Tag: Lawrence County

Annexation update: Bloomington mayor, city council to hold closed-door meeting on litigation

The image is a screenshot from the entry in the city’s online calendar.

Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson has called a closed-door meeting with the city council for next Wednesday evening (Aug 14), to brief councilmembers on the city’s pending annexation litigation.

Under state law, the discussion of pending litigation is one of several reasons why a public agency  can hold a meeting that is not open to the public. Indiana’s Open Door Law calls such meetings “executive sessions.”

The pending litigation involves two separate cases, both of which Bloomington recently lost on the circuit court level.

In one of the cases, the city council is a named defendant. The other defendants are the city of Bloomington, John Hamilton as mayor at the time, and Catherine Smith as county auditor at the time. Continue reading “Annexation update: Bloomington mayor, city council to hold closed-door meeting on litigation” →

Second lower court order against Bloomington: ‘[T]he annexation of Areas 1A and 1B shall not take place’

Map of annexation areas. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1_7o1q_H6CpeK-1gdEzDTxnPk84RZQ_E&usp=sharing
Lawrence county circuit court photo of special judge for Bloomington annexation lawsuit Nathan Nikirk

In the trial on the merits for two big annexation areas west and southwest of Bloomington, a circuit court judge has ruled in favor of remonstrators—that is, against the city of Bloomington.

It was mid-afternoon on Wednesday, when judge Nathan Nikirk, out of Lawrence County, issued his order  that says Area 1A and Area 1B can’t be annexed into the city of Bloomington.

In the 47-page order, the line near the end that counted was: “Accordingly, the annexation of Areas 1A and 1B shall not take place.”

Nikirk found that for both areas, the city of Bloomington had failed to demonstrate adequate population density, degree of urbanization, or the city’s need for the land.

In addition, Nikirk found that there would be a significant financial impact on residents in annexed areas, and that annexation would not be in their best interest. Continue reading “Second lower court order against Bloomington: ‘[T]he annexation of Areas 1A and 1B shall not take place’” →

2024 count: Doubling of ‘street homelessness’ in Monroe County’s region compared to 2023

Region 10 as defined by the IHCDA (Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority) is highlighted in red. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1zon3f9bVFom_-k8CXNOoAIm1QIkv7QQ&usp=sharing
Data from this chart is from HUD: https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/3031/pit-and-hic-data-since-2007/
Data for this chart is from the IHCDA (Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority): https://www.in.gov/ihcda/indiana-balance-of-state-continuum-of-care/hmis_data_portal/
Data from this chart is from HUD: https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/3031/pit-and-hic-data-since-2007/
Data from this chart is from HUD: https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/3031/pit-and-hic-data-since-2007/
Data for this chart is from the IHCDA (Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority): https://www.in.gov/ihcda/indiana-balance-of-state-continuum-of-care/hmis_data_portal/

Every January, the IHCDA (Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority) helps organize a PIT (point in time) count of people experiencing homelessness in the state of Indiana.

Released last week, the results from this year’s PIT count show a doubling of unsheltered people (aka the “street homeless”) in Monroe County’s region of Indiana, compared to the 2023 PIT count.

Monroe County is part of Region 10, which also includes Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Morgan and Owen counties. About 75 percent of the total homelessness count for Region 10 is contributed by Monroe County.

In raw numbers for Region 10, the number of unsheltered homeless people grew from 73, as measured in the 2023 PIT count, to 142 in 2024.

The total number people counted as homeless in Region 10 also grew, from 427 in 2023 to 456 in 2024. But that’s a 7 percent increase, compared to the 100 percent increase in the unsheltered count. Continue reading “2024 count: Doubling of ‘street homelessness’ in Monroe County’s region compared to 2023” →

Weeklong Bloomington annexation trial: It’s a wrap, each side gets 45 days to submit final brief

Attorneys in the annexation trial wanted to be able to leave their exhibits in the courtroom overnight, so a sign was placed instructing the cleaning crew to skip the courtroom used for the annexation trial. (May 2, 2024)
Map of annexation areas. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1_7o1q_H6CpeK-1gdEzDTxnPk84RZQ_E&usp=sharing
The image of Reed Quarries is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s property lookup system.

Now over is the trial on the merits of Bloomington’s plan to annex two territories on the west and southwest sides of the city.

Around 3 p.m. on Friday, both sides rested their cases after five full days of witness testimony in the courtroom, located inside the justice center at College Avenue and 7th Street in downtown Bloomington.

This past week’s trial was just about the merits of annexing Area 1A and Area 1B into the city, and did not address a different, constitutional question for other territories, which relates to annexation waivers of remonstrance, which were signed by some land owners.

Over the course of the week, not every witness on either list—for the the city of Bloomington, or for the remonstrators—was called to the stand. Those who did testify included current and former elected officials, current and former city staff, the city’s paid consultants, as well as a dozen or more landowners in the areas to be annexed.

Nathan Nikirk, the special judge out of Lawrence County who is presiding over the case, gave the two sides 45 days to submit their proposed orders in the case, which will include their final arguments. No closing oral arguments were given on Friday.

Before leaving the courtroom on Friday, Nikirk thanked all of the attorneys for their professionalism. He noted that annexation is a “passionate issue.”

