Expected Monday: Green Acres conservation district vote by Bloomington historic preservation group
Next Monday at 5 p.m. in a city hall conference room, Bloomington’s historic preservation commission (HPC) has set a special meeting, to consider a single piece of business: an application to designate about 125 acres in the eastern central part of the city as a conservation district.
[Updated Aug. 12, 2024: The HPC voted 6–1 to recommend that the city council establish the Green Acres conservation district.]
In front of the HPC will be just a recommendation to the city council. It is the city council that will make a final decision about establishing a conservation district.
The proposal is to establish most of the Green Acres neighborhood as a conservation district.
At last Thursday’s (Aug. 8) HPC regular meeting, Monday’s consideration of the conservation district application got some discussion among HPC members.
The meeting set for Monday is labeled on the HPC’s calendar not as an HPC special meeting, but with the phrase “Green Acres Nomination HPC Vote.”
On Thursday, the idea that there would be a vote on Monday, just 14 days after the application was submitted, drew criticism from the public mic, over the Zoom video conferencing platform.
Over the Zoom connection, Caylan Evans with Bloom Design + Build told commissioners that he was speaking on behalf of three property owners in the proposed conservation district. Their chief concern, Evans said, was the fact that the HPC had scheduled a vote, not just a meeting to have a hearing on the proposal—when the city code regulating the conservation district application process gives the HPC 90 days to act.
From BMC 8.08.010: “The commission shall determine its recommendation within ninety days of receipt of a petition.”
“What is the urgency of an immediate vote up or down on this district, when we haven’t even had any dialog, any diving into the petition at this point?” Evans asked. He continued: “Why is the [HPC] rushing to a vote on the first meeting?”
The urgency is driven by the desire of some HPC members to put five houses on Jefferson Street under interim protection against demolition, before the demolition delays on the houses expire, on Aug. 14.
When a demolition permit is requested for a “contributing” structure in the historic resources inventory, there is an automatic 90-day demolition delay, to give the HPC a chance to give the property a historic designation. But in the case of the Green Acres application, residents of the neighborhood have undertaken the process to designate a much bigger area than just the five houses.
For the five houses in question, the standard 90-day delay was extended by another 30 days, which makes Aug. 14 the final day. The releases of the demolition delays—the HPC’s greenlight to demolish the houses—have appeared on the HPC’s agenda since the end of April, but postponed each time.
The HPC staff recommendation about each of the individual houses is to allow them to be demolished. The houses are small, single-story dwellings, built between 1940 and the early 1950s—minimal bungalows or ranches with modest alterations, reflecting common mid-century housing styles.
If the HPC votes to recommend the conservation district to the city council, then they can place the houses under interim protection until the city council votes one way or another on the conservation district.
Last Thursday, the HPC also postponed action on releasing the demolition delays, but not before hearing from Bloomington resident Sarah Alexander, who weighed in for allowing the five houses to be demolished.
Alexander said that every structure in Bloomington were sanctified, just because of the notable people who lived there, then Bloomington would “cease to function as a living and growing entity serving the people of today and tomorrow, and would instead ossify into little more than a temple compound for the ghosts of the past.”
On Thursday, HPC president John Saunders told Evans, who had weighed in over the Zoom connection, that the property owners Evans is representing had a chance to attend any of the required three neighborhood meetings held by the petitioners, to express their concerns. Saunders also encouraged the people that Evans was representing to attend Monday’s meeting to convey their concerns.
Space for attendance at Monday’s meeting could be a challenge, because interest among the public is high, and city council chambers were not available—the plan commission is holding its regular monthly meeting at the same time. So it’s the Hooker Room on the second floor that has been reserved for the event—it was the biggest room available, historic preservation program manager Noah Sandweiss said.
Monday’s meeting agenda includes a link to a Zoom connection.
Last Thursday, Sandweiss briefed the commissioners on some logistical matters, like how many petition signatures the application includes. The application includes 73 signatures including 25 from renters and 48 from homeowners, representing a total of 59 households, 38 of which are owner occupied, Sandweiss said.
Based on The B Square’s manual count of dots on a map, there are over 240 properties in the proposed conservation district. [Added Aug. 12, 2024 at 10 a.m. The figure of 240 refers to the number of properties in the district that are not in the city’s inventory of historic resources. The B Square manually counted another 200 or so properties in the proposed district that are listed as “contributing” in the city’s inventory of historic resources. That means a total of at least 440 properties in the proposed district.]
Included in the meeting materials are Sandweiss’s report to the HPC. His recommendation is in favor of the conservation district, namely that the HPC should recommend a conservation district to the city council.
Sandweiss based his recommendation on criteria found in city code.
According to Sandweiss, the following three criteria are met by Green Acres:
1) Historic:
a) Has significant character, interest, or value as part of the development, heritage, or cultural characteristics of the city, state, or nation; or is associated with a person who played a significant role in local, state, or national history; or
…
c) Exemplifies the cultural, political, economic, social, or historic heritage of the community.
2) Architectural:
….
g) Exemplifies the built environment in an era of history characterized by a distinctive architectural style
After three years, a conservation district is elevated to a historic district, unless a majority of property owners object to the elevation. In a historic district, any exterior alterations are subject to review by the city’s HPC. In a conservation district, it’s just moving or demolishing buildings, or constructing new buildings that are subject to HPC review.
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