Tag: parking minimums

City council’s tighter parking space limits left alone by short-handed Bloomington plan commission

From left: city council administrator attorney Stephen Lucas and planning director Scott Robinson.
From left: Development services manager Jackie Scanlan and city council administrator/attorney Stephen Lucas.

The maximum number of parking spaces allowed for restaurant parking in Bloomington will remain, for at least a while, at 10 per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area.

That’s one main result from the Bloomington plan commission’s Tuesday morning special meeting.

The other outcome from the meeting was that stadiums, if any new private facilities get built, will have a limit of 1 parking space for every 8 seats. That’s instead of the 1 space for every 4 seats that had originally been recommended by the plan commission three months ago.

Those outcomes reflected the amendments that Bloomington’s city council made to the plan commission’s recommended ordinance, when the council took action at its June 21 meeting.

The plan commission’s original recommendation, which it made on April 10, had been to increase the restaurant parking from 10 spaces to 15 spaces per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the plan commission voted 5–0 to approve the ordinance, as amended by the city council. Four plan commissioners were absent.

When changes to zoning code are made, the city council does eventually have the final word—but under state law, the plan commission gets a chance to make the council speak its final word again. Continue reading “City council’s tighter parking space limits left alone by short-handed Bloomington plan commission” →

Bloomington OKs 135-bedroom apartment building across from IU football stadium

The image is from the Pictometry module of property from Monroe County’s online property lookup system taken in February 2022.

A six-story building with 75 apartments and 135 total bedrooms across Dunn Street from IU football stadium was approved on a unanimous vote of the Bloomington plan commission at its regular monthly meeting on Monday.

Construction on the project, which was put forward by University Properties VI, LLC, is expected to start in November and finish by August 2024.

The site spans the block between Dunn and Grant streets along 19th Street. Now on the east end of the site are two vintage 1966 apartment buildings with a total of 30 units. On the west end of the site are two single-family houses that were built in 1950.

The site is north of the Evolve student housing complex. Continue reading “Bloomington OKs 135-bedroom apartment building across from IU football stadium” →

UDO update: Parliamentary prickliness as Bloomington stands pat on parking minimums

On Tuesday night, Bloomington’s city council dispatched about a dozen amendments to its draft unified development ordinance, setting itself up for a realistic shot at handling all the amendments released so far by the end of its Wednesday session.

[For a linked list of all those amendments see The Beacon’s previous coverage.]

Several amendments were adopted by unanimous votes, including one that removes an option for payment-in-lieu of providing income-restricted housing onsite, as part of the public benefit for a planned unit development.

The idea is that developers should incorporate affordable housing into a project, instead of donating a sum to the city’s housing development fund, which the city could then use to build affordable housing elsewhere.

Rejected with support only from its sponsor, councilmember Chris Sturbaum, was an amendment that would have required new buildings to “step back” not just from those with ratings of “outstanding” and “notable,” but also those with ratings of “contributing.”

The most contentious issue of the night was one involving a pair of conflicting amendments on parking minimums, the first sponsored by Sturbaum and the second by councilmember Steve Volan.

Neither amendment passed. Volan’s amendment might have had a chance if the council had been at its full complement of nine members, but failed on a 4–4 tie.

A procedural quarrel over parliamentary matters stemming from the tie vote did not result in a changed outcome. Continue reading “UDO update: Parliamentary prickliness as Bloomington stands pat on parking minimums” →