Bloomington BZA notebook: Variance OK’d for 5-story downtown condos, Duplex case delayed again
A few minutes before 9 p.m. on Thursday, Bloomington’s board of zoning appeals (BZA) started hearing a request from developer Randy Lloyd for a height variance to build a 5-story condominium project on the surface parking lot just west of the CVS on Kirkwood Avenue in downtown Bloomington.
The owners of the Uptown Café are planning to use all of the ground floor and part of the second floor of the new 14-unit residential building, to build a new restaurant. The restaurant space will also be a condo.
Lloyd’s request did not prove to be controversial. About a half hour later, the four BZA members present voted unanimously to approve the variance.
The late start to hearing Lloyd’s petition required the BZA to suspend its rule on concluding by 9 p.m. and not starting to hear a petition after 8:30 p.m. The meeting started at 5:30 p.m.
The long meeting stemmed from the fact that the first petition of the night included several people who spoke from the public mic, mostly against it, as well as complex deliberations by the three BZA members who took part.
The first petition was a request to construct a duplex on an empty lot northwest of Bryan Park in a central Bloomington neighborhood. Duplexes in the R3 zoning district are possible, but only as a conditional use, which requires approval from the BZA.
Because the three BZA members were split on the question of approving the conditional use of a duplex, with the proposed design by Caylan Evans, with Bloom Design + Build, they could not act to approve or deny the request. That’s because under the BZA’s rules, action by the BZA requires a majority of three out of five.
So the three voted unanimously to put off a decision until the next BZA meeting, with the hope that some revisions to either the design of the duplex itself, or the proposed alignment of the driveway, would persuade at least three BZA members that the requirements of Bloomington’s UDO (Unified Development Ordinance) were met.
BZA membership present for hearings
On Thursday, even though four BZA members heard the five-story condo petition, just three heard the request for conditional use approval of the duplex.
That’s because Terry Usrey, who was serving as the alternate for either Flavia Burrell or Nikki Farrell, recused himself. Development services manager Jackie Scanlan said at the meeting that Ursrey recused himself, “because he was not able to watch the tape of the first time that this case was heard in May.”
That meant it was just Tim Ballard, Jo Throckmorton, and Barre Klapper, who heard the petition last Thursday. Ballard indicated support for the duplex. Throckmorton and Klapper indicated opposition.
When the case was heard in May, Ballard and Throckmorton were present, along with Burrell and Farrell. The four deadlocked on a 2–2 vote. On both occasions, Ballard indicated support for the duplex as a conditional use. On both occasions, Throckmorton indicated opposition to it.
For the May hearing, Burrell indicated support, while Farrell indicated opposition.
The July BZA meeting was canceled due to a lack of quorum, which is at least three members.
Duplex as conditional use
On Thursday, the BZA’s handling of the conditional use petition for the duplex was a déjà vu of the public testimony and deliberations from the May hearing—just with a different cast of characters sitting on the dais.
The issue was in front of the BZA, because a duplex is possible only as a “conditional use” in the R3 (residential small lot) zoning district. It’s the BZA that hears petitions for conditional use permits.
Making duplexes a conditional use in some zoning districts, like R3, was part of a political compromise reached in 2021, when the city council was divided on the topic of allowing other housing types in areas of the city that had historically allowed only single-family dwellings.
Bloomington’s unified development ordinance (UDO) includes an allowed use table for all zoning districts. In the row of the allowed use table for duplex use, the column for R3 has a “C” (for conditional use) with an asterisk. The asterisk means that there are use-specific standards that have to be met.
When he addressed the board, Caylan Evans pointed to the relevant criteria of the use-specific standards, which he felt his design met. They involve similarity of specific design elements to other single-family structures on the same block face: roof pitch, front porch width and depth; front building setback; and vehicle parking access.
It’s just those four elements that come into play, Evans told the board.
Klapper countered by saying: “I see ‘general shape, size and design of the majority of the existing single family or duplex structures.’ That’s what I read.”
The section of the UDO in question states:
i. The following design elements of the duplex dwelling shall be similar in general shape, size, and design with the majority of existing single-family or duplex structures on the same block face on which it is located:
1. Roof pitch;
2. Front porch width and depth;
3. Front building setback; and
4. Vehicle parking access (i.e., front-, side-, or rear-access garage or parking area)
Evans questioned whether there are any other factors to be considered other than those four design elements.
Klapper responded by saying, “When you have a front-facing gable, that is a completely different orientation in the way the house presents, period—than a broadside gable.” Klapper continued, “It is a gable, but it is turned 90 degrees.” Klapper added, “It’s pretty direct and straightforward, and I think that it’s been spelled out, the pattern of the street and the predominant architecture.”
Klapper told Evans, “If you disagree with that, I get it. It’s fine.”
Supporting the conditional use for the duplex was Ballard, who cited the expertise of the city’s planning department staff—development services manager, Jackie Scanlan, and senior zoning planner Eric Greulich. The conditional use for the duplex designed by Evans had the staff’s recommendation of support.
Ballard pointed to the factual findings of the staff. He had not heard enough other testimony to “overrule what staff found,” Ballard said. “Eric and Jackie know the UDO like the back of their hand, inside and out. It’s what they do for a living.”
Based on his remarks at Thursday’s meeting, it sounds like Evans might undertake some revisions to the design of the duplex, but will likely focus on the layout of the driveway to address concerns about parking.
It’s not certain that Evans will have any revisions done in time for the petition to appear on the agenda for the next BZA meeting, which falls on Sept. 19. If not, the meeting after that falls on Oct. 17.
Five-story condo next to CVS on Kirkwood
The ONE15 project, which is named after the Kirkwood address, is proposed by Randy Lloyd (Clearpath Services).
Lloyd’s effort to develop the surface parking lot dates back more than a half decade, at least to 2018.
The 2022 version of the project was denied a requested variance by the BZA—from the requirement that at least 50 percent of the ground floor square footage be designed for non-residential and non-parking uses.
Lloyd won a lawsuit over the denial, and the BZA was originally supposed to re-hear the requested variance from the 50-percent requirement. Now, there’s a revised project in play.
For the revised project, there’s a restaurant that takes up the ground floor—and part of the second floor. That means no variance from the 50-percent requirement is needed.
To replace the parking on the ground floor in the previous design, there are now 26 private parking spaces for owners of the condos that are designed for the basement level, with an entrance off the north alley. The project architect is Ben Kunkel with designer Lindsay Taylor Bell.
A combination of sustainable development incentives and affordable housing incentives (payment-in-lieu) get the project to an allowable height of 64 feet.
But the building is designed to be 70.5 feet tall. That’s why a height variance was needed from the BZA.
During her remarks, Klapper said the project is “bringing a lot to the community.” She encouraged the architects and the planning staff to think more about the impact of the strong vertical element in the design and the way it will be perceived from the courthouse square, just to the west.
On Thursday, Galen Cassady, the son of the father-son ownership team for the Uptown, addressed the board, describing their plans for the new restaurant. He led off by saying, “My father, after 50 years in the business, has, I guess, deserved a night off!”
Cassady said that Lloyd’s project gives them the chance to “design this space from the ground up.” He continued, “We’re excited to be a part of it and really bring a fresh new dining concept that is unlike something that you’ve seen in Bloomington before.”
Anticipating a question from the board, Cassady said, “We’re not quite ready to talk about specifically what that is, but it will be a high level dining concept.”
Lloyd has previously said that if all goes as planned, construction could start in late fall or early winter of this year. That would mean the space for the new restaurant on the ground floor could be ready by the end of 2026.
