Tag: Board of Zoning Appeals

Bloomington looks to ban billboards: Even if outdoor ad firm wins current legal case, sign could be nixed

Looking east at Kinser Pike, along SR 45/46. This Lamar Outdoor Advertising billboard is the subject of litigation.
Excerpt from the city of Bloomington’s zoning map, which shows the location of a billboard that’s subject of litigation.

Last Monday, Bloomington’s plan commission heard a proposal from mayor John Hamilton’s administration to amend the city’s zoning code for signs.

The amendment would effectively make all billboards in Bloomington disappear by 2031. That includes the one off Kinser Pike next to the SR 45/46 bypass, which is currently subject to litigation.

Last year, after the billboard’s owner, Lamar Outdoor Advertising, converted the billboard face to a digital display, Bloomington cited the company for violation of the UDO’s regulations on electronic reader boards.

Lamar is fighting the citation. Even if Lamar wins the court case, the company could eventually have to take down the billboard—if the amendment to the city’s unified development ordinance (UDO) is eventually approved by the city council. Continue reading “Bloomington looks to ban billboards: Even if outdoor ad firm wins current legal case, sign could be nixed” →

Denial of variance for 15 condos could lead to change in ground floor regs for downtown Bloomington

Panorama of existing site, looking north from Kirkwood Avenue (Oct. 20, 2022)
Bloomington BZA member Tim Ballard (Oct. 20, 2022).
Bloomington BZA member Jo Throckmorton (Oct. 20, 2022).
Bloomington BZA member Barre Klapper (Oct. 20, 2022).
Attorney Christine Bartlett (Oct. 20, 2022).
Developer Randy Lloyd (Oct. 20, 2022).
Rendering of proposed building from the corner of Kirkwood Avenue and Washington Street.

Just east of the courthouse square on Kirkwood Avenue in downtown Bloomington, the empty parcel next to the CVS looks like it will serve as a paid parking lot at least a little while longer.

On Thursday, Bloomington’s board of zoning appeals (BZA) denied a variance requested by owner Randy Lloyd, which would have allowed the construction of a four-story building with 15 owner-occupied condos.

As proposed, 19 percent of the ground floor is designed as commercial space. That’s why the BZA was asked to grant a variance from a requirement in Bloomington’s downtown overlay—that at least 50 percent of the ground floor square footage be designed for non-residential and non-parking uses.

As designed, the building would include about 20 parking spaces on the ground floor, with the garage entrance off the alley that runs north-south between Kirkwood Avenue and 6th Street.

Lloyd asked for the variance based in part on the idea that the proposed building included the minimum number of parking spaces that would be needed to make the owner-occupied condos and retail space economically viable. Continue reading “Denial of variance for 15 condos could lead to change in ground floor regs for downtown Bloomington” →

Duplex east of IU gets conditional use OK from Bloomington BZA, first one after year of new zoning

In more than a year since Bloomington mayor John Hamilton signed revisions to the city’s unified development ordinance (UDO) into law, just one application to construct a duplex as a conditional use has been heard by the city’s board of zoning appeals (BZA).

The BZA’s approval of that application came at Thursday’s meeting on a unanimous vote by the five-member board.

Grant Properties owner Doug McCoy will now be able to demolish a 432-square-foot house on the lot a couple blocks east of the Indiana University campus, and build a one-and-a-half-story duplex there. The address of the property is 110 S. Roosevelt St. Continue reading “Duplex east of IU gets conditional use OK from Bloomington BZA, first one after year of new zoning” →

COVID-19 curtailment of court activity impacts timing in some Bloomington civil cases

Last Monday (March 16), concerns about the public health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led Monroe County’s judges to use an administrative rule to petition Indiana’s supreme court for the temporary closure of the county’s circuit court.

cropped small masked lady-justice-statue

Other counties across the state filed similar petitions. On Wednesday, Indiana’s highest court issued an order  granting most of the requests made by the judiciary of Monroe County.

One of the scenarios that allows use of Administrative Rule 17 by the local courts is “wide spread disease outbreak.”

The disease triggering the administrative rule is the COVID-19 pandemic. Updated numbers from the Indiana Department of Health on Sunday morning, March 22, indicate the number of confirmed cases in the state was 2.5  times the number two days earlier, including the first for a Monroe county resident. On March 20, the number of confirmed cases in Indiana was 79. The number on Sunday had climbed to 201. The number of tests nearly tripled during that period, from 554 to 1,494. Four deaths caused by COVID-19 have been reported so far in Indiana.

The supreme court’s order will affect the timelines for at least two civil cases involving the city of Bloomington. Continue reading “COVID-19 curtailment of court activity impacts timing in some Bloomington civil cases” →

Zoning board doesn’t yield to COVID-19, grants driveway variances for 4th Street parking garage; Bloomington city council cancels work session

Bill Riggert, engineer with Bledsoe Riggert Cooper & James, addresses Bloomington’s board of zoning appeals on March 19, 2020.
Bloomington’s board of zoning appeals meeting, March 19, 2020.
The Facebook video stream was projected on large screens, so that comments were visible to members of the board of zoning appeals at their March 19, 2020 meeting.

On Thursday night in Bloomington, as the COVID-19 pandemic stalled a lot of public business, some of the People’s work was still getting done.

At the regular meeting of the city’s board of zoning appeals (BZA), a replacement garage at 4th and Walnut streets in downtown got two required variances.

The BZA’s Thursday action clears the way for construction of the project, which is hoped to start sometime around August this year, and be complete in August of 2021.

The BZA’s approval followed the project’s site plan approval by the city’s plan commission almost two weeks ago. Of the 537 spaces to be constructed in the new garage, 352 count as replacements for the spaces that were previously housed in the 4th Street structure, which was closed at the end of 2018 due to structural issues. Continue reading “Zoning board doesn’t yield to COVID-19, grants driveway variances for 4th Street parking garage; Bloomington city council cancels work session” →