farmers Market Tuesday
afternoons. We're activating that with bands every single week during the summer. And it's right now
an intimate gathering, but we would like to really expand that Farmers Market on Tuesdays at Hopewell.
This month we expect to plait Hopewell, Hopewell South.
and so then we can get moving on construction thereafter. And just to set the expectations, getting
started on construction means infrastructure, not digging foundations for housing quite yet. Kirkwood
Avenue remains an open question after the mayor vetoed a council decision to close it to vehicular traffic.
She said a new planning effort is underway that could still reshape the corridor.
We're looking at an ordinance now amendment that allows the division of a lot, a large lot, into two.
And that seems like a very simple thing. No, it's not. Let's say if you have a large lot and you have
a house on the front and you want to have room for another house behind it, there are requirements about
frontage and I mentioned the FAR code. The FAR code
More than you need to know, a standard fire hose is 150 feet long. And they have to be able to get from
that right away, the main street, 150 feet back. So the building can't be any more than 150 feet from
that truck on that hose, as measured by the hose. So we have to work that in. You also have to, a lot
of those rear lots don't have stormwater drainage facilities. And how do you deal with that? Because
it's a small parcel.
Those are some of the challenges we met, but we're working on it. We think we've figured out ways to
do that. And we're excited by that. That's exactly what we're trying to do. And so you need to find
ways to make that work. The next traveling town hall will be in October.
The city's latest community survey drew criticism from the Bloomington City Council during its regular
meeting on August 5th. Several council members and local residents said that the survey intentionally
excluded Indiana University students in an effort to focus on year-round residents.
Jeff Anderson, president of Acuity Research, who conducted the survey, says they purposely designed
it to reflect the views of what he calls, quote, permanent residents, unquote, rather than the city's
large student population. The goal of the survey was, again, given that we wanted this to be more of
a resident survey, we targeted
those who are more likely to be year round residents and less students, because the opinions from the
students, while important, we're recognizing that many of them are not long-term residents, haven't
been in Bloomington very long, won't be in Bloomington very long. So we were designing our sample to
be more representative of year round residents outside of the,
significant IU population. Since those residents are obviously taxpayers are probably more engaged in
the community, more familiar with city services and city issues than the IU population. So the reason,
the difference in what you called out from census data versus our sample is taking that into account.
Councilmember Sidney Zulik called the reasoning behind excluding students offensive. I second councilmember
Stasberg's comment as someone who was very recently a student herself but also represents 10,000 plus
young people. That is a stunningly insulting answer.
Zulik asked how the firm was selected. Communications director Desiree de Molina said that the city
changed its approach after receiving backlash from the 2023 survey.
In 2023 we did receive a lot of feedback in response to the community survey that was issued out in
terms of things like you know the questions and the questionnaire and some critiques and residents feeling
that the questions were lengthy and maybe did not capture some of the concerns and considerations for
the larger community and were pretty targeted. So I don't know if Jeff has anything that he
would particularly like to add to this. Yeah.
Yeah, we've also recently conducted surveys in other communities with a large student population. Our
recommendation at the beginning of this was to take the approach that again, from those who are most
engaged with the community that it should focus
primarily on permanent and year round residents. When we've conducted surveys with student populations,
we get a very low response rate, either because they're not familiar with the community or
They're just not as, as interested. The council took no action on the survey during the meeting. However,
several members signaled that they would continue discussing how future community surveys can better
capture the voices of all Bloomington residents. The Monroe County waste reduction district's executive
committee met on August 4th and advanced budget and policy updates while eyeing a long-term tax changes.
Executive Director Tom McGlassen reported about $13,000 more in projected revenue and a matching increase
in expenses, including staff training and a wrap for a new hybrid minivan. He said that state property
tax changes could eventually cut the district's levy by about $150,000 annually, but not overnight.
I think that regardless of what happens, you know, we're in a strong enough financial position with
cash reserves that
You know, we don't have to have a knee-jerk reaction to a substantial, I mean, obviously we can't,
you know, absorb a $150,000 annual hit forever, but we don't have to turn right around and stop the
program because we lost $150,000. We have enough money to have time to plan for how to best address
this and minimize the impact on residents.
