Status of historic protection for Green Acres now in hands of Bloomington city council to decide
All the structures in about 125 acres situated in the eastern central part of Bloomington have been placed under interim protection against demolition.
That’s based on action taken by the city’s historic preservation commission (HPC) at a special meeting on Monday night.
The interim protection applies to upwards of 450 properties, even though the original impetus for establishing the district stemmed from a request for demolition of 5 houses in the Green Acres neighborhood—four along Jefferson Street and one on 7th Street.
The decision on interim protection was made only after the HPC voted 6–1 to nominate the area as a historic conservation district. Dissenting on the vote was HPC member Sam DeSollar.
The interim protection will last until Bloomington’s city council makes a decision on establishing the proposed area as a conservation district.
The area includes most of the Green Acres neighborhood. In rough terms, the proposed conservation district is bounded on the west by Indiana University’s campus, on the north and east by the SR 46 bypass, and on the south by 3rd Street.
At Monday’s meeting, the McCloskey Room at Bloomington city hall was packed to standing-room only capacity. The B Square counted 52 people attending the meeting in person, which did not include several more who connected on the Zoom video conference platform. The meeting lasted about three hours.
Comment from the public was a solid mix of those who supported the Green Acres nomination as a conservation district and those who opposed it. Several of the arguments—both for and against—fell outside of the range of criteria that Bloomington’s historic program manager, Noah Sandweiss, listed in his report.
But those arguments are almost certain to surface again, when the question lands on the city council’s agenda.
According to Sandweiss’s report, 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
The application submitted by neighborhood residents contended that additional criteria were met. But Sandweiss stuck to just three.
Sandweiss’s argument that the proposed conservation district meets the first historic criterion, which is related to the city’s development heritage, includes this passage:
Although the western half of Green Acres was platted in 1923 as Highland Homes and contains several blocks of well-preserved 1920s cottages and bungalows, most of the area’s development took place between the 1930s and 1960s, making Green Acres effectively Bloomington’s first postwar suburb.
During public comment time, Sarah Alexander took that description as an opening to critique the suburban character of Green Acres. Alexander said, “According to the petitioners’ own application, the story of Green Acres is the story of the rise of the suburb—of automobile supremacy.”
Alexander continued, saying that a map of the area shows the “destructive path of post war development.” While the southwest part shows gridded streets and alleys, by the time you reach the east side, Alexander said, “You see the beginnings of the disconnected, winding style of development that has transformed the edges of this city into unsustainable sprawl.”
Sandweiss’s argument that the proposed conservation district satisfies the historic criterion involving the cultural, political, economic, social, or historic heritage of the city, includes the following passage:
The development of Green Acres largely coincides with the tenure of Indiana University President Herman B Wells (1937-1962), a period of massive expansion in the size and academic breadth of the University.
As for the architectural criterion, Sandweiss wrote:
Owing in part to its rapid development and integrity of historic resources, the green Acres neighborhood exemplifies the built environment in an era of history characterized by a distinctive architectural style. The bulk of the neighborhood was built up from the 1940s through 1960s with American Small Houses, Ranches, Bungalows, Cottages, and Split-levels. While the neighborhood’s historic period of development spans four decades, the style of much of the neighborhood can be best described as Minimal Traditional— the blending of colonial, craftsman, and modernist architectural influences.
In dissenting, DeSollar pointed to the three criteria named by Sandweiss, quoting out the phrases from them, stressing some of the individual words, which he apparently questioned.
For the criterion related to development heritage DeSollar quoted it like this: “has significant character, interest, or value as part of the development heritage.”
For the criterion related to the social heritage of the community, and the criterion related to the architectural merit, Dessolar quoted them out in turn like this: “exemplifies the historic heritage of the community, or exemplifies the built environment in an era of history characterized by distinctive architectural style.”
DeSollar concluded: “On all three of those, I take some issue, so I am still unconvinced.”
DeSollar’s HPC colleague, Reynard Cross, who was one of the six voting in support, described the situation in terms of the facts that were on the pages of the staff report and in the application.
During the commentary, Cross said, “I heard very little to refute the facts on the page.” Cross said that Sandweiss, as well as the residents who put together the application had done a lot of work to put the facts on the pages.
The four residents who put the application together were: Lois Sabo-Skelton, Margaret Menge, Ann Kreilkamp, and Marines Fornerino.
About the commentary from the public, Cross said, “I didn’t hear anything to refute the facts that matter—the ones on which our decision is going to be made. After reading the staff recommendation in favor of the district, Cross said, “I have not heard anything to make me doubt that these facts are legit.”
Arguments against the conservation district included the idea that a conservation district would decrease affordability, and the idea that existing zoning regulations for the district were adequate for protection and were precisely what had helped the neighborhood to evolve to be the kind of neighborhood where people wanted to live.
Several property owners reported that they had not even known about the proposal until they received the required legal notice of Monday’s hearing in the mail.
On Monday, Caylan Evans, with Bloom Design + Build, reprised a theme he’d made at the HPC’s regular meeting last Thursday. Namely 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. That meant the HPC’s action was a rush, from the point of view of the conservation district, Evans said.
At Monday’s meeting, Bloomington corporation counsel Margie Rice confirmed the point that Evans was making. Rice said that the HPC did not have to be “rushed” in its action, just based on the required timing petition for the conservation district.
Rice said the time-sensitive issue was the Aug. 14 expiration of the demolition delay order that was protecting the five houses on Jefferson Street, for which a demolition permit had been requested. The demolition delay had been extended by 30 days, making the delay period a total of 120 days. But the 120-day span ended on Aug. 14.
Without the HPC’s action on Monday, to recommend that the city council establish the conservation district, the HPC could not have put the area under interim protection until the city council acts, one way or another.
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.
From a legal point of view, it does not appear that the city council has a timeframe within which it has to act on the question of establishing the Green Acres conservation district.
But starting in about a week, the council will be occupied with the 2025 draft budget that Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson is expected to release in a little under two weeks. The final budget proposal on which the council is expected to vote will be presented to the council on Sept. 25.
Documents:
- Green Acres staff report
- Green Acres applicaton
- Green Acres signatures
- Green Acres photos
- Green Acres letters of opposition
- Green Acres UReport in opposition
- Green Acres Yimbyana news release in opposition
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