Around 61% of Bloomington renters spend more than 30% of their total income on housing, according to a 2019-2024 city analysis.
David Hittle, director of Bloomington’s Department of Planning and Transportation, called this a “crisis.”
“Lots of places are in a housing crisis, especially desirable cities,” Hittle said. “It’s particularly bad in Bloomington.”
Bloomington’s UDO governs both land use and development throughout the city. It creates regulations in zoning districts and designates the type of development allowed in those areas.
To gain insight from the public, the Bloomington City Council will host a deliberation session to learn about the community’s housing needs and experiences at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 10 in the City Hall Council Chambers. Community members can also join on Zoom from a link found on the council’s calendar.
A City of Bloomington news release said there will be conversations with councilmembers, planning staff and Housing and Neighborhood Development staff. Conversations will revolve around “the individual experiences of participants, their housing needs and how their current housing is or is not meeting those needs.”
There will also be an opportunity to discuss local experiences related to housing types like short-term rentals, which have the potential to increase the cost of living and reduce available units. Hittle told the Indiana Daily Student no decisions will be made at or immediately after the meeting. Instead, Hittle hopes to create a list of possible changes to the city’s UDO.
“The goal is to end up with some recommended changes to the housing policy that will hopefully impact the problem of housing attainability for the better,” Hittle said.
Bloomington’s UDO proposals and changes
In 2018, the city began making proposals to update its UDO. While some technical corrections and text amendments were made to the document, the prominent discussions revolved around the addition of three new zoning districts.
These districts included Mixed-Use Student Housing, Parks and Open Space and R4. Bloomington residents were most concerned about R4, which would have permitted several neighborhoods considered single-family residential districts to allow duplex development.
In April 2021, the IDS reported many community members were worried about overcrowding, student rentals and outside rental companies buying property in Bloomington’s “core neighborhoods.”
A month later, the City Council decided to allow duplexes in central neighborhoods, which include neighborhoods in downtown Bloomington and IU’s campus.
Along with that, four new zoning districts were incorporated: R1, R4, MS and PO. Two of these are residential districts, one is Mixed-Use Student Housing and the other is Parks and Open Space.
What about more recent UDO proposals?
In March, the Bloomington City Council hosted a similar deliberation session where attendees could speak on resolutions that would start a process to amend the city’s UDO. However, the IDS reported that the council failed to introduce the resolution before attendees voiced their opinions.
The meeting, originally intended to be a discussion between the community and policymakers, ended with two 4-4 votes, resulting in the council failing to introduce both resolutions.
One resolution included instructions for the Bloomington Plan Commission to introduce new sustainability incentive requirements for developers and to remove minimum parking space numbers on off-street parking spaces across all zones.
The second resolution requested that the Plan Commission draft amendments to the UDO to permit duplexes, triplexes and four-unit homes in residential zoning districts, as well as to ease restrictions on accessory dwelling units.
The city hopes to propose several changes related to ways different parts of the city can be used. A full list of proposed changes can be found on its website.
Matt Gleason, co-lead of YIMBY-ana, a local housing group, said he hopes to hear more discussion about by-right fourplexes and mixed-use zoning. “YIMBY,” short for “Yes in My Backyard,” advocates for inclusive housing development, countering the “Not in My Backyard” mindset that often resists new projects in local communities.
By-right four plexes would allow groups of at least four people to occupy the same piece of land that is currently occupied by just one. The goal of this is to allow more housing units within existing neighborhoods. Gleason said by-right fourplexes would be best in high demand areas, such as around IU’s campus
Additional mixed-use zoning would allow the land to be used for a combination of different purposes within a single area or building, such as residential and office spaces.
“It would be beneficial to expand that housing type to other neighborhoods that are currently pretty low density and also maybe have food deserts or healthcare deserts that can sort of start to tackle,” Gleason said.
According to a 2018 City of Bloomington report, the city has two food deserts. Area one includes IU’s campus and student housing surrounding it. The second area includes the Broadview, Southern Pines, Sunflower Gardens, Rockport Hills and Evergreen Village neighborhoods.
Gleason also believes it is hard to find housing with a good combination of price, quality and space around the city.
He encourages anyone, including students facing housing issues or poor-quality housing for costly complexes, to attend the deliberation session and advocate for improvements in public and private markets.