We take your questions on the city's COVID metrics, up-tick in cases, Rescue Plan funding, herd immunity, senior citizen parking downtown, UDO zoning, and reaction to IU's new president.
On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton addresses these issues and more during a Facebook Live Zoom event Tuesday. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU. Here are some highlights.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: We've received a few emails, but before we get to those - as of Monday, 25.5% of Monroe County's population over 16 are fully vaccinated, just over 42% have at least one shot, what metrics are you looking at to loosen restrictions when we get there?
Hamilton: I'm very pleased. We're one of the few counties in the state that has kept our restrictions tighter. I think it was a mistake to loosen restrictions in the state when we see these increases in cases and hospitalizations.
We're just going to watch two main numbers, one is how many people are fully vaccinated. We really want to see that number get up to three quarters or more. And the other main number, it's a couple different set of numbers are, what do we see in terms of the positivity rate, the daily case loads, and the hospitalizations. We're glad that the deaths statewide seem to be flattening, which means those who are getting sick, fewer are dying, which is really important. But we've had a 50% plus increase in cases and hospitalizations and positivity rate. And that's really concerning. It's humbling. We're not where we need to be yet.
Christine: Is anyone considering Bloomington's senior citizens (who don't walk or bike) when closing off downtown areas for shopping and eating?
Hamilton: Well, yes, absolutely. We're trying to make sure everybody can have access to facilities, whether they're people with disabilities, inability to walk, etc. Please reach out to any of your venues that you're interested in going to directly if you want to do that.
We're working very closely with the downtown merchants to identify both parklets the little closing of one or two parking spaces to allow some more outdoor seating, to the continued pick up drop off zones, to the half block or black block long closings in Kirkwood, we try to make sure there's access, of course, both for emergency vehicles and also through alleys and other ways for people who need closer access. And if you have any problems, again, talk to the venue you're going to or reach out to our our Human Rights Office can help with that, too.
Vicki: Why do they keep building apartments on every vacant space?
Hamilton: We do see certainly investments in apartments in in Bloomington, some on North Walnut and we're seeing a proposal on 13th Street and others. Joe, you know, one of the things we're trying to do in the new Unified Development Ordinance is steer major student housing developments into zones and actually a new zoning designation for multifamily student housing to steer it close to the university, close to transit lines in the most appropriate places. And that map is going in front of the city council this month.
We do see people wanting to invest in the community to build more housing for students. We see also some developers of single family housing and smaller developments and such. We expect to see more of that in the hospital reuse areas and around Switchyard, we've opened some - there was a ribbon groundbreaking for New Hope For Families, residences, and many others.
So it is true Bloomington doesn't have a lot of vacant land. There are a few large tracts that are undeveloped still. But we do see investors and developers who are interested in building housing. And that's good.
Our community has been growing by about 1,000 people a year, relatively consistently for quite a number of years. And that means those 1,000 people need to live someplace. So people want to be here, whether it's for work, whether it's for education, whether it's for retirement, but all those things, draw people to our community, it's a very popular place to be, it's a very high quality of life.
Steven: What do the people of city or county council think affordable housing is by a numbers stand point? Like single parent with 2 kids. What do they think this person should be able to afford to live?
Hamilton: Bloomington in Monroe County is a very expensive place to live. It's the most expensive housing market in the state of Indiana, both for rental and for ownership. And when we talk about affordable, it's a really important and good question. What do we mean? Well, some of that means finding units that can be rented for $0 a month or $200 a month or $400 a month for people with very low income.
Some of that can mean finding a house that costs $250,000, or $200,000, or $300,000. When we think about affordability and meeting that challenge, we're really talking about families that may be making $60,000 a year or, or $70 certainly $50,000 $40,000 $30,000 a year, that whole range is feeling the pressure.
