Tag: development

New studies could inform August plan commission review of 6,000-unit development in SW Bloomington

Bloomington plan commission (July 10, 2023)
Close up proximity map of Summit District PUD.
Overview map of Summit District PUD.
Travis Vencel , Sullivan Development
Angela Parker, attorney for the Summit District PUD development team.
Tyler Ridge, president of The Ridge Group, and managing member of Sudbury Development Partners LLC
Rachel Knoble, Weimer Road resident

At its regular Monday meeting, Bloomington’s plan commission completed the first round of its deliberations on a 140-acre rezone request for a tract of raw land in southwest Bloomington.

The property is located east of Weimer Road, and west of the RCA Community Park. It’s also west of some land owned by the Monroe County government. The county-owned land has received some discussion as a possible location of a new county jail facility.

The planned unit development (PUD) rezone of the property, which is proposed by Sudbury Development Partners, LLC, would allow up to 6,000 units of housing to be constructed, in five different neighborhoods over the course of the next eight years.

Commissioners voted unanimously to put the item on their Aug. 14 agenda for another hearing.

By the time of the August meeting, it’s possible that a new regional housing study will have been released. Also hoped for by the time of the second hearing is a utilities study for the development area that is being done by city of Bloomington utilities (CBU).

Another set of information, which will eventually help refine the details of the project, is a traffic study that the development team will be conducting. Continue reading “New studies could inform August plan commission review of 6,000-unit development in SW Bloomington” →

Bloomington plan commission to hear 6,000-unit housing proposal for 140 acres of undeveloped land

The image is taken from Monroe County’s online property lookup system.

A 140-acre tract of raw land in the southwest part of Bloomington could become the site of a five-neighborhood development with up to 6,000 housing units.

A proposed planned unit development (PUD) appears on the Bloomington plan commission’s Monday agenda, which would rezone the area to allow for the Summit District proposal to be built—over the course of the next eight years.

The property is located east of Weimer Road, and west of the RCA Community Park. It’s also west of  some land owned by the Monroe County government. The county-owned land has received some discussion as a possible location of a new county jail facility. Continue reading “Bloomington plan commission to hear 6,000-unit housing proposal for 140 acres of undeveloped land” →

8-story student apartment building on North Walnut OK’d by Bloomington plan commission

Locator map.
Shown are recent student-oriented housing developments approved since 2019.
View of Walnut Street looking south.
Site on North Walnut
Sidewalk gap looking north on Walnut Street between 17th and 19th streets.

At its Monday meeting, Bloomington’s nine-member plan commission gave unanimous approval to an 8-story apartment building to be built at the site of the former Great Wall restaurant on North Walnut street.

The 172 apartments will include a total of 463 bedrooms, with the following breakdown: 19 studios, 5 one-bedroom units, 87 two-bedroom units, 14 three-bedroom units, 12 four-bedroom units, and 35 five-bedroom units.

Other details of the project include 264 parking spaces incorporated inside the building.

Nathan Casteel, an architect with DLR Group, and Olivia Prais, with project owner Core SVA attended the plan commission’s meeting—with Prais joining via the Zoom video conferencing platform. Continue reading “8-story student apartment building on North Walnut OK’d by Bloomington plan commission” →

Planning notebook: Former Great Wall restaurant site could be home to 426 college students

Locator map.
Shown are recent student-oriented housing developments approved since 2019.

The property where The Great Wall restaurant formerly stood on North Walnut Street, across from the northern tip of Miller-Showers Park, is now the site of a proposed 8-story student-oriented apartment building.

The building would include a mix of 3-bedroom, 4-bedroom and 5-bedroom apartments, for a total of 426 bedrooms.

That’s based on a preview of an April 10 Bloomington plan commission item given at a Tuesday morning work session by senior zoning planner Eric Greulich. Continue reading “Planning notebook: Former Great Wall restaurant site could be home to 426 college students” →

Bloomington effectively declares dead any deal to work with Monroe County on convention center

On Friday, in a social media post, the Bloomington’s office of the mayor appears to have abandoned any further pursuit of a collaboration with Monroe County government on the expansion of the county’s convention center.

The statement reads, “Despite hoping to reach an agreement on moving the project forward together, these recent negotiations have concluded without a resolution.”

The statement, made on the Facebook page for Bloomington’s office of the mayor, does not mention Bloomington mayor John Hamilton.

The announcement quotes Bloomington public engagement director Mary Catherine Carmichael saying, “We believe that it’s time to shift focus fully to what we can do to follow through on our commitment to use the city’s portion of the food and beverage tax to expand the space available for conventions and other large gatherings in Bloomington.”

Bloomington’s announcement says “a flexible facility that can accommodate larger groups remains an unfulfilled but important economic and cultural asset missing in Bloomington.” Friday’s announcement says the city expects to announce potential next steps in the next 30-45 days.

