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: Let's start with Seminary Pointe. There were about 50 rally members at your doorstep last week, asking for two governmental bodies to negotiate a deal with Homes for All and College Square for the convention center hotel. Do you have any updates?
Thomson: I really don't. You know we have an RFP out, so even governmental bodies cannot meet and negotiate when they have active RFPs. The CIBs ends on Wednesday, of course, and then the RDCs ends on Monday. Seminary Point is not in our ownership, and while I have laid out pathways for that are possible to get some of those units preserved, which of course is a priority, the CIB appears that they are not interested.
We have contributed other properties to the convention center project, and we will move forward in good faith with our project, and if an offering comes through on College Square, then that is part of the convention center. We'll look forward to having that be part of the overall project.
Hren: I did talk to CIB President John Whikehart and he said he tried to talk to the city five times, and every time he was given the answer, no. Does that sound right?
Thomson: No, the CIB has offered no official offers to the RDC, nor have they met with them officially on any of this, so that's not accurate, and we have an open RFP. We're happy to get an offering from them.
Read more: Save Seminary Pointe campaign gains momentum with no clear path forward
Hren: I think his point was you used the word official, and I think he was coming at it from the interlocal agreement with the county and city, was that anything would be done through just a non-official form. Is that something that can be worked on?
Thomson: Well, the interlocal could certainly be updated, but we can't negotiate about land deals when we have an active RFP out for a land deal. So we absolutely can't. We have to get an official offer.
Hren: The other big news is the location of the new jail or what should be done with the current jail. And I know you're part of this as well. Can you tell us where you are right now with that?
Thomson: We had our final meeting on Monday, and the committee decided rather than offering just one choice, we would offer our top choice and then a second choice, as our charge as a subcommittee. And to be clear, the jail is a county project. They run it. They have ownership of selecting the site, etc.
But a subcommittee was called together of both city and county because it'll affect the city in many ways, but the city has to be ready to go with zoning, of course, because any site that they're looking at requires a rezone. The two top choices that are within city limits, and our choices were limited to things in city limits, are to do a rehabilitation of the existing justice center, adding on the Curry Building and adjacent property there.
So we would look to build some kind of annex onto the building that exists and then renovate the existing property. Second choice was provided because there's a lot of discussion about whether or not the jail can be on multiple floors or not. This site at the Justice Building, by necessity, would have to be multiple stories. The second site chosen was the power line property, the Thompson site.
Read more: New lawsuit filed over conditions at Monroe County jail
Hren: We have a lot of emails to get to, let's start with Don. He wants to see a shutdown of the incredibly ugly and face-changing apartment building explosion. He said it doesn't look like Bloomington any longer.
Thomson: I agree. Some of these apartment buildings are not attractive, and unfortunately, our current UDO really sometimes allows things that we never wanted to be built and prevents things that we do want from being built. And so, pay attention to the UDO changes. Talk to council about what you do want to see. And overall, my comment on this is that we should really get to a place that may be more like a form-based code that makes it easy to build good things and hard to build bad things.
Hren: These two are about the Kirkwood Ave. This person is just named W. He said he's all for the pedestrian mall living in communities that had pedestrian malls, and the concerns about access parking were all resolved. These communities attracted visitors and revitalized the downtown area. Will Bloomington be a leader with this?
Thomson: I held a listening session. We got a lot of input. It actually was one of my favorite activities that I've done as mayor, and this is why. People came and they actually listened to one another, and at the end of that session, we had several people say, "You know, I came really set on this outcome. I now see it's more complex than just delivering this outcome."
So for now, we will have an open Kirkwood this year, and so I did veto the council resolution, and I have talked to one of the sponsors of that. It sounds like it's not coming back right now. There's an acknowledgement that we have to do a lot of planning, and we actually have to invest a lot of money if we're going to do something different with Kirkwood, and we have a corridor study planned for Kirkwood that's coming up yet this year.
Read more: Kirkwood closure supporters won't pursue override after mayor's veto
Hren: And then of course on the other hand we have an email from Craig not in favor of closing Kirkwood. He'd be interested in cleaning up People's Park right next to IU, so you get both sides of this.
Thomson: There's lots of needs. The full pedestrian mall outcome is very expensive, and the ask is coming at a time when we have proportionately never had less money in the city. So the council and the administration have a lot of hard choices to make, and it really is literally: Do you want a pedestrian mall or do you want sidewalks throughout the city and potholes filled?
Hren: Bill wants to know why can't the city collect and dispose of trash in space? He's referring to the shoes hanging on the communication and power lines in student areas downtown. Is that up to the Duke Energy or is that up to the city?
Thomson: I am happy to check on that. I don't know who cleans power lines, but my my first comment on that is: Let's work. If you think it's students who are throwing them up there, let's work with the students not to litter in those places.
Hren: Theo writes in 2017, we were charged with an additional 1% on food to help pay for the new convention center. It's been eight years of collecting taxes. Can we confirm that those taxes are truly set aside for the convention center and not for other things?
Thomson: So the food and beverage tax is actually partially set aside for the convention center, but half of that goes to the county, and the county uses it for turf at Karst and a couple of other things. So, in fact, all of that money does not go to the convention center. The city's portion does go to the convention center, and I can assure you, and it's in public meetings and decisions where that money is going, and you can track it through our public systems.
Hren: Christine wants to know, in lieu of giving away the land for a convention center hotel was wondering if the city might consider a long-term lease for the land on which a hotel will be located.
Thomson: It has been considered, and in past proposals, and certainly the RDC is at liberty to consider that again. It's one way that we can entice hoteliers to come invest in a convention center hotel. The economics of a convention center hotel work differently than a standard hotel because they have to guarantee room blocks, and so part of reducing that cost can look like a lease option.
Hren: Gayla wants to know about a federal water infrastructure grant that the city received a couple months ago. So will that result in smaller projected future increases in water bill for residents?
Thomson: Any federal money that we get, of course, goes into the total formula, and we frankly were behind in charging for water. So this this next bump in the cost of water is catching us up to where we need to be for the infrastructure that we need, but all of that is factored in into any rate case.
Hren: Sandy wants to know what is Bloomington doing to create affordable housing for old folks and the workforce?
Thomson: So do watch our Hopewell development. That is going to be really critical. And I was knocking doors last week and heard from someone that they didn't know if they would income qualify for Hopewell. You don't have to be income qualified only if you're going to receive a subsidy. The homes are affordable, and they're affordable at many different income levels.
So those who are wanting to age here in Bloomington in a conventional home do look at Hopewell. We also, I think, are seeing a little budge in the market, and so I think we're going to see some, at least some decreased escalation.
