The Bloomington Plan Commission granted major site plan approval Monday for an apartment building on the city’s northwest side. The seven-acre site plan includes six properties on West Arlington Road and abuts the north side of the roundabout by Tri-North Middle School.
Indianapolis-based developer, MHG Apartments, plans to build a four-story apartment complex with 340 bedrooms, spread across 213 units. The apartments will be a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom units.
The site also includes 284 parking spaces, a new Bloomington Transit stop, and almost 1,000 feet of multiuse path on Arlington Road.
The site plan meets all the requirements in Bloomington’s Unified Development Ordinance, but commissioner Ron Smith expressed concern with the proposed color scheme.
“I worry we have a lot of monolithic apartment complexes in town,” he said.
Smith wanted to require the developers to use a variety of colors to make the building more attractive. However, city staff and several commissioners pushed back against regulating color schemes.
“The UDO does not regulate color in any regards,” senior zoning planner Eric Greulich said. “I’m very hesitant and nervous to get into specific color tones.”
Plan commissioner Brad Wisler said standards on anti-monotony have evolved over the years to include window, modulation, material, and roof requirements.
“The line between personal preference on aesthetics and what is regulated in our anti-monotony standards is a fine line,” Wisler said. “If we have projects that meet code and do not satisfy the commission’s desires or the [city] council’s desires for what is monotonous, then we probably need to update the code.”
The commission approved the site plan by a 7-1 vote. Commissioner Ron Smith voted against the site and commissioner Jillian Kinzie was absent.
This story has been updated.
