Bloomington City Council ● District 5
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Isabel Piedmont-Smith Bloomington City Council ● District 5 |
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City Council Update |
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August 29, 2009 What has the city council been up to? July 1, 2009: Regular Session Legislation for Second Reading and Resolutions Resolution 09-11: To approve an interlocal agreement between the city and the county to receive and administer a Justice Assistant Grant through the US Department of Justice to pay for new audio/video equipment. Vote 8-0 in favor. Appropriation Ordinance 09-04: To appropriate from the General Fund and Risk Management Fund additional money to cover worker’s compensation claims. The additional money for workers compensation is needed mainly because claims from 2008 (which was an unusually high claims year) still had to be paid in 2009, thus draining the 2009 budget. Employee Services director Daniel Grