March 17, 2025: Theater preview, annexation update, zoning galore, a dandy dog

Relaunch update

For now, I have settled into a twice-a-week pattern (Monday-Thursday) for the morning email, which is called the Almost Daily Bulletin.

Before the shutdown last year, it was a three-day schedule. It's probably fair to say that twice a week does not merit the description of "almost daily," but I hope that you be charitable in your reading. Consider it to be aspirational, indicating a hope that eventually, there will be a Daily Bulletin.

There's an easy answer to a question I've heard a lot so far: Will there be a way to donate money to The B Square? Yes! That's in the works, and as soon as it's ready, it will be announced. By the start of April, I hope it will be sorted out.

If you ever find yourself looking for an old edition of the Almost Daily Bulletin, and you don't want to rummage through your email inbox, they all get posted to the website, too, in their own section.

Weather

Based on the National Weather Service forecast in text and charts here's some advice:

Monday: To start the day, wear a jacket that offers some warmth, but you won't need a winter coat, or an umbrella for the first two days of the week. Wear sunglasses if your eyes need protection, or even if you just like the way they make you look. No one will ask: Why is that weirdo wearing sunglasses today? Monday is a day to wear shades. It's going to be sunny. The morning temps are coming off an overnight below-freezing low of 29°F and won't make it to the forecasted high of 53°F until around 4 p.m.

Tuesday: You can probably start the day with only a light jacket or even no outer wrap—but you might regret not having something that will stave off steady wind of to 7 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. The morning temperature will be coming off an overnight low of 43°F and will climb to 60°F by noon, hitting a high of 71°F around 4 p.m. If you're planning to wear a baseball-style cap, instead of sunglasses to ward off the sun's rays, remember the wind gusts in the forecast, and keep that visor angled down.

Roundup of recent articles

• Constellation’s 'Maple and Vine' offers escape from modern life—with a darkly comic twist Constellation Stage & Screen is presenting Jordan Harrison's play "Maple and Vine," which follows Katha and Ryu as they seek to escape modern life by joining an intentional community living as if it were 1955. The play, directed by Ansley Valentine, is set to run from Thursday, March 27 through Sunday, April 13 and explores themes of nostalgia, identity, and the cost of escaping modern life, including confronting the realities of racism, sexism, and homophobia present in that era.

• 4:56 a.m. March 15, 2025: Tornado Warning for Monroe County, Indiana A tornado warning was issued for south central Monroe County, as well as parts of northeastern Martin County and northern Lawrence County, at 4:56 a.m. on March 15, 2025. Scanner traffic indicated severe thunderstorms capable of producing a tornado located 11 miles north of Shoals, moving at 65 miles per hour, with radar showing rotation and the potential for severe damage

• Annexation update: Bloomington mayor will ask Indiana Supreme Court to overturn Court of Appeals ruling in constitutional case This pending litiation involves city of Bloomington annexation plans for Areas 1C, 2, 3, 4, and 5. After the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling against the city, Bloomington's mayor, Kerry Thomson, announced that she will ask the Indiana Supreme Court to review the case. Thomson's reason for asking the state's highest court to take the case is based in part on what she says is a need for clarity on the right of local governments to manage growth, and address the challenges of a growing regional economic hub.

• Start of process for possible zoning changes halted with 4–4 votes by Bloomington city council At their meeting on March 12, the Bloomington city council did not let the process start to make some amendments to the text of the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). The resolutions, proposed by councilmembers Matt Flaherty and Kate Rosenbarger, involved parking minimums, and duplexes as allowable uses, among other issues.

On the calendar

The big calendar has seen some improvement since the end of last year. It's still a big pile of events, but there are some filters for different categories. I have not yet classified all the syndicated feeds correctly. The biggest improvement is that all those events will now now load lickety split in your browser.

Alley Vacation in Trades District. On the 5 p.m. Monday (March 17) meeting agenda for Bloomington's redevelopment commission (RDC) is just one new business item—a petition to the city council for vacation of an alley in the Trades District, in connection with the hotel that is planned to be built. For B Square coverage of the hotel project, see Bloomington set to OK $1.2-million land deal for 150-bed hotel in Trades District. The platted alley runs between the two parcels. According to the resolution in the RDC's meeting information packet, "the presence of said alley would significantly hinder Alluinn IU’s development of a hotel on the real estate to be conveyed." Here's a map where you can see the two parcels, the alley, and the outline of the Trades District:

Downzoning city "islands" by Monroe County. On the 5:30 p.m. Tuesday (March 18) meeting agenda for Monroe County's plan commission are two items that would change the zoning of couple hundred parcels from High Development Residential (HD) to Residential 1 (RES), which is a downzoning. The land that is the subject of the resolutions is in the unincorporated part of Monroe County, but surrounded by the city of Bloomington as two of the so-called "islands" that are a part of Bloomington's 2017 annexation effort that still has litigation pending.

