Bloomington OKs self-storage phasing after apartments in 176-unit complex

The 176-unit apartment complex called THIRD Apartments, on the eastern edge of town, has finished construction.

The owner has now received formal approval from Bloomington's plan commission for a phasing plan that allows a 38,000-square-foot self-service storage facility to be built south of the apartment complex. The self-storage was already a part of the site plan that was approved by the commission in 2021. Bloomington's city council had earlier approved the zoning for the project.

But the self-storage facility has not even started construction.

Approval of the phasing plan came from Bloomington's plan commission at its regular meeting on Monday. The approval of the phasing plan allows the apartment complex to get a final sign-off for occupancy.

The project is owned by an LLC called Overlook on 46. Speaking for the project ownership on Monday, Neal Patel told plan commissioners that the self-storage unit had been delayed due to a financing issue. He put it like this: "The delay to the self-storage was due to the financing of it—which now we have a lender lined up, and we're pretty much ready to go to start construction here, as soon as we get our full construction documents."

Commissioners also wanted Patel to respond to a complaint from a nearby neighbor at 306 S. State Road 446, about flooding that the neighbor thinks was caused by the apartment building construction. Included in the meeting information packet was a letter from Ron Remak, who is president and owner of Bill C. Brown Associates. Remak's letter states "On Monday May 8, 2023, we entered our building to discover significant flooding in our basement. There had been a rain event during the prior weekend. Our basement floors were covered with water and mud. There was standing water on our kitchen countertops."

Remak's letter adds: "[A]dditional construction by Overlook on 46 LLC that is located uphill from our property would likely cause water to drain more quickly toward our property. It is a significant concern to us as adjacent property owners."

Patel described the flooding situation like this: "It was kind of a discrepancy between the neighbor and us. We called our insurance, they called their insurance. Our insurance said…it looked like it was flooded prior, and then their insurance—you know, it was kind of a back and forth thing."

Patel told commissioners his civil engineer had reviewed the site and found everything to be adequate in terms of flood protection. Patel told commissioners that his insurance company had determined that the flooding was not caused by his property.

For commissioners, the approval of the phasing plan was not controversial. Some commissioners were even skeptical that a phasing plan should be required to have an approval from the plan commission. Plan commissioner Jillian Kinzie put it like this: "I probably have some questions about the value or need of doing this at a commission level, but I'm going to spare that or put that aside."

The phasing plan for THIRD apartments was the only item on the plan commission's Monday agenda.