Tag: Peerless Development

Johnson’s Creamery: No new alley means no swap, but council’s vacation stands, project can proceed

The orientation is west-to-east. A schematic proposing an alternative to an alley vacation. The idea is to relocate the existing alley (red) a bit to the south (blue)
View looking west-to-east of the Johnson’s Creamery alley that is subject of an alley vacation request.

On the list of Bloomington public rights-of-way there is no longer an east-west alley cutting across the former Johnson’s Creamery parcel off 7th Street and The B-Line Trail.

The city council took care of that when it voted 8–1 to grant a request from Peerless Development to vacate the existing alley at that location.  The dissenting vote came from Dave Rollo.

That clears the way for a housing project that Peerless wants to build.

But on Tuesday night, Bloomington’s board of public works denied a request from Peerless to dedicate a new alley, just to the south of the one that had been vacated.

The denial of the new alley dedication does not stand in the way of the plans that Peerless has for development of the parcel with a 51-unit apartment building. The site plan for the building has been approved by the city’s plan commission.

The plan commission’s approval of the building’s site plan was contingent just on the vacation of the alley. The proposed apartment building would have sat partly in the middle of the alley that was vacated on Monday night. Continue reading “Johnson’s Creamery: No new alley means no swap, but council’s vacation stands, project can proceed” →

Bloomington sewer, stormwater rate increases get city council OK

Sanitary sewer manhole in the alley between Kirkwood Avenue and 6th Street, running west of Walnut Street.
Storm drain at Lincoln Street and Kirkwood Avenue.
A Bloomington street sweeper in action in late October 2022 on 6th Street.
City of Bloomington utilities director Vic Kelson addresses the city council (Nov. 16, 2022)

Approved by Bloomington’s city council on Wednesday night were increases to sewer (wastewater) and stormwater rates. Not affected are drinking water rates.

Stormwater rates will increase from $5.95 a month to $7.50 a month for about a 26-percent increase. That works out to $18.60 more a year. [($7.50 – $5.95) * 12] The stormwater rate increase will take effect in January 2023.

On the sewer side, the increases are in two phases, the first in January 2023 and the second two years later, starting in January 2025.

For the sewer monthly service charge, the first bump is from $8.19 to $9.17 and then to $9.72. From the current rate to the Phase II rate, that’s an 18.6-percent increase. [$8.19/($9.72 – $8.19)]

For the sewer usage rate, the first bump is from $7.99 per 1,000 gallons to $8.95, then to $9.49 in the second phase. From the current rate to the Phase II rate, that’s about an 18.7-percent increase. [($9.49 – $7.99)/ $7.99]

Based on past B Square reporting, an average city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) customer who lives inside the city uses 3,300 gallons of sewage service a month.

Comparing current rates to what the rates will eventually be under Phase II, an average inside-the-city customer would see an annual sewer bill increase from $414.68 to $492.44.

The votes on the rate increases were unanimous. Continue reading “Bloomington sewer, stormwater rate increases get city council OK” →

Johnson’s Creamery alley vacated by city council on 8–1 vote, BPW to see request for new alley next week

View looking west-to-east of the Johnson’s Creamery alley that is subject of an alley vacation request.
The orientation is west-to-east. A schematic proposing an alternative to an alley vacation. The idea is to relocate the existing alley (red) a bit to the south (blue)
City engineer Andrew Cibor addresses the Bloomington city council. (Nov. 16, 2022)
City councilmember Matt Flaherty (Nov. 16, 2022).
City engineer Andrew Cibor (Nov. 17, 2022).

By an 8-to-1 tally, Bloomington’s city council voted Wednesday night to vacate an east-west alley that cuts across the old Johnson’s Creamery property off 7th Street and The B-Line Trail.

Taken at face value, giving up that right-of-way clears the way for Peerless Development to construct a 51-unit apartment building, which has site plan approval from the city’s plan commission. The plan commission’s approval of the building’s site plan was contingent on the vacation of the alley.

The proposed apartment building would sit partly in the middle of the alley that was vacated on Monday night.

But the city council’s approval was part of a kind of swap that Peerless is proposing: The vacation of the existing east-west alley would be made in exchange for the dedication of a new alley, just to the south of the existing one.

The dedication of the new right-of-way would have to be accepted by the board of public works. That’s queued up for the board’s meeting next week, on Nov. 22. Continue reading “Johnson’s Creamery alley vacated by city council on 8–1 vote, BPW to see request for new alley next week” →

Bloomington city council preview: Johnson’s Creamery alley vacation; higher sewer, storm rates

View looking west-to-east of the Johnson’s Creamery alley that is subject of an alley vacation request.
Storm drain at Lincoln Street and Kirkwood Avenue.
Sanitary sewer manhole in the alley between Kirkwood Avenue and 6th Street, running west of Walnut Street.

Next Wednesday’s meeting of the Bloomington city council (Nov. 2) will likely feature a renewed consideration of a request by Peerless Development to vacate an east-west alley on the old Johnson’s Creamery building.

According to a memo in the council’s nearly 500-page meeting information packet, it’s expected that a motion will be made at Wednesday’s meeting to take up the item again for consideration. The request was tabled at the council’s meeting in the third week of July.

Also on Wednesday’s agenda are first readings for increases to the monthly sewer and stormwater fees. Because of a 68-year old clause in Bloomington’s local code, no discussion of the rate increases can take place at their first reading on Wednesday.

Based on their pattern of the last couple of months, councilmembers might spend some time debating whether to discuss the rate increases at a committee-of-the-whole meeting the following week, or to skip the committee meeting. A vote to enact the rate increases, to start in 2023, could come on Nov. 16.

