The two-story Peoples State Bank on Kirkwood Avenue could be enlarged to include apartments. However, the bank will remain on the ground floor.
Bloomington’s board of zoning appeals (BZA) Thursday approved variances for a new building on top of 200 E. Kirkwood Avenue. The plan commission is set to review the project Sept. 12.
The property owner, Bailey 8, LLC, is proposing to build an additional two floors above the bank and four floors along its south wall. The existing second floor and top three floors of the new structure will become residential space with 21 apartments.
For one variance, city staff recommended the BZA vote to remove the drive-thru because the Unified Development Ordinance prohibits them within 100 feet of an intersection. However, a project representative said the removal would cause practical difficulties to the existing business.
“The business is a bank,” Studio Three Design principal Tim Cover said. “Their primary customer population comes through the drive-thru and you’re basically asking them to shut down access for their customers.”
Advisory historic preservation commission member Duncan Campbell said the building is an example of an early modern bank, the first of which was built in Columbus.
“One of the key elements of that bank in its iteration was the notion of a drive-up window,” Campbell said.
The other variances would allow the building to be 60 feet tall and mimic the existing design related to windows and façade. The BZA unanimously granted all three variances.
“Sometimes historic and modern-day multiunit development don’t see eye-to-eye, but this is a great blend of that,” board member Tim Ballard said. “It’s going to show people that it can happen in a very unique way.”
Bloomington City Council designated the building a local historic site June 15.
