A forum on Tuesday, June 16 will focus on getting input for the redevelopment of a 24-acre site where the IU Health Bloomington Hospital is now located. The City of Bloomington will be taking over ownership of that area in 2021. The public forum starts at 6 p.m. on Zoom. Registration is required – click here to register. The event will also be livestreamed on the city's Facebook page. Unable to attend? Give your input by taking this online survey. Click here to view the project's website.
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As part of the process to update the Monroe County Consolidated Development Ordinance (CDO), county planning staff are asking residents to participate in focus groups in the coming months. The focus groups are organized into these topics:
Click here to sign up for a CDO focus group. Get more information about the CDO process here. On June 1, the City of Bloomington will launch a revamped website for public input on the redevelopment of the Bloomington hospital site. Consultants hired to develop a master plan – Skidmore, Owings & Merrill – will be meeting with stakeholders later this month. They'll also host an online "town hall" on June 16 at 6 p.m. Details about all public engagement efforts will be posted on the hospital redevelopment site starting June 1. Redevelopment of the 24-acre Bloomington Hospital site is taking a step forward with the selection of a master planning team to oversee the project. Last fall, the City of Bloomington issued a Request for Information (RFI) and received responses from 23 organizations in December. Of those, eight were selected for interviews by a Technical Review Committee on Jan. 16-17. The committee is chaired by former state Senator Vi Simpson and is a subset of the Hospital Re-Use Committee, on which Chamber CEO Erin Predmore serves. Click here for details about the proposed work of the master planning team. Click here for more info about the redevelopment project. On Nov. 6, Bloomington City Councilmembers Susan Sandberg and Chris Sturbaum released the final report of the Affordable Living Committee that they've been working on since 2015. From the introduction: "This report is not intended to be the authoritative word on affordability in Bloomington. Instead, it is intended to point out the need for a systems view of affordability – a vision that is bigger than just housing. It is our hope that as the community conversation about affordable housing continues to evolve, that it does so mindful of a comprehensive approach to the problem. One that includes, but is not limited to: wages, housing, child care, health care, and food. " Click here for a copy of the report. The City of Bloomington is seeking input on how to redevelop the site of the current Bloomington Hospital, a 24-acre area that the city is buying from IU Health. The committee that's working on this project got an update at an Oct. 28, 2019 meeting. Click here to see the slidedeck from that meeting. Erin Predmore, the Chamber's CEO, serves on the reuse committee. Per terms of the agreement with IU Health, the city needs to make a decision by Nov. 21 about whether to keep the Kohr Administrative Building and/or the four-story parking garage, which was built in 1989 and has 480 spaces. The main hospital building must be demolished. The site is located at West 2nd and Rogers. The site will be transferred to the city when the new IU Health Regional Academic Health Center opens in the fall of 2021 along the 45/46 Bypass. Options for residential, retail and office development are being considered. For additional background about this project, check out the city's IU Health Hospital Redevelopment Site website. Click here to take a survey about the site redevelopment. The City of Bloomington has hired RDG Consultants to conduct an in-depth housing study, examining the city's existing rental and owner-occupied housing stock, its location, price points and condition. Based on this analysis, the city plans to complete an assessment of future housing needs. As part of this effort, the city is holding "listening sessions" to get input on Bloomington's current and future housing needs. Sessions will be held Oct. 21 through Oct. 24. For details on specific times and to sign up to attend a session, please click here. Bloomington's housing study is building on the recent Indiana Uplands Regional Housing Study, which was also conducted by RDG Consultants and includes an assessment of Monroe County. Click here for more information on that effort. The Bloomington City Council has scheduled a series of meetings to work on the draft Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), a major overhaul of the city's zoning code. A new page on the city's website will track all council action on the UDO.
