The controversial issue of allowing duplexes in Bloomington's core neighborhoods is already a foregone conclusion, but a newly added amendment to the local zoning code will place tighter restrictions on those duplexes.
Thursday night was the third city council meeting this week that discussed the details of legalizing duplexes in the city's core neighborhoods through the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO).
Amendment 1, which was aimed at prohibiting duplexes completely within zoning districts R1-R3, failed Tuesday night. After was Amendment 2, which made duplexes a conditional use within the neighborhoods, and that successfully passed on Wednesday night.
Amendment 3 was Thursday night's objective. Councilmembers Susan Sandberg and Dave Rollo co-sponsored the measure that would put the following limits on duplexes in zones R1, R2 and R3:
A 150-foot buffer shall be created around the approved duplex dwelling. No newly created or expanded duplex shall be allowed in said buffer for a period of two years after the date of approval.
Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) shall approve a maximum of 15 duplex dwellings per calendar year.
"This is a major change in our housing policy, and therefore, we feel that it is important to have the caps and the buffer," said Sandberg.
Sandberg said the intent of the amendment is to create "safeguards" to make sure duplexes do not saturate the core neighborhoods.
When co-sponsors were asked how they came up with a 15 per year cap on duplexes, Rollo said it was taken from a prior UDO meeting where the city's planning services manager, Jackie Scanlan, estimated that no more than 20 duplexes would be formed in the next year.
"We’re estimating at least some number between 0 and 20 are going to occur, so we picked a moderate number," Rollo said.
The 150-foot buffer, two-year grace period requirement was something the city's planning department initially drafted in its UDO proposal, but the Plan Commission got rid of the measure in March.
Scanlan said adding the buffer back into the code is a reasonable fix, but the addition of a cap does not make sense.
"We [city] don’t think that a cap is necessary. If the main concern is too many duplexes in the historic neighborhoods, where the lots are smaller, the separation requirement effectively creates a cap in those areas."
The limits on duplexes raised more questions from other members of the council.
"Let’s say we have 10 or 12 built, and one owner of 30 different rental properties in town chooses to sign up or queue all 30 of their properties? How would that work? Is there some sort of a wait-list?" asked councilmember Matt Flaherty.
Flaherty said everyone in the community generally agrees that small-scale, local development is encouraged with duplexes rather than large developers. So, he wanted to know what measures would be taken to ensure somebody doesn't take advantage of the 15-duplex cap.
Scanlan said there is a six-month reporting period built into the UDO where the city's planning department is required to present a full update on all plex petitions and inquiries to the council.
"This isn’t a perfect solution by any means," said Sandberg. "But I think it was the best we could come up with at the request of our constituents, who want to get some assurance that this isn’t going to be a flood."
Amendment 3 passed 7-2.
There are still two more amendments the council will consider before adopting these new changes into the UDO:
Amendment 4: No duplex dwelling structure shall contain more than two units with two bedrooms each. Projects that meet certain affordability standards may increase the total number of rooms in a duplex to three per unit.
Amendment 5: The proposed development will not cause undo traffic congestion nor draw significant amounts of traffic through residential streets; will not have undue, adverse impacts upon the adjacent property, the character of the area, or the public health, safety, and general welfare.
The city council will begin debating Amendment 4 on Wednesday, May 12 via Zoom at 6:30 p.m.
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