For a special meeting on Tuesday, Bloomington’s plan commission has set an agenda to hear a single petition—for the rezone of nearly 140 undeveloped acres in the southwest part of the city.
It’s located northwest of RCA Community Park.
If the rezone for the Summit District is eventually approved by the city council, the proposal from Sudbury Partners, LLC could lead to the eventual construction of around 4,250 new housing units, plus commercial uses like a hotel, as well as additional roadway, trail, and utility connections. Sudbury also intends to dedicate land for a trailhead and a fire station on the eastern side of the site.
The build-out of the project is planned in five stages, corresponding to neighborhoods, which are named after mountains (Shasta Meadow, Denali Woods, Everest Center, Sandia Place, Whitney Glen). The first stage, with 550 housing units, is not projected for completion until 2028. Later stages call for completion by 2034.
The plan commission’s job on Tuesday night will be to send the rezone request to the city council with one of three messages—a recommendation to approve it, a recommendation not to approve it, or explicitly with no recommendation.
Three plan commission hearings have already been held on the petition—the first one in July last year.
At the time of the July 2023 hearing on Summit District, it was hoped that an update to the 2019 ROI (Regional Opportunity Initiatives) housing study for Monroe County would soon be available. The 2024 update to the study was released last week.
The 2024 ROI housing study update estimates that by 2035, Bloomington will need 4,155 more units of housing.
Included in Tuesday’s meeting information packet is a traffic impact study, which was done by EMCS, Inc.
The traffic study indicates that 10 intersections would need improvements, under four different “scenarios,” which are numbered 1–4. Scenario 1 is current conditions, and the others reflect different phases of the planned Summit District buildout. The traffic impact study recommends improvements for some of the intersections, even based on current conditions.
Also included in the meeting information packet is an environmental study done by Stantec and a sewer impact study by Commonwealth Engineers, Inc.
The planning staff’s recommendation is for the nine-member plan commission to forward the rezone request to the city council with a recommendation of approval—but with 10 conditions, the first of which is a list of amendments to the wording of the requested rezone.
The meeting information packet also includes written public commentary, opposing the rezone, dating from last year, as well as more recent commentary, also opposing it.
The plan commission’s Tuesday meeting is set to start at 5:30 p.m. in the city council’s chambers. The agenda includes meeting access information, including the link to join by Zoom video conference.
The owners and developers should have to bare the costs of development including what will be underground storm sewers, etc. and especially the road improvements which will be required to handle the amount of extra traffic. Weimer road is a problem at both ends now. These costs should not be born by present tax payers!!!
a lot of the costs will be borne by the developers during buildout. and the costs borne by taxpayers will be recouped by the enormous tax revenue from all the new residents.
I’m only weighing in on the proposed neighborhoods. I find it an insult too attach names of other places to something as hyperlocal and meaningful as Bloomington neighborhoods. Shasta, Denali?
Rubs me the wrong way, too. But they are ‘Summits’ and it is ‘Summit District’ so there is method to their whatever…
“The 2024 ROI housing study update estimates that by 2035, Bloomington will need 4,155 more units of housing.”
The study also indicated that 195 additional replacement units would be needed due to demolition.
It assumed a 1.25% population growth rate and that the need for student housing would not increase.
“Nationally, the number of individuals between the ages of 10 and 18 is declining (the population entering colleges and universities in the next ten years), therefore the number of student oriented rental units would likely be leveling off.”
The study included estimates for Monroe County as a whole. Here is a proposed development program for Monroe County:
“Housing Development Program – Figure H.13 distributes the forecasted demand by price point based on the 2020 distribution of household incomes in Monroe County. The following assumptions create the program:
• Based on the declining number of for sale homes but the continued demand for those homes, more ownership options should be constructed than have occurred in the last five years.
» Ownership options should not be seen exclusively as single-family detached homes. Ownership can come in the form of townhomes, single-family attached, and even in multifamily structures.
» Additionally, more rental housing should be in smaller scale structures that have 16 or fewer units. These structures are more likely to meet the demands of young professionals and non-student renters.
• Due to the cost of land, materials, and labor, the production of housing priced below $250,000 will be challenging to impossible. The over 220 units in these price ranges can be generated in four different ways:
» Production of ownership options that are not the traditional single-family detached, but duplexes, townhomes, or other medium and higher density configurations that reduce per unit costs.
» Funding assistance that offset lot development costs and smaller square footage homes.
» Rehabilitation of existing housing units.
» Construction of higher priced units that allow existing households to make the next step up.
• It is important to note that while the median sale price of a home in Monroe County is nearly $300,000, this only reflects the homes sold in a year not the median value of the entire residential stock in the county. The Census does estimate that thousands of units exist across the county that are affordable to households making less than $75,000 a year.”
4,155 more units of housing needed.” Is this single units or just apartments or both?
The Housing Development Program for Bloomington calls for 2,493 owner-occupied units and 1,662 renter occupied units. It further breaks down those numbers by income level. You can see those numbers by following the link in Dave’s story and paging down to FIGURE H.19: Housing Development Program.
Nary a word about the replacement units.