Tag: sustainability incentives

140-acre rezone proposal gets first hearing from Bloomington city council, to continue on May 1

Bloomington city council meeting on April 17, 2024. Andy Ruff attended on the Zoom video platform. Matt Flaherty was absent.
Councilmember Isak Asare distributes to his colleagues a handout from the Summit District developer. (April 17, 2024)
Overview map of Summit District PUD.
Close up proximity map of Summit District PUD.
Bloomington city councilmember Hopi Stosberg. (April 17, 2024)
Travis Vencel, with Sullivan Development (April 17, 2024)
, and Angela Parker, legal counsel for Sudbury Associates. (April 17, 2024).
Bloomington’s development services manager Jackie Scanlan (April 17, 2024)

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” →

Village Deli gets OK from Bloomington: 4-stack residential, pancakes still on ground floor

“Where am I supposed to get pancakes in the meantime?”

That was Bloomington plan commission president Brad Wisler’s lighthearted question to Village Deli owner Bob Costello, at the commission’s regular meeting on Monday.

Wisler’s “meantime” is the period between the upcoming demolition of the one-story Village Deli building on Kirkwood Avenue and the re-opening of the breakfast joint on the ground floor of a new four-story residential project at the same spot.

Wisler and other plan commissioners had just heard a presentation on the proposal, which would build 25 apartments with a total of 29 bedrooms—11 studios, 11 1-bedroom, two 2-bedroom, and one 3-bedroom apartment.

The ground floor will include a 12-stall parking garage for the residential tenants, who will access it off the rear alley. The ground floor will also have 2,700 square feet of restaurant space, which will be the Village Deli’s new home.

Based on the preview of the project given at a mid-June plan commission lunch session, a possible timeline for completion of the project is August 2023.

All other things being equal, that would have meant about a year-long Village Deli pancake void.

But Costello gave Wisler some welcome news: “Our current plan would be to relocate the Village Deli in another location. So we could continue to provide your delicious pancakes, Brad, and continue to employ the staff that we have, that make our business work every day!”

The project was not controversial for plan commissioners, who gave it unanimous approval. Continue reading “Village Deli gets OK from Bloomington: 4-stack residential, pancakes still on ground floor” →

Bloomington alters zoning to reduce monoliths, spur affordability; city council could push more tweaks

At its Wednesday meeting, Bloomington’s city council approved a raft of changes to the city’s unified development ordinance (UDO) that were in many cases purely technical in nature.

But some of the changes were meant to support specific policy goals— like preventing massive buildings that have been called as “monolithic” in character, and encouraging developers to use the affordability incentives that are already included in the UDO.

Developers will now get a smaller building floor plate “by right.” They’ll get a bit of a bump in square footage if they use either the sustainable development incentive alone or the affordable housing incentive alone. But they’ll get a significant increase in floor plate area, if they use both incentive types.

The changes to the UDO approved by the city council were spread across four different ordinances. The legislation had been initiated by planning staff and recommended for approval by the city’s plan commission.

During an interlude in Wednesday’s proceedings—to solve some remote connectivity issues—Bloomington director of planning and transportation Scott Robinson reminded city councilmembers that they, too, can initiate changes to zoning code. Continue reading “Bloomington alters zoning to reduce monoliths, spur affordability; city council could push more tweaks” →