The Waste Reduction District Board will meet again on August 13. The Monroe County Election Board met
on August 6, where they engaged in lengthy discussions about a complaint filed against a candidate running
for office. Earlier this year, Monroe County Assessor and a Democrat incumbent Judy Sharp filed a complaint
against independent candidate Jenny Trimble.
Clerk Nicole Brown stated that no law was violated, so the complaint should be dismissed. I am going
to the third line of what we received, which is which says we do not have a law that makes it illegal.
I assume the word two should be in there to offer property in exchange for signing a petition and that. That.
I want to say I do not see why we should have a hearing in this manner and I would make a motion that
we dismiss the complaint. The board ultimately voted in favor of tabling a decision until county assessor
Judy Sharp could present evidence to support her complaint.
Until that meeting happens, the board will also be seeking further clarification about definitions in
Indiana code and election law. Members of the public expressed their opinions as well. Republican board
member Danny Shields warned the public that he would have people removed for speaking out of turn. And
it would probably be more fair to give an advance notice of a hearing so she would have more time to prepare.
Okay, if people speak out, out of turn, I will have them removed. We're having a hearing. This is not
a football game. I don't need your opinions until you get to the microphone. The board set tentative
dates for a hearing about Sharpe's complaint. Before adjourning the meeting, the board allowed time
for public comments. Jenny Trimble commented that there is no evidence against her. I just want to start
off by saying,
I don't mind if you guys have 50 more meetings or hearings over if I violated the state code because
I did not. There will not be one piece of evidence presented because I didn't receive a sheet of signatures,
one signature, not a dollar, nothing for the help and advice that I offered the taxpayers to tell them
the public information that's on the Department of Local Government Finances website that they are allowed
to access.
anybody can talk about the tax assessment system. So I'm not worried about that. Have 20 more. There's
not going to be any evidence. What I do want to say is I'm very concerned that you, Danny Shields, a
sitting member of this board, you have for over a year targeted me, attacked me in person to
to people, you've approached people on social media, you've text people in person, you've told them
to stay away from me, don't support me, not have anything to do with me. You've actually threatened
people within your own party that if they supported me, there would be retaliation against them. And
you attended a signature event in Ellitsville to see who showed up. So that's very concerning to me.
that a member of this board that has anything to do with my candidacy has been treating me this way.
Although you have yet to have one conversation with me. That's the only thing I wanted to say other
than Penny, I'm not even gonna address anything, so I'm not surprised by you. I don't even know how
you're allowed to have anything to do with Monroe County after our current jail justice center debacle.
You should have no input.
with this county at all. And I do want to just thank Nicole Brown, because you're the only sitting member
up here with common sense and integrity. And that's all I have to say. Danny Shields expressed
his disagreement with Trimble's comment. First of all, quite an imagination there. Thank you. The meeting
that I attended, here's how I attended the meeting. I had five hours of 15-year-old drivers that morning.
and driver's ed. I went home at two o'clock, I got my trailer, I went to Menards, and I bought $400
worth of treated lumber, including pieces 14 feet long. Anybody that's carried pieces of lumber that
low know what it weighs. I took it home, I put it up on the deck to work on it. I said to my wife, let's
just go to the Chinese restaurant in the Mislun Plaza, because by now it was 6.15 or so.
I drove into the parking lot of Eastman Plaza. I drove up the first row of parking. There was no place
to park. I made a circle around again. I came up and did find a parking place. I walked out of the car,
went across the street, remembered I forgot my phone, went back and got the phone. We went into the
restaurant where we spent about 35 minutes having dinner. I walked back out. We got in the car and I
left. If that's attending your signing,
If that's attending your signing, you do have quite an imagination. In the letter that you sent, and
by the way, nice AI letter. I appreciate that. It said, we sat in the car and watched. We sat in the
restaurant and had dinner. So you can continue. You can make up all the stuff you want to make up. I
don't care. I don't care.
we're not going anywhere okay the next election board meeting a hearing regarding the complaints against
a candidate joe davis is tentatively set for august 12th at 9 a.m and that is all for cats week thank
you for joining us for cats and wfhp i'm analise poorman