Communities do not compete simply with tax rates or incentives anymore. They compete on whether people believe they can get things done.

Government exists to protect the public. We agree with that old saying. But protecting the public should not mean making it unnecessarily difficult to invest in our community.

Government at its best creates confidence. It sets clear expectations, applies standards consistently, and helps people find a path to compliance. It opens doors instead of putting up barriers.

That is why the Bloomington Chamber welcomes the City's response to the independent audit of its development review and permitting process. The report confirms what applicants—large and small—have experienced for years: inconsistent reviews, conflicting direction between departments, long timelines, and a process that often felt unpredictable. More importantly, it offers practical ways to improve it.

These conversations have found their way to the Chamber for years.

We have collaborated with a local entrepreneur trying to open an emergency veterinary hospital, where months of delay meant the community waited longer for the service it needed. We have also seen a homeowner's accessory dwelling unit become caught in an extended review despite supporting the City's own housing goals. We have heard from business owners renovating existing buildings who went through round after round of comments without a clear understanding of what was required to move forward.

None of this was ever about avoiding regulations.

It was about understanding them.

Most people skip Monroe County Plan Commission committee agendas. I don't blame them, but these meetings matter.

A recent Ordinance Review Committee session nominally focused on a narrow technical question: whether to revisit the 25 percent open-space requirement for Planned Unit Developments (PUDs). But the conversation quickly moved into broader territory — dormant development approvals, urban-fringe density, and whether Monroe County's role is to manage growth or resist it.

When the phrase "hyper-urbanization" surfaced to describe what the city was doing at the county's edges, it was a tell. That's not ordinance language. That's a position on growth — and it was sitting quietly inside a technical committee discussion.

Monroe County should clarify what counts as "open space" in a PUD — backyards? detention ponds? utility corridors? Those aren't the same thing, and the difference matters. The same 25 percent requirement could produce a genuine neighborhood amenity or shrink the number of homes on a site plan without anyone noticing. But ordinance review shouldn't become downzoning by another name.

The urban fringe is where many of our most consequential housing decisions will be made — areas already close to roads, utilities, jobs, schools, and public services. Making density harder there doesn’t preserve anything rural. It redirects housing pressure somewhere else, or eliminates it  — which isn’t protection, it’s scarcity.

That has real consequences. Of Monroe County's 65,975 jobs, more than half are held by people who live elsewhere. As John Fernandez recently noted, Senate Enrolled Act 1 turns that long-tolerated inefficiency into a direct fiscal problem — income tax revenue follows workers home, not to where they work. If land-use policy at the urban fringe keeps making it harder to build attainable housing, we're effectively sending tax revenue to Lawrence County and calling it growth management.

The dormant PUD question deserves the same scrutiny. Retiring old approvals may sound like housekeeping, but a stalled project isn't self-evidently bad policy — it might be evidence of an infrastructure gap, a financing problem, or a City-County coordination failure that nobody fixed. Before the County reduces development capacity, it should understand why that capacity went unused.

The open-space language needs work, and older approvals may need clearer expectations around phasing and public benefit. But there’s a difference between raising the bar and moving the goalposts. The urban fringe isn’t the place to quietly restrict housing under the cover of technical cleanup.

The decisions that shape a community don't always happen in front of a full room. Sometimes they happen in a committee discussion about how to define open space.

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?

At its Nov. 15 meeting, the Bloomington Plan Commission approved the next step in the Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County's Osage Place development. The approval related to 5.34 acres for 30 residential houses and three common areas. The site is located at 650 W. Guy Avenue and is part of a larger 12.5-acre project there.

Construction has already begun and the first houses are expected to be completed by early 2022.

Watch the Plan Commission discussion on CATS here. Read the proposal from the meeting packet here.

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.

The City of Bloomington Planning and Transportation Department will release their preliminary design plans for their upcoming Neighborhood Greenway projects at two public input meetings at the beginning of October. Those who are interested in providing feedback or learning more about these projects are encouraged to attend these meetings at the following outdoor locations:
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• October 1st from 3-5 p.m. at the intersection of E. 8th Street and N. Overhill Drive to discuss the proposed E. 7th Street Greenway from N. Union to the 7th Street Underpass.   
• October 5th from 4-6 p.m. at the Broadview Park Pavilion (704 W. Graham Drive) to discuss the Broadview/Graham Neighborhood Greenway from S. Rockport Road to S. Rogers Street.    

For more information on these Neighborhood Greenway projects, please follow this link to the project's webpage. Staff members will attend both meetings to answer any questions from the public.  

A public workshop to explore the future of Ellettsville is planned for Wednesday, Sept. 15 from 6-8 p.m. at the Ellettsville Town Hall, 1150 W. Guy McCown Drive.

Called Envision Ellettsville, the project aims to create a clear identity and long-term vision for the Ellettsville community. The hope is to provide a framework for future planning.

​Learn more on the Envision Ellettsville website.

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.