In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson addresses this issue and more at city hall. 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: Hopewell passed city council a couple weeks ago. In a video you made right after you talked about a groundbreaking maybe early next year, what happens between then?
Thomson: We're thrilled and my gratitude to city council for passing that unanimously. The PUD approval is really a significant step in the process, but we still have to get it platted, which is the process of getting the map finalized and into the record, and we'll be running some small-scale development workshops for builders and developers here in the next several weeks.
We'll be working with lenders as well to put together the mortgage packages and then of course getting the infrastructure finalized. So, there's a lot still to happen before we can allocate and sell lots, but we are starting to take names. People are eager to live at Hopewell, and we're having people come forward who want to be part of the development community on Hopewell.
Hren: There's a lot to unpack during that process. At the very end of the council meeting, member Hopi Stosberg said she didn't like the spin the administration was creating and that there were untrue statements to move the project along. Will you address that?
Thomson: Yeah, I frankly have no idea what council member Stosberg was talking about, but housing development is very complex, and the council got pretty into the weeds on future financing and things like that. Those are things that people who've been in the development business for years and years are still learning.
First of all, before delivery, we had two council members on the preliminary team that was looking at Hopewell as it was delivered from the Hamilton administration to help us shape it into what it is today. Then we had a couple of collaborative sessions with council on what Hopewell could be, including one in December, and so I think Council Member Stosberg was frustrated that that the PUD probably was not her ideal process, it was not mine either.
Unfortunately, our development code doesn't allow for several of the things that we really needed to do to keep these things affordable, and I think that it's worth saying that that planned unit development is something that you do because the code does not allow for what you are seeking to do, it exempts you from the current code and to get in some new innovative ideas and try them out.
I think that while we may not be able to deliver the bottom-line prices that we had originally hoped to, because council has added some things, and we've had quite a significant delay in being able to approve this, so we won't be building this year. We still are coming forward with a great product, and something really to celebrate.
Hren: Back in the State of the City Address, you talked about building audits that were close to finishing up, because a common theme that we've heard about, I think you've said it too, is how difficult it is in Bloomington to go through permitting and approvals to build here.
Thomson: The audits are nearly complete. I think Hopewell was a perfect example of it's really difficult to build in Bloomington. I was getting calls from developers during that process, saying, if the city can't get this through, who can, and so what we need to do really is to make our code be clear enough.
We need the things in code that are going to allow residential development to happen, because time is literally money, and when we get commissions and council involved in adding things to a project, every single thing they add adds dollars to that project, which ultimately costs the end user, and it also costs time, and with inflation as it is right now, and our current geopolitical challenges really impacting the cost of goods, we need to build things efficiently.
Hren: There's also some new legislation this week at city council to amend the seasonal carless Kirkwood, creating something more permanent. So this is going the other direction from this year's cancellation of the outdoor dining program. Is this something you're backing?
Thomson: It came from a couple of council members. We did really intensive data reach and conversations with every single business who's downtown on Kirkwood. We presented those results and made the decision last year.
Council really put it in the engineer's lap for whether or not we're going to open Kirkwood on any given year, and so we had the engineer, along with the rest of our team, had made a really informed decision.
We had some businesses that were really outspoken in private about their concerns about closing Kirkwood, and of course, we have some business that really would like it to stay closed. We also have accessibility issues, so I'm definitely not behind the resolution for this Wednesday.
I have talked to council member Daily, though she's one of the sponsors, and asked why we don't have a deliberation session about it, something where we're not taking a proposal. Once you get a proposal on the table, it's an argument about whether or not you're going to approve it.
If we want to improve the way we're doing parklets, or we want to talk about how to close Kirkwood better, that really involves a conversation, and so the first I had heard about this project was when the resolution landed in my inbox on Friday.
In talking with Daily, she said that this is really just intended to start a conversation, it is not intended to force anybody's hand to really take action on the closing of Kirkwood.
Hren: I want to get to an email that came in from Sarah on the status of Crawford Apartments on the south side of town. I know that was in the middle of pending litigation.
Thomson: We are still in legal conversation. The last I heard, we were waiting to hear back from Beacon's team about what they were able to commit to in terms of supportive services, and so my hope is that we get back to full occupancy at Crawford, and that occupancy comes with a full slate of supportive services, so that people can really succeed when they're housed there.
Hren: James emails in: who on the city council best represents non-IU affiliated citizens to better cater to their needs?
Thomson: From the mayor's office, I'll just say that we have traveling town halls and office hours, and I meet with residents every single day, so I'm not sure what the question is really about, but I would say that there's a lot of input from residents that are not IU affiliated.
While we do have a number of council members that work at IU, we also have many who do not, and I really respect and give a lot of credit to our council members, many of whom involved with residents nearly every day, and so I would say that if you don't know what district you're in, there's a district map on our website, and I would reach out directly to your council member.
Hren: Chris emails in: In some ways the CIB convention center folks will be erasing affordable housing in town without replacing it with housing that's as affordable. What is the city plan to provide for current renters?
Thomson: I encourage current renters, as well as anybody who's looking for affordable housing, to reach out to our HAND department, that's Housing and Neighborhood Development Department. They are just an incredible resource at helping residents. We have a home buyers club for those who are interested in home ownership, and many, many housing resources there. So we definitely want people to have a place to go, and I know that the CIB has, and the county, given notice a while back about these apartments.
Read more: City seeks cleanup order for 6th Street property after violations
Hren: Suzette email in: as a business owner negatively affected by the concentration of homeless population in that south corridor entrance to Bloomington, they want to know what the city plans to do to provide relief from the physical deprecation of structures.
Thomson: So great question, and then whoever asked this question, I invite you to reach out to me directly. I have been personally reaching out to businesses on that South Walnut Street corridor to see what we can do to help, and so we've done things like put a porta potty in at Seminary Park.
We have increased police presence in areas and asked our nonprofit partners to help address concerns that are happening outside the four walls of their building and case workers to really work on seeing what needs need to be met.
We also have a July 1 deadline where if we cannot provide housing, so if somebody does not have a place to go, we will be compelled to arrest them within 48 hours, and so we have a team from the city and county working together on a plan that will hopefully address those housing needs as best we can.
Hren: I want to get your take on the city closing access to a bridge that's just off of West Clubhouse Drive, Old State Road 37, citing safety concerns after a county inspection. At the same time, the city reiterated its position that the bridge is the county's responsibility to maintain.
Thomson: The county has for a long time had responsibility for all bridges over a certain length, and so it's their responsibility to maintain the bridges, even if they're on city roads.
It's just part of the government, the intergovernmental agreements, and our county actually went to the state and lobbied them to change that law. This bridge, however, was already on their maintenance schedule, so they had deferred the maintenance on this bridge, and that bridge is theirs to repair. It is unsafe, and so it's not okay to have people on a bridge. We have been communicating with them, and our hope is that they will take care of that.