Nikirk said he does not know the “perfect answer” on the case but promised to do his “very best.” He would be giving the matter all the consideration that he could, Nikirk said. Even if some are not happy with his eventual decision, Nikirk said he hopes that they understand that he had given it a lot of time and effort. Continue reading “Weeklong Bloomington annexation trial: It’s a wrap, each side gets 45 days to submit final brief” →

March 15: Oral arguments on Bloomington’s constitutional challenge to 2019 annexation law

Remonstration counts for each area. 1 dot = 1 person in the 2020 census.
Lawrence county circuit court photo of special judge for Bloomington annexation lawsuit Nathan Nikirk

Next Friday (March 15) at 8:30 a.m., oral arguments will be heard on Bloomington’s constitutional challenge to a state law about annexation waivers.

It’s part of a long court process to determine how big Bloomington will be in the next few years.

The hearing will take place in Monroe County circuit court at 7th Street and College Avenue.

The state law in question was enacted in 2019. It caused annexation remonstrance waivers to expire, if they were more than 15 years old.

A remonstrance waiver is a document that some landowners signed, agreeing to give up the right to remonstrate against annexation into the city, in exchange for connection to the city sewer system.

At least on the surface, Friday’s hearing on the constitutional question involves just five of the seven areas (Area 1C, Area 2, Area 3, Area 4, and Area 5) for which Bloomington’s city council passed annexation ordinances in 2021.

But a legal thicket involving the other two areas (Area 1A and Area 1B) could have an impact on the way the constitutional case is decided.

Continue reading “March 15: Oral arguments on Bloomington’s constitutional challenge to 2019 annexation law” →

Rural Transit riders might see no change, if parallel service is run to get around urban-to-urban trip ban

Bloomington Transit fixed route ridership numbers.
County councilor Trent Deckard and county commissioner Julie Thomas address the Ellettsville town council. (Nov. 27, 2023)
Ellettsville town council president William Ellis (Nov. 27, 2023)
Bloomington Transit general manager John Connell with BT board president James McLary in the background. (Nov. 28, 2023)
Monroe County council meeting (Nov. 28, 2023)
The blue shading indicates “urban area” as defined by the US Census and Federal Transit Administration. The current, pre-annexation city boundary for Bloomington is shown in black. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1irTiPkrnMPTnxXQcejdpvF0EMyR1jvo&usp=sharing

The actual solution to a transit problem outside Bloomington boundaries might not turn out to be the one that was anticipated by the city council in the first half of August.

That’s when Bloomington’s city council revised local law to allow Bloomington Transit (BT) to operate anywhere in Monroe County, not just inside city limits.

There were independent reasons for expanding BT’s service area.

But it was believed that the legal authority for BT to run service outside the city boundaries would solve a dilemma caused by a recent change in an INDOT (Indiana Department of Transportation) enforcement policy. The change to enforcement affects a long-time regulation on federal funds (Section 5311) for rural transit agencies like Area 10’s Rural Transit.

The basic idea was that BT would start filling in for about 8,000 trips a year that Rural Transit will be prohibited from making, beginning on Jan. 1, 2024.

In federal transit terms, the extra trips that BT was expected to start covering would start and end inside the “urban area” of Monroe County—but would not be entirely contained within the city. (For a trip with origin and destination both inside the city, Bloomington Transit already provides service.)

One example of such a trip would be from Ellettsville to Walmart on Bloomington’s west side. Another such trip is from Ellettsville to anywhere inside the city limits—like the former location of the IU Health hospital at 2nd and Rogers streets. Trips starting and ending inside Ellettsville are also examples.

It seemed like the only question that needed to be answered by the end of this year was: How much would Monroe County government and the town of Ellettsville pay Bloomington Transit for the service?

But now, it looks like Rural Transit might have found a way around the Section 5311 ban against urban-to-urban trips. And the cost for Rural Transit’s proposal is about 70 percent of BT’s proposal.

So a likely scenario is that Rural Transit will, at least for the next year, continue to provide the same urban-to-urban service that it has in the past. Continue reading “Rural Transit riders might see no change, if parallel service is run to get around urban-to-urban trip ban” →

Push for new Bloomington Transit countywide service could come from old rural transit rules

Recent public conversations about extending Bloomington Transit service outside the city boundaries have focused on the western edge of town.

In September 2022, Bloomington’s city council passed a resolution supporting the idea of extending public bus service out to Daniels Way, to serve Ivy Tech, Cook Medical, and other employers.

The council’s resolution came with a caveat requiring an interlocal agreement between Monroe County government and Bloomington about funding the additional service.

The council’s resolution was not merely symbolic. Under state law, it’s the city council that has to approve the extension of bus service outside the city boundaries.

But now, BT is thinking about a bigger kind of expansion than just the western end of the east-west corridor.

In his written report to the BT board last week, general manager John Connell put it like this: “BPTC’s preferred approach to service area expansion would include the entire county.”

BPTC is the acronym for BT’s legal name—Bloomington Public Transportation Corporation.

Already serving the part of Monroe County that is not covered by BT buses is Rural Transit, which is a program of Area 10 Agency on Aging. Continue reading “Push for new Bloomington Transit countywide service could come from old rural transit rules” →