The Indiana Center for Recovery has walked back its proposal to build two three-story group homes west of downtown Bloomington.
The center withdrew its petition before a Bloomington Plan Commission meeting Monday, at which the second of two required hearings on the item was scheduled.
The proposal sought to rezone 1.66 acres at the end of West First Street from residential to mixed-use healthcare and to build the homes on the north and south sides of West First Street near Walker Street.
But officials have said the proposal is out of place and does not meet the city’s housing goals — in part because of the site’s proximity to the future Hopewell neighborhood. The city plans to develop the former Indiana University Bloomington Hospital site into a mixed-income neighborhood.
There are no mixed-use healthcare zones adjacent to the site; however, the site itself was once zoned as mixed-use healthcare. It changed to residential when the city adopted a new zoning map in 2021.
Cheyenne Riker, a lawyer representing the center, said it purchased properties on the site intending to use them for purposes allowed in mixed-use healthcare zones. In a December 2023 letter to the city, Riker argued the city unlawfully rezoned the property.
He further wrote the center’s patients, who receive treatment for substance abuse disorder as well as mental and behavioral health disorders, are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Fair Housing Act.
The proposal would have eventually needed approval from the Bloomington City Council to advance. Materials from Monday's plan commission meeting show city staff recommended the commission forward the center’s request to the council, but with a negative recommendation.
Two council members — Isabel Piedmont-Smith and Hopi Stosberg, who is also a plan commission member — previously spoke against the proposal.
Riker and center representatives couldn’t be reached for comment.