It is the county commissioner's themselves who initiated the rezone. There are two separate petitions for the two "islands." There are overlapping reasons given for the rezone. According the meeting information packet, the reason for the rezone for one set of the parcels is: "[T]hese areas contain older established neighborhoods, most of the homes use septic systems and currently do not have access to sewer, the presence of karst/sinkholes in the area, and to preserve the overall character of the area." Here's a map:

7th Street stop signs: According to Bloomington communications director Desiree DeMolina, the reinstallation of stop signs on 7th Street along the 7-Line corridor, which has been delayed, will start this week (March 17). That coincides with Indiana University's spring break.

Nobel Peace Prize, March 26 (Wednesday): This is still about 10 days out. Starting at 7 p.m. at First United Church (2420 E. 3rd St.), Ira Helfand will be speaking on the topic of preventing nuclear war. Helfand is a member of the international steering group for International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). ICAN was the winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.

Reporting in the works

Zoning changes initiated by legislative body, instead of property owners? The downzoning on the agenda for Monroe County's plan commission meeting this week has something in common with the failed resolutions that were in front of Bloomington's city council last week. Both involve changes to zoning that were initiated by the legislative body, not by a property owner or the plan commission.

But there's a big difference between the proposals by the county and the city legislatures. The commissioners initiated a change to the zoning of specific parcels—that is, a change to the zoning map. The city council tried to initiate a change to the text of the zoning code.

Despite the failed resolutions last week, the city council did pass two resolutions in November 2024, which directed the city plan commission to prepare text amendments to the UDO (Unified Development Ordinance). Those resolutions covered single-resident occupancy units and affordable housing incentives, respectively.

The state statute on planning gives a planning commission different timelines for map changes and text changes. It looks like the council's resolutions from November 2024 fall under Sec. 607 in the 600 series of state planning code, because they initiate an amendment to the text (not zone maps) of the zoning ordinance. Sec. 607 lays out an explicit timeframe for two plan commission events: a public hearing and a vote. For both events there's a 60-day window for plan commission action. From the code (emphasis added in bold):

Sec. 607. (c) On receiving or initiating the proposal, the commission shall, within sixty (60) days, hold a public hearing in accordance with section 604 of this chapter. The commission shall vote on the proposal not later than sixty (60) days after the commission holds the public hearing. Within ten (10) business days after the commission determines its recommendation (if any), the commission shall certify the proposal under section 605 of this chapter.

Those two resolutions have appeared on some city plan commission agendas since the start of the year. Based on plan commission deliberations so far this year, the city council and the planning staff both seem to be operating under the assumption that the city council can revise the required statutory timeframe in Sec. 607 to make it longer or shorter, granting extensions as it sees fit.

But from the context of the rest of the statute (especially the 500 series), it looks like that the legislature meant to impose exactly those deadlines for initiated text amendments to the zoning code. It's an intriguing idea that a city council resolution could supercede the requirements of a state statute. The B Square has sent a question to the city council's legal counsel about their understanding of the Sec. 607 requirement that is quoted above. Is that even the part of state planning code that applies to the council's resolutions?

Meet Dandy!

The shelter staff note says: "I am new to the shelter and we are all getting to know each other. If you are interested in adopting stop by the shelter for a visit." Let's try and make Dandy's stay at the shelter a super brief one!

Photo Finish (from B There)
3rd Street & Clarizz Boulevard

For more items like these, see the B There section of the B Square website.

You might notice that today's featured item was contributed by a reader, not by me. If you, too, would like to consider occasionally contributing to The B Square brief factual observations about the world outside your own head, as you go about your normal business, let me know. (Photos are optional for B There.) If you're looking at this bulletin in your email inbox, you should be able to reach me by hitting Reply.

Thanks for reading. I hope your week is off to a great start!

Dave Askins
734-645-2633
dave@bsquarebulletin.com