Tag: TIF district

Griffy dam trail crossing gets OK from Bloomington RDC: “It’s not within the TIF—it’s serving the TIF.”

The image is from the April 2022 Pictometry module of the Monroe County online property lookup system.

A gravel path across the top of Griffy dam, including staircase access and safety fencing, with an estimated cost of $375,000, now has approval in concept as a Bloomington redevelopment commission project.

The unanimous vote by the five-member Bloomington RDC came at the group’s regular meeting on Monday. No expenditure of funds was approved with Monday’s vote.

It’s currently possible for hikers to get across the dam by going through a fence, Bloomington parks operations manager Tim Street told the RDC. But the new path will “formalize” the crossing and in places improve the aesthetics of chain link with cedar split rail fence.

The Griffy dam trail crossing is on the list of projects approved by the Bloomington city council and the board of park commissioners in May this year, as part of a $10-million bond package. Half that amount was was made up of parks bonds.

When Bloomington’s city council gave its approval for issuance of the parks bonds, it put the dam crossing last on in its priority ranking.

The low priority ranking by the city council is key to the RDC’s agreement now to make the dam crossing one of its projects to be paid for out of tax increment finance (TIF) revenue. Continue reading “Griffy dam trail crossing gets OK from Bloomington RDC: “It’s not within the TIF—it’s serving the TIF.”” →

Multimodal update: Total right-of-way acquisition costs for 2 Bloomington paths drop by $1.4M

On Monday, two multimodal paths that make connections in the north part of town got a greenlight for their next phases: the acquisition of right-of-way from owners of property along the routes.

In this context, “multimodal” means the facility is engineered for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The approvals from the Bloomington redevelopment commission (RDC) for the next steps were uncontroversial for both projects: a northward extension of the existing B-Line Trail; and filling the gap between Monroe and Grant Streets in the multimodal path along the north side of 17th Street.

Construction for the projects won’t start until 2023.

Both approvals of right-of-way (ROW) acquisition came with a significant price drop compared to the previously estimated cost.

For the B-Line Trail extension, the drop in estimated cost to get control of the necessary ROW was from $897,000 down to $400,000, nearly half a million dollars.

For the 17th Street multimodal path, the drop in estimated ROW cost was even more—from $1,590,000 down to $650,000 for a difference of $940,000.

Between the two projects, that makes $1.4 million less in ROW costs, compared to the amount that was initially estimated. Continue reading “Multimodal update: Total right-of-way acquisition costs for 2 Bloomington paths drop by $1.4M” →

Bloomington OKs a bit more for $4.9M street rebuild at hospital site, as IU Health eyes move

At its Monday meeting, Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) approved a relatively small increase of about $8,000 to the $4.9-million budget of a project that will rebuild 1st Street.

The street reconstruction is set to start construction sometime in 2023.

Even though that’s more than a year away, the event that’s motivating the street work is less than a month down the road.

The street reconstruction is part of a redevelopment plan for the 24-acre IU Health hospital site on 2nd Street, which the city of Bloomington will be taking over from the health care provider as part of a $6.5 million real estate deal.

In a news release last week, IU Health confirmed that its move from the hospital site on 2nd Street, to its new facility on the SR 45/46 bypass, is on course for Dec. 5. Continue reading “Bloomington OKs a bit more for $4.9M street rebuild at hospital site, as IU Health eyes move” →