Several Bloomington residents are concerned about a potential land use change which would allow more multi-bedroom buildings in residential areas.
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The proposed change to the city’s Unified Development Ordinance, or UDO, would allow buildings with up to five bedrooms per residence to be developed in residential areas. The goal is to offer more affordable housing options.
The proposals were heard for the first time at Monday night’s city plan commission meeting.
Resident Stephen Finnerty spoke against the proposal, saying Bloomington’s Housing and Neighborhood Development already struggles to enforce quality guidelines on multi-room buildings. He also referenced the city’s ongoing legal issues with other multi-room buildings, including Malibu House and Crawford Apartments.
Read more: Despite neglect, disrepair of Crawford Apartments, city hopeful for its future
“That's gonna take a lot of oversight for this to happen, especially from HAND,” he said. “I don't think they're keeping up with what they got now, especially if you look at our street and the Pendragon properties.”
Finnerty and other residents also raised concerns about increased traffic.
Hopi Stosberg, president of the city council and member of the city’s plan commission, raised concerns over the legal definition of a bedroom. She said if there is no standard for what defines a bedroom, then landlords could potentially exploit housing code and try to pack in more people than is allowed.
“It might be useful as part of this SRO allowance or SRO definition, to define what an SRO bedroom consists of, so that then we don't have people trying to convert living rooms into bedrooms,” she said.
City council member Isabel Piedmont-Smith said while the council generally supports the goal of offering more affordable housing, the proposed change needs more clarification.
“One thing that seems clear to me is that we need a better definition of single room occupancy because currently it really doesn't seem any different than a house that's rented to multiple students,” she said.
Bloomington’s plan commission voted to push the petition to its next public hearing on Aug. 11.
The Bloomington City Council will also discuss initiating the process to make changes to the UDO Wednesday, July 16.
Several residents also spoke against another proposed change that would allow crop planting, composting or food cultivation on a residential property if it meets certain conditions. Many residents cited concerns over noise, pollution from farming equipment, and misuse of neighborhood land.
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Some supporters said allowing more commercial agriculture in residential areas falls in line with the city’s climate action plan to drop barriers to agriculture access and growth.
The proposal was also pushed to the Aug. 11 public hearing.