Plat for part of former IU hospital site gets OK to go in front of Bloomington plan commission
At its Monday meeting, Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) signed off on a proposed plat for some of the land to be redeveloped as a part of the reuse project for the former IU Health hospital at 2nd and Rogers Streets.
A plat is a map that shows how the land is divided into lots.
What the RDC was approving was the submission of the plat to the city plan commission. Once the plan commission approves it, probably at its Feb. 7 meeting, the RDC will confirm the plat with another vote, according to the RDC’s meeting information packet.
The land in question is bounded by 1st and 2nd streets on the north and south. The boundaries to the east and west are formed by Morton and Rogers streets.
The proposed plat was drafted by Shrewsberry Associates. It’s part of the design work included in the $1,048,880 design contract with the firm that the RDC approved in June of 2021.
In a letter to the RDC from Shrewsberry, the new plat is described as comprising seven lots. Three of the lots are supposed to be developed as mid-rise housing with first-floor commercial spaces. Two of the lots are supposed to be constructed as public space with connections to the B-Line Trail.
The other two lots will include existing buildings. One building is the Centerstone office building, which is owned by Monroe County. The other building is owned and operated by Centerstone of Indiana.
As part of the plat, Madison Street will be extended north from its current intersection with 2nd Street to 1st Street, and a new “greenway street” will be built between Rogers and Morton Streets.
Redevelopment commissioner Deborah Myerson got clarification at Monday’s meeting that a “greenway street” is not necessarily a term of art in the industry, but for this project describes a flexible space—it gets shared with vehicles with a primary focus on the pedestrian.
The highlighted area at Monday’s meeting is the chunk of the hospital reuse project that’s called “Phase 1 East.”
That phrase, “Phase 1 East,” was something assistant attorney Larry Allen said he wanted to make sure was still in the resolution, even if other parts of the site name might be amended. Allen’s remark during Monday’s meeting came in response to a brief back-and-forth about whether to call the land the “old hospital site” or the “legacy hospital site.”
In the future, it sounds like the RDC will be swapping out “old” for “legacy.” IU Health’s communications team now refers to the site as the “Legacy IU Health Bloomington Hospital.”
Bloomington is taking control of the legacy hospital site in a $6.5 million real estate deal. After IU Health’s move from the facility in early December to its new location off the SR-46 bypass, the ownership transfer is not yet complete, based on remarks at Monday’s meeting by Shrewsberry’s Matthew Wallace.
At Monday’s meeting, Wallace gave a timeline for the demolition of buildings on the legacy hospital site. The plans that go into the demolition package are supposed to be ready to go out to bid on Feb. 21, Wallace said. “It’s all contingent still on getting those properties transferred from IU Health,” Wallace added.
