I was in the room last week when the Bloomington City Council voted to delay — again — on the Hopewell South Planned Unit Development. And honestly? I left frustrated. Not because I think the project is perfect. It isn’t. But because this community keeps asking the wrong question.

We’re not refining anymore. We’re stalling. And there’s a cost to that.

The real question sitting in front of Bloomington right now is simple: Do we want this project — and the housing and economic activity it brings — or don’t we? My father used to say, "No, is a perfectly good answer". 

The Risk Is Real: We Could Lose This Project
Every delay, every new round of requirements, every additional condition stacked onto this petition pushes the project closer to a breaking point. At some stage, the Administration and the Redevelopment Commission may conclude it’s no longer viable. The petition gets withdrawn. The site sits.

Meanwhile, the private market doesn’t wait. It keeps delivering large-scale, by-right multifamily developments — with less public input, less intentional design, and fewer community benefits. So we’d be trading a thoughtful, mixed-use, community-oriented project for more of the same. Not because the market forced our hand, but because we couldn’t align on a path forward.
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Hopewell has been underutilized since 2018. At what point is delay no longer a strategy — it’s just an answer?

Execution, Discipline, and Getting the Basics Right
Over the past eight years at the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, I’ve worked alongside businesses, community leaders, and elected officials through periods of both momentum and uncertainty.

As the Mayor prepares to deliver the State of the City address on March 31st, Bloomington faces a series of decisions that will shape its trajectory for decades.

The question is no longer whether we understand the challenges—it is whether we are prepared to act on them with the urgency and discipline they require.

When I first stepped into this role, Bloomington was moving forward—investment was steady, confidence was high, and while challenges existed, the trajectory pointed upward.
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Today, that trajectory feels less certain.

This is not a statement of decline. It is a recognition that we are at an inflection point—and how we respond in the next 12 to 24 months will shape Bloomington’s economic future for years to come.

A revised residential development next to the Johnson Creamery Building received site plan approval at the Oct. 18 Bloomington Plan Commission meeting. 

The residential development will be built in the parking lot north of the Creamery building and south of 8th St. It will include 51 apartments of mostly studio and one-bedroom units, with a few two- and three-bedroom apartments. The ground floor, which can be accessed via the BLine, will include a fitness center and office space.

More details are available in the Plan Commission's meeting packet here. Watch the discussion on CATS here.

At their Oct. 13 meeting, Monroe County Commissioners have approved a scaled-down version of Clear Creek Urban, a mixed-use development at the intersection of South Rogers and That Road. The development will include paired townhomes, multi-family units, and commercial space on land across from the U.S. Post Office.

​The original proposal by Blind Squirrels LLC, led by Tamby Cassady, was a higher density version that commissioners rejected earlier this year.

Read the Clear Creek Urban proposal from the commissioners' meeting packet here. Watch the deliberations on CATS here.

At its Sept. 15 meeting, the Monroe County Public Library Board unanimously approved a contract with Strauser Construction to build a new southwest branch. Strauser's was the lowest of three bids, coming in at $10.6 million – about $1.2 million over the library's original estimate. MCPL director Marilyn Wood said that the library would still be able to pay for the branch and retain about $3 million in reserves. 

MCPL plans to build the new 21,000-square-foot branch on land adjacent to Batchelor Middle School at 890 W. Gordon Pike. Earlier this year the Monroe County Council approved issuance of a $6 million bond for the project.

Watch the board's Sept. 15 meeting on CATS here. Read materials related to this issue from the board's Sept. 15 meeting packet here.

A development that will add 340 apartments with a total of 900 bedrooms on the former Kmart site was unanimously approved at the July 12 meeting of the Bloomington Plan Commission. No city council approval is required.

Called the District at Latimer Square, the nearly 12-acre property at 3216 E. 3rd St. is being developed by Trinitas Ventures. The site includes the Bloomingfoods East store, which will remain in place. The plan calls for five residential buildings, one leasing and amenity building, and a 385-space parking structure. Trinitas expects the project will be finished by mid-2023. 

Read materials in the Plan Commission packet here. Watch the July 12 meeting on CATS here.

At their June 16 meeting, Bloomington City Council unanimously approved a 10-year abatement for the Retreat at Switchyard, a residential development at 1730 S. Walnut St. 

The development involves construction of 64 residential units. Of those, 48 units will be devoted to households with low to moderate-incomes for a period of 99 years.  Ten of those 48 apartments are set aside for clients of StoneBelt.  The five-story building, adjacent to the Switchyard Park east entrance, includes a 3,000-square-foot first-floor retail space. The abatement, which is applicable only to the 48 affordable units, would start at 100% and step down to 5% in year 10.

The developer is Real America. The city's Redevelopment Commission intends to convey the land and structure to Real America for $1. That's a value of about $975,000, according to Alex Crowley, director of the city's Economic & Sustainable Development department.

Watch the council's June 16 deliberations on CATS here. Read abatement-related materials from the council's meeting packet here.

Southern Meadows, a project to add 190 residential units on 37 acres in the Clear Creek area, was rejected by Monroe County Commissioners at their June 9 meeting. Commissioners Julie Thomas and Penny Githens voted against it. Commissioner Lee Jones was absent.

Builder Tom Wininger is already approved to build 90 single-family homes on that lot, but wanted to increase density in order to make each unit more affordable. Among other things, commissioners objected to density in that part of the county.

​Watch the project discussion on CATS here. Click here for meeting materials related to Southern Meadows.

In a unanimous vote at their May 12 meeting, Monroe County Commissioners rejected a proposal for housing and retail on South Rogers, known as Clear Creek Urban. The three commissioners objected to the density of the development and possible traffic congestion, and felt there wasn't enough parking.

"We are the county. We are not the city," Commissioner Julie Thomas said. She wants the developer, Tamby Wikle-Cassady, to bring back a scaled-down version of the project, which included townhomes, apartments and commercial/retail space.

Several people spoke in support of the project, including County Councilor Geoff McKim, County Surveyor Trohn Enright-Randolph, and Cathi Crabtree, chair of the Monroe County Affordable Housing Advisory Commission. Representatives of the Chamber and the Bloomington Economic Development Corp. spoke about the need for more housing. One person spoke against it.

Click here to watch the Commissioners' discussion on CATS. Click here to view the project packet.