The city’s announcement was met with expressions of disappointment from key players on the Monroe County board of commissioners, the Monroe County council, and the Bloomington city council, as well as the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. Continue reading “Bloomington effectively declares dead any deal to work with Monroe County on convention center” →

Bloomington OKs 213 new apartments, 340 bedrooms on north side

At its Monday evening meeting, Bloomington’s plan commission approved the site plan for the construction of 213 new apartments on the northeast side of the roundabout at 17th Street and Arlington Road.

The project to be built by MHG Apartments takes up about 7 acres of land, which is made up of a half dozen different parcels.

It’s a four-story multi-family building that will be home to the 213 new units with their combined 340 bedrooms. The breakdown on the mix of sizes is: 93 one-bedroom units; 113 two-bedroom units, and 7 three-bedroom units.

The plan commission’s vote was 7–1 with dissent from Ron Smith, the city council’s representative to the plan commission.

Smith objected to what he described as the “monolithic” character of the building. “I worry that we have a lot of monolithic apartment complexes in town,” Smith said. Continue reading “Bloomington OKs 213 new apartments, 340 bedrooms on north side” →

Monroe County commissioners deny rezone for 125 single-family houses: “No matter what we do, people are going to be angry with us.”

A rezone petition for a 44-acre piece of land south of Bloomington’s current boundaries was denied on a unanimous vote of the three Monroe County commissioners at their regular Wednesday meeting.

The rezoning, from estate residential (RE1) to medium density residential (MR), would have allowed around 125 single-family houses to be built there, about three times as many as the roughly 40 that would be possible under the current zoning.

Part of the pitch from developers Donnie Adkins and Kevin Schmidt was that the denser development would allow for the houses to be priced around $300,000 to $400,000. That’s lower than the $700,000 or more that houses built under current zoning would likely cost, they said. The site is currently largely open, the site of the former Robertson farm. Continue reading “Monroe County commissioners deny rezone for 125 single-family houses: “No matter what we do, people are going to be angry with us.”” →

Bloomington annexation now two small chunks smaller, votes set for Sept. 15

Bloomington’s city council voted on Tuesday night to exclude two small chunks (Am 02 and Am 03) from the proposed annexation Area 2. The dots representing the population are based on the count from the 2020 decennial count by the US Census (1 dot = 1 person). A bigger chunk that was proposed to be removed (encompassing all the area of Am 03 plus an additional L-shaped piece) did not get enough support, failing on a 3–6 vote.

Bloomington’s city council voted on Tuesday night to exclude two small chunks from one of the proposed areas in the currently pending eight-area annexation plan.

The chunks that are no longer on the table to be made a part of the city of Bloomington, came from Area 2, which also goes by the label “South-East Bloomington Annexation Area.” It wraps around the southeast part of the city, extending from SR 46 on the east, to the Rogers and Walnut area on the south.

Separate votes on the eight annexation areas are set for the city council’s Sept. 15 meeting.

Area 2 no longer extends all the way to SR 46 for its whole width, based on Amendment 03, which was approved on Tuesday night. On an 8–1 vote of the council, the Edgewood Hills neighborhood, accessible from SR 46 via Lori Lane, was removed from the annexation plan. It was Kate Rosenbarger who dissented on the vote.

The Edgewood Hills chunk included 86 parcels out of the more than 6,600 that are a part of the annexation plan.

A slightly bigger chunk that was proposed to be removed in the same general vicinity—which included Edgewood Hills plus an additional L-shaped piece right on the city border—did not have enough support for removal. Amendment 04 failed on a 3–6 vote, with support from its sponsor Ron Smith, who was joined only by Susan Sandberg and Dave Rollo.

Getting unanimous support from the council for removal from the annexation plan was a five-parcel piece of territory, south of the bend where Rogers Road curves north to become Smith Road.

The biggest piece of the territory removed by Amendment 02 is a part of the Sycamore Land trust. So it has little potential for future development or additional property tax revenue to the city.

Developed area versus undeveloped area. https://bsquarebulletin.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ProposedAnnexDevelopedPropertiesMapSewer0826.pdf
Amended areas with 2020 Census decennial count overlay.
Parcels with waivers are a darker shade.

Continue reading “Bloomington annexation now two small chunks smaller, votes set for Sept. 15” →

Plan commission OKs The Mill, 130 more apartment units to be added to Bloomington

Given site plan approval by Bloomington’s plan commission at its Monday meeting was The Mill, a five-building, 130-unit apartment complex in a development in the southwest part of town, near Summit Elementary. Construction is expected to start by August or September.

Sudbury from above perspective Screen Shot 2019-07-08 at 9.08.31 AM
Rendering of The Mill from  the July 8, 2019 meeting packet for Bloomington’s plan commission.

Completion of the project is targeted for August 2020, according to an email to The Beacon from Steve Brehob, who is president of Smith, Brehob & Associates, which is handling the site planning for The Ridge Group, a Muncie-based firm.

According to documents in the plan commission’s packet, each of the five buildings will include 26 units with a mix of studios, 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom apartments.
Continue reading “Plan commission OKs The Mill, 130 more apartment units to be added to Bloomington” →