Already anticipated on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting of the Bloomington city council was a proposal to install a stop sign at the intersection of Maxwell Lane and Sheridan Drive.  Based on the discussion at a committee-of-the-whole meeting this past week, the stop sign ordinance probably has at least five votes of support, which would be enough on the nine-member city council to pass it. Continue reading “Bloomington city council preview: Johnson’s Creamery alley vacation; higher sewer, storm rates” →

Photos: Brick-by-brick partial demolition of Johnson’s Creamery smokestack starts, as Bloomington watches like a hawk

On Thursday, the partial demolition got started for the Johnson’s Creamery smokestack, located off the B-Line Trail and 7th Street.

Two workers in a metal cage suspended from a crane first removed the topmost metal reinforcement band from around the stack, which they lowered to the ground.

With the metal band out of the way, they used a hand-held power tool to bust up bits of the masonry and shoved loosened bricks over into the hollow interior of the stack.

The work circled the smokestack counterclockwise (east-to-north-to-west-to-south). By the end of Thursday, the first of the iconic vertical letters had disappeared against partly cloudy blue skies. That meant the smokestack would, at least overnight, read “OHNSON’S.”

While workers chipped away at the top of the smokestack, a red-tailed hawk kept watch two blocks east, on top of the antenna affixed to the roof of Monroe County’s Charlotte Zietlow Justice Center. Continue reading “Photos: Brick-by-brick partial demolition of Johnson’s Creamery smokestack starts, as Bloomington watches like a hawk” →

Telecom gear gone from Johnson’s Creamery smokestack, partial demolition to come next week

Workers remove AT&T telecommunications gear from the historic Johnson’s Creamery smokestack. (Aug. 8, 2022)
Workers remove AT&T telecommunications gear from the historic Johnson’s Creamery smokestack. (Aug. 8, 2022)
Workers remove AT&T telecommunications gear from the historic Johnson’s Creamery smokestack. (Aug. 8, 2022)
Workers remove AT&T telecommunications gear from the historic Johnson’s Creamery smokestack. (Aug. 8, 2022)
Workers remove AT&T telecommunications gear from the historic Johnson’s Creamery smokestack. (Aug. 8, 2022)

The actual “H” in the word “Johnson’s”—which is spelled out in the brick on the Johnson’s Creamery historic smokestack, off 7th Street in downtown Bloomington—is now visible.

Until Monday, the letter had been obscured by some AT&T telecommunications equipment that was installed at the top of the smokestack.  Two bars of the telecom gear had been colored white, as a stand-in for the “H” so that the name of the historic creamery was still legible.

On Monday morning, a crew from an AT&T contractor removed the telecommunications equipment from the top of the smokestack.

AT&T had been ordered to remove the equipment by Bloomington’s housing and neighborhood development (HAND) department.

The removal of the gear sets the stage for the partial demolition of the smokestack, which has been ordered by Bloomington’s housing and neighborhood development (HAND) department, because an engineering study determined that the smokestack is structurally unsound.

The smokestack, with its unsafe lean, is supposed to be knocked down from 140 feet to 60 feet.

The Johnson’s Creamery building, which is now its own local historic district, is owned by Peerless Development.

Responding to an emailed question from The B Square, Peerless founder Michael Cordaro indicated on Monday that his contractors should be on site next week to begin the demolition and restoration work on the smokestack. He estimated the time for that work at four to six weeks. Continue reading “Telecom gear gone from Johnson’s Creamery smokestack, partial demolition to come next week” →

Johnson’s Creamery building, 60 feet of smokestack get historic protection from Bloomington city council

Councilmember Isabel Piedmont-Smith
From left: HAND director John Zody and assistant city attorney Daniel Dixon.
HPC advisory member Duncan Campbell.
The 100-foot mark and 70-foot mark are taken from the Arsee Engineer’s report. The 60-foot mark was extrapolated based on the 70-foot and 100-foot marks without adjusting for parallax.

The 140-foot Johnson’s Creamery smokestack will get demolished down to just 60 feet sometime in the next few weeks.

But it won’t get chopped down any shorter than that, because Bloomington’s city council has now enacted a historic district for the building, including its smokestack.

The Johnson’s Creamery is located on 7th Street just west of the B-Line Trail. The trail is temporarily closed where it runs past the smokestack out of a concern for public safety—because the smokestack is leaning and has been determined to be unsafe.

The council’s action came on a 9–0 vote at its regular meeting on Wednesday.

At its meeting last week. Bloomington’s historic preservation commission (HPC) went ahead and issued a certificate of appropriateness for the demolition of the smokestack down to 60 feet. The HPC’s action anticipated the council would establish a historic district for the building.

If the council had not enacted a historic district that included the smokestack, it could have been completely demolished. Continue reading “Johnson’s Creamery building, 60 feet of smokestack get historic protection from Bloomington city council” →

No decisions yet on Johnson’s Creamery smokestack

This photo is from the Arsee Engineers report showing the lean of the Johnson’s Creamery smokestack to the southeast.
Historic district commissioner Reynard Cross at the March 24, 2022 meeting of Bloomington’s historic district preservation commission.

[This article focuses on the procedural issues that have led to the current state of affairs. Namely, neither the Bloomington city council nor the historic preservation commission has taken action, yet.]

If things had unfolded differently on Wednesday, the Bloomington city council could have enacted a historic district for the Johnson’s Creamery building.

And on Thursday, the historic district commission (HPC) could have approved a certificate of appropriateness for the demolition of the former creamery’s smokestack down to 60 feet. The current smokestack, which was built in 1949, is now 140 feet tall.

Neither the city council nor the historic preservation commission took action this week. Continue reading “No decisions yet on Johnson’s Creamery smokestack” →