A consulting team hired to assist the City of Bloomington in writing a new development code kicked off the process Tuesday night.
City officials hope to adopt a new unified development ordinance, or UDO, in the next year, but it will be a dense process. The document hasn't been comprehensively updated since 2007.
"We have been asked to give the city of Bloomington advice on anything we see that could be done better."
The city hired Clarion Associates, which has worked on about 180 projects across the country and in Canada, to help with the project. Don Elliott is the project manager. He says the main reason for updating Bloomington's UDO is to align it with the city's new comprehensive master plan.
"We have been asked to give the city of Bloomington advice on anything we see that could be done better, not just downtown, not just residential, not just one thing or another thing, the whole thing," Elliott says.
City council members voted in January to approve the new comprehensive plan, following controversial changes to height and density requirements for downtown development.
The consulting group will follow a seven-step process that starts with several public meetings and ends with a comprehensive draft.
According to planning officials, Mayor John Hamilton (D-Bloomington) has appointed members of the community to an advisory council, but some at Tuesday night's meeting voiced their desire to be involved in the process. Elliott tried to ease folks' concerns and says it's an inclusive process.
"Our experience is if you go through this process and you make it as inclusive and honest as possible so that we don't get accused of misleading people, most people can understand sometimes you get your way and sometimes you don't get your way," he says.
Elliott says the group will work with city staff to come up with the best possible changes for the city. City officials say the process will be transparent.