All meetings will begin at 6 p.m. at city hall council chambers, 401 N. Morton, and will include opportunity for public comment. Click here for the memo outlining the council's UDO process. Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019 Staff presentation on Chapter 1 (Ordinance Foundation) and Chapter 2 (Zoning Districts) Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019 Staff presentation on Chapter 3 (Use Regulations). This section includes regulations related to duplex/triplex/quadplex development and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in core neighborhoods. Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019 Staff presentation on Chapter 4 (Development Standards & Incentives) and Chapter 5 (Subdivision Regulations). Chapter 4 includes regulations related to the affordable housing payment-in-lieu process. Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2019 Staff presentation on Chapter 6 (Administration & Procedures) and Chapter 7 (Definitions) Monday, Nov. 4, 2019 at noon First deadline for council to submit amendments Council will consider proposed amendments at meetings on the following dates: Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2019 Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019 Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019 Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019 Second deadline for council to submit amendments: Monday, Nov. 25 at noon. Additional UDO meetings might take place on the following dates: Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019 Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019 Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019 Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2019 Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019 The Chamber's Advocacy Team has been tracking this process since it began in early 2018. Our current advocacy efforts are focused on zoning that eliminates barriers to address this community's residential housing shortage. We're also advocating for greater transparency and clarity in the city's affordable housing payment-in-lieu process. An 11-county study of workforce housing needs has been released this week, assessing the regional housing market and proposing strategies for addressing challenges. The 339-page Indiana Uplands Regional Housing Study includes the Bloomington/Monroe County community. Reports for individual counties also can be downloaded on the housing study's website. Six main strategies are identified by the report (pp 318-337):
ROI is an affiliate of the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County, and is funded through a $25.87 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. The Bloomington Plan Commission has scheduled three additional meetings to consider amendments to the draft Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). All meetings start at 5:30 p.m.:
1) Duplexes, Triplexes and Quadplexes (Amendments 4A and 4B). In a six-hour meeting on Sept. 5, commissioners heard from 37 residents during a public hearing on the "plexes." In the draft UDO, plexes are a "conditional use" in core neighborhood zones, meaning that the project must go through the city's approval process in order to be built. About half of the speakers were concerned about the additional density that such units would bring to the city's core neighborhoods, and argued that they shouldn't be allowed at all in those parts of the city. An equal number of speakers believed the city needs more housing stock of all kinds, and that this is one way to achieve that goal. OUTCOME: Plexes will remain as a conditional use in core neighborhoods (in the UDO draft), after a Plan Commission amendment to make them permitted use (by right) failed on a 4-5 vote. Voting for by right were Brad Wisler, Nick Kappas, Flavia Burrell and Neil Kopper. Voting against were Beth Cate, Joe Hoffmann, Jillian Kinzie, Susan Sandberg and Karin St. John. Watch the deliberations on CATS here. 2) Accessory Dwelling Units (Amendments 5A and 5B). Plan Commissioners considered these amendments on Sept. 10. In the draft UDO, ADUs were allowed by right. Amendment 5A – making ADUs a conditional use – passed on a 5-4 vote. Voting in favor: Joe Hoffmann, Susan Sandberg, Beth Cate, Jillian Kinzie, and Karin St. John. On an 8-1 vote (with Susan Sandberg opposing), Plan Commissioners also approved Amendment 5B, which increased the number of bedrooms and the permitted size of an ADU. As amended, ADUs will be allowed with up to 2 bedrooms and a maximum 840-square-foot size. OUTCOME: In the UDO draft, ADUs will be a conditional use with up to 2 bedrooms allowed and an 840-square-foot maximum size. Watch the deliberations on CATS here. 3) Payment-in-Lieu (Amendment 7). This amendment was brought forward by Commissioner Flavia Burrell, responding to a recommendation by the Chamber. The intent was to make the process of determining a payment-in-lieu more transparent by requiring approval from the Common Council. Staff objected to that process, however, so on Sept. 10 the Plan Commission amended out the approval requirement. The resulting language is vague and does not specify how the city determines the payment-in-lieu amount. OUTCOME: Amendment 7 passed without the requirement that the Common Council adopt administrative procedures for calculating, collecting, accounting for and spending payment-in-lieu funds. Watch the deliberations on CATS here. Click here to see the city's UDO update site, with details about other amendments, links to the full UDO draft and ways to submit written comments. |
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