Transit board wants attorney’s advice on legal requirements for service outside Bloomington

BT ridership is starting to recover, but has still not reached pre-pandemic levels.

A route going outside the city limits was included in a set of recommendations by a BT consultant in 2019. The new route would not necessarily follow the same alignment shown here.

Bloomington Transit’s five-member board wants general manager John Connell to get legal advice on a specific question about the steps, if any, that need to be taken so that public bus service can be offered outside Bloomington’s city limits.

That was the outcome of a half hour’s worth of discussion at the BT board’s regular monthly meeting on Tuesday.

The board’s discussion came after Bloomington’s city council approved an early-September resolution expressing its support for extending BT’s service to Daniels Way, which is west of the city limits. Service to Daniels Way could serve Ivy Tech and Cook Medical, among other destinations.

At its September meeting, the BT board had already discussed the legal significance of the city council’s resolution. Their immediate concern was to determine if the resolution was an adequate legal basis for extending service outside the city limits. It wasn’t.

That was confirmed by BT’s outside counsel, which is The Rothberg Law Firm. In a memo to the BT board, Connell quoted the Rothberg attorney who worked on the question: “[T]he city council resolution is nothing more than a statement of support.” Continue reading “Transit board wants attorney’s advice on legal requirements for service outside Bloomington” →

1 down, 7 to go: Bloomington city council OKs westside area for annexation, recesses meeting until Sept. 22 for remaining votes

Just one of eight proposed areas for annexation was put to a vote by Bloomington’s nine-member city council on Wednesday night.

Councilmembers voted 6–3 to make Area 1A on Bloomington’s west side a part of Bloomington. Dissenting were Dave Rollo, Susan Sandberg, and Ron Smith.

Before taking votes on the seven other proposed annexation areas, the council recessed its meeting until next Wednesday, Sept. 22 at 6:30 p.m.

The 6–3 split on Area 1A was the same breakdown for Wednesday’s council votes on all but one of the fiscal plans associated with the annexation ordinances.

Also on Wednesday, the same 6–3 split divided the council on a proposal to subtract some territory from proposed annexation Area 2, which lies to the southeast of the city. Rollo and Smith moved an amendment that would have deleted from Area 2 a chunk that looked identical to one Smith had previously proposed to delete at a special Aug. 31 council meeting.

The ordinance adding Area 2 did not get a vote from the council on Wednesday. It will have to wait until next week, along with the other remaining ordinances.

Based on the deliberations so far, it looks likely that next week the ordinances that add six more areas, including Area 2, will get majority support by at least the same 6–3 margin.

The seventh piece of territory, which is Area 7 on the north side, is expected to be voted down unanimously, because Bloomington mayor John Hamilton’s administration no longer thinks it needs to be brought into the city of Bloomington.

The unanimous vote to recess the meeting came at 11:21 p.m., which was just short of five hours after the meeting started. Continue reading “1 down, 7 to go: Bloomington city council OKs westside area for annexation, recesses meeting until Sept. 22 for remaining votes” →

Potential amendments to Bloomington’s annexation plan on Tuesday special meeting agenda

Three different map amendments (numbered Am 02, Am 03, and Am 04) appear on Bloomington’s Aug. 31 city council agenda. The amendments would remove some parcels from the proposed annexation Area 2. Am 04 would remove all of the area proposed to be removed by Am 03, plus some additional area, up to the existing city boundary. (Dots on the map are based on the 2020 US Census count: 1 dot = 1 person) Images links to map of all annexation areas.

On the agenda for Tuesday’s special meeting of Bloomington’s city council are three potential amendments to the map for one of the proposed areas in the city’s annexation plan.

The only area that is subject to any potential boundary amendments put forward by councilmembers is Area 2. That’s the area that also goes by the label “South-East Bloomington Annexation Area.”

No modifications to the other seven separate proposed annexation areas appear on Tuesday’s agenda. Area 7, to the north of the city, was not expected to see any amendments, because the ordinance for Area 7 is almost certain not to win city council approval, based on a recent recommendation from mayor John Hamilton’s administration.

Also a part of the package of amendments to be considered on Tuesday are some changes to the ordinances for Area 2 and Area 1A, which would establish an “impoundment fund” and a corresponding advisory board for each of those two areas.

Continue reading “Potential amendments to Bloomington’s annexation plan on Tuesday special meeting agenda” →