The kind of standard benchmark that is used is saying you shouldn't spend more than 30% of your gross income on housing. And if you are spending more than that, then you're facing housing pressure, insecurity. So whatever your income is, that's the kind of a benchmark we want to look at.
Cathi: Homeowners are often very vocal in community discussions about local land use and zoning. How could the city of Bloomington get more input and feedback from underrepresented communities such as low income people, homeless residents, and renters?
Hamilton: It's true in many ways in public life that getting public feedback is you don't always get equal voices. You know, voting one person, one vote, that's our concept. Not everybody does vote and some are over-represented. But similarly in public discussions, we'd like to hear the voices of everyone now. That doesn't always happen.
There are people who are more organized to have more time will have more ability to participate in public settings. We do a lot. There's a public city survey in the street right now, that's a randomly selected city survey to try to get a scientifically valid response on a lot of different issues. We, try to make sure we reach out in different times of day in different modalities of meetings to get feedback.
But it is true, one of the jobs of a public official like me, or like a city council member, is to try to remind ourselves that you don't always hear all the voices of everyone who's interested in a project. Blatant example, on the Unified Development Ordinance. Some of the people who care most about a development ordinance don't live here now. They don't live here yet. They want to move here. Well, we don't hear from them. But we have to try to think about what are their interests? And how do we meet them. I do hope we can continue to have civil, civic dialogue, respectful, not discouraging people from talking who may have a different viewpoint from us, but recognizing different viewpoints are welcome. That's how we get better decisions.
READ MORE: Bloomington City Council Begins Discussions On Proposed Zoning Changes In The UDO
Hren: And some of those viewpoints a group that has formed called Go Farther Together, asking the city to reject the proposed upzoning in downtown neighborhoods and restart the process. These residents are really worried that these proposed duplexes triplexes will threaten their neighborhoods, they say it's a fundamental change of prioritizing single family zoning, is that true?
Hamilton: The first thing I'd say this is a five year process. So it really began back in 2016 with the starting of the comprehensive plan, that was a multi year process has now led to the Unified Development Ordinance. It's a long process. So I know sometimes people jump in or feel that the process needs more time. Often, if they're frustrated with where they think the result is going, they want more time to try to make their case.
I do always remind people all these documents are in a three ring binder, we can pull a page out next year, we can change things year by year. This is not a Bible we're creating. We're creating a guide and we can keep changing it. In terms of the duplexes, the basic view I think that's represented in the administration's proposal is this idea of a 'missing middle.' Our country in our state in our community since World War Two has really focused most of the development on single family homes and on multifamily apartment buildings significant sized.
Many people believe going forward, we really need to make sure we make room for this missing middle housing like duplexes and quads and Co-Op housing and townhouses and smaller settings that are in between a traditional single family home and a significant size multifamily. So we like many communities are trying to figure out how do you help that missing middle evolve? It's an evolution. It's not a revolution.
Hren: But the question is, will that threaten their neighborhoods through that missing middle?
Hamilton: No, look, I don't believe so. One thing I always remind people is I think we will see evolution not revolution, if things are going in the wrong direction we can tailor it and tweak it and change it. People felt that way a couple years back about accessory dwelling units, there's a great concern is that going to wreck neighborhoods to allow what are called granny flats or accessory dwelling units and it's proven not to be the case. Now, if anything starts to wreck our neighborhoods, we're all going to want to respond I'm going to want to respond and City Council's going to respond but what we're trying to do I think is enhance the quality of life for more people - make them more inclusive for more people with different income levels and different backgrounds to be able to access our all of our neighborhoods.
Hren: Another concern from those residents, but something we haven't talked about here is that the re-zoning was introduced or, I guess, rejected by city council just a year or so ago. So why go through this again?
Hamilton: I think the debate, for example, about accessory dwelling units or the debate about this missing middle has been has been going on for years. And it will continue to go on for years. This is not ending any debate about where we're headed. The Unified Development Ordinance is a point in time. We're an evolving city and will continue to evolve.
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