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true true true

City, County Officials Discuss Convention Center; Designate Near West Side As Conservation District

By Mitch Legan

Posted December 5, 2019

Volan

District 6 Councilmember Stephen Volan holds an amended resolution at Wednesday's City Council meeting (Mitch Legan, WTIU/WFIU News)

The Bloomington City Council voted to officially request funds from the Food and Beverage Tax Advisory Commission to put toward the proposed expansion of the Monroe County Convention Center at Wednesday night’s meeting.

Councilmember Steven Volan (District 6) said doing so was a necessary technical step to secure funds for Phase II of the project, the design portion.

“This resolution is simply the first step in a three-step process,” Volan says. “First, we ask the Commission to make a recommendation through the resolution. Then the Commission makes a recommendation to this council. And finally, we can bring forward the appropriation ordinance.”

The resolution asks for $5,900,000 to pay architects to design the expansion. It also asked for a retroactive recommendation for $350,000 for Phase I of the project. That money had already been appropriated.

The requested funds total $6,250,000.

A handful of Monroe County officials were in attendance and asked if language could be added to the resolution to ensure money would not be spent until a controlling body is put in place, despite the fact the resolution was only asking for funds to be recommended.  

After nearly an hour of discussion, city and county officials came up with an amendment that satisfied the county:

“Whereas the City Council and mayor intend that the expenditure shall only be made after the contract for design has been transferred to and accepted by a governing entity agreed upon by the city and county.”

The resolution passed, 7-0.

Near West Side

The City Council also voted to designate the Near West Side as a conservation district, as expected.

A conservation district is less restrictive than a full historic district. It’s intended to slow radical change in neighborhoods by reviewing major changes like demolition and new construction.

Residents had been working on the designation for about two years. But efforts ramped up in 2019 because the proposed Unified Development Ordinance originally would have allowed multifamily “plexes” in core neighborhoods.

Just about everyone was on the same page when it came to the designation, saying it was important to protect the core neighborhood – especially considering its history of diversity well before the Civil Rights Movement. Bloomington’s West Side had historically been the side of town where African-Americans could live.

But at-large Councilmember Jim Sims reminded those at the meeting that wasn’t necessarily by choice.

“They did move there, so I don’t wanna dispute that,” Sims says. “But there were real estate agents that would not show houses to black people in other parts of the city [than the West Side]. So that’s how a great majority of the black people got there.”

The Council approved the designation, 9-0.

Now that the Near West Side is officially a conservation district, it will become a full historic district after three years, unless a majority of homeowners object.

The Bloomington City Council will next meet Tuesday, Dec. 10 to begin discussing Second Round amendments to the UDO.

Councilmembers Dorothy Granger (District 2) and Allison Chopra (District 3) left Wednesday’s meeting early.

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