A rezone request for about 140 acres in the southwest part of Bloomington will get continued discussion from the city council at its May 1 meeting.
At its meeting this past Wednesday, the city council heard the presentation on the Summit District PUD proposal from development services manager Jackie Scanlan, followed by remarks from Travis Vencel, with Sullivan Development, and Angela Parker, legal counsel for Sudbury Associates.
A PUD (planned unit development) zoning district is a kind of customized zoning district that uses an existing zoning district as a baseline, but diverges from it, in order to deal with challenges that are unique to the district.
On Wednesday, the council gave itself just four minutes apiece for questions of staff and the petitioner. The public comment lasted around 45 minutes.
Highlights from public comment included concerns that have been expressed since the proposal was first heard by Bloomington’s plan commission, in July of last year.
Those concerns included the potential impact on stormwater flows, traffic, and the capacity of the city’s sewer system, in addition to impacts on the visual landscape.
Public comment also included support, based on the additional estimated 4,250 units of housing the rezone could make possible, in five new neighborhoods, over the course of the next 10 years.
The city’s plan commission gave the project a 7–0 recommendation at its mid-March meeting this year.
There did not seem to be any strong overt opposition to the rezone conveyed by councilmembers, during their allotted time for questions. Continue reading “140-acre rezone proposal gets first hearing from Bloomington city council, to continue on May 1”
