(From left) Bloomington City Council members Susan Sandberg, Isabel Piedmont-Smith and Sue Sgambelluri.
(Courtesy of Community Access Television Services (CATS))
A handful of elected leaders would like to see the new Monroe County jail built at the county-owned Thomson property on Bloomington’s southwest side.
That was the main takeaway of a Friday Bloomington City Council work session dedicated solely to the topic of potential sites for a new facility.
Four of the nine council members — Isabel Piedmont-Smith, Sue Sgambelluri, Ron Smith and Susan Sandberg — were present. Joining them were County Commissioner Julie Thomas and County Attorney Jeff Cockerill.
To date, DLZ — the firm selected by the commissioners to master plan a new jail — have reviewed four potential sites: two sites outside city limits along the I-69 corridor, the former site of the Indiana University Health Bloomington Hospital now known as the Hopewell neighborhood, and the Thomson property.
Thomas said the commissioners have not chosen a site yet but are getting closer. One key consideration, she said, will be whether co-location of the jail with other institutions is possible.
“(Co-location) means an entire justice campus will be constructed,” Thomas said. “That justice campus includes all the court services: prosecutor’s office, public defender, community corrections, probation and some of the clerk service, of course, relating to the courts.”
DLZ has said that co-location wouldn’t be possible at Hopewell, according to Thomas.
If co-location isn’t possible, that means a holding facility will be needed downtown so inmates can get to the courts. If that happens, the sheriff’s office will have to transport inmates to and from the holding facility and a new jail.
Thomas said there’s a security risk associated with that option.
Conversely, co-location could separate inmates from social service agencies that are located downtown.
A challenge specific to the Thomson property, according to Cockerill, is the city’s planning ordinances require a site used for a jail to be accessible by a major road. The only major road Thomson has access to is Rogers Street.
The property itself is large enough to accommodate a justice campus, but there’s also a spacing issue because there are several powerlines nearby, according to Cockerill.
“I don’t think space is an issue on this one; I think it could be, ‘How do you co-locate with all these structures in the way; namely the power lines?’” Cockerill said.
Thomas said one of the major differences between Hopewell and Thomson is this: Hopewell would require a long-term expense for transporting inmates, and Thomson would require a short-term capital expense for a new building and ancillary needs.
When asked by Sgambelluri whether the commissioners prefer a site where co-location is possible, Thomas did not provide a definitive answer.
“We’ve heard concerns from city council members about a co-location situation, because it does pull employees out of downtown; it does change the structure of downtown a bit,” Thomas said. “That’s why we wanted to see what you all thought about these two options.”
In this case, the two options Thomas referenced are the Hopewell and Thomson properties. There was little discussion Friday of the two sites outside city limits.
Some council members felt that the planning for Hopewell, which the city wants to make a site for mixed-income housing, is too far along at this point.
Piedmont-Smith, who is on the Hopewell steering committee, described that option as a non-starter and said she prefers the Thomson property for a new jail.
“There have been massive investments in public outreach and planning and scoping and engineering; everything you can imagine,” Piedmont-Smith said. “I just don’t think that would be fair to our community to just throw that all away and say, ‘No, now we have to redo it.’”
Thomas said the Thomson property was first considered as as a possible site for affordable housing before a new jail.
Piedmont-Smith said she is unconcerned about losing the opportunity for housing there, because there are already plans for nearly 6,000 housing units on Bloomington’s southwest side.
Sandberg, on the other hand, said she doesn’t consider Hopewell a non-starter but agreed the Thomson property is the better option of the two.
“If (the jail) is not placed within the city, and it’s in one of two locations outside, that doesn’t suit the City of Bloomington at all,” Sandberg said. “Our ability as a city entity to make this work and cooperate and collaborate with the county to make it happen, I think, is of utmost importance.”
Thomas told the council that Monroe County Sheriff Ruben Marté also prefers the Tomson property.
Piedmont-Smith at one point asked if the DLZ has analyzed any other sites within city limits, such as one near the convention center. There’s land to the south, according to Piedmont-Smith, that won’t be needed as part of the convention center expansion project.
Cockerill said that site is smaller than what would likely be needed for a new jail. There’s also the question of whether a jail is suitable for that land, considering its proximity to the convention center.
Sgambelluri stopped short of calling Hopewell a non-starter but said it’s very close to being one for her.
“It would take an enormously powerful argument to convince me to set aside all the work that’s being done to think through Hopewell as a site for housing,” Sgambelluri said. “Whether or not Thomson would be the favorite viewpoint would depend on what the other two are. I would be interested in knowing more about those.”
Thomas and Cockerill did specify the location of the two sites that are outside city limits.
“We haven’t discussed those sites, necessarily, at a public meeting,” Cockerill said. “Some of it has to do with the request of the current landowner … they’ve asked that we not go forward with that publicly.”
Cockerill did, however, say they’re somewhere along the I-69 corridor, one south of State Road 48 and another north of the road. He said both sites are publicly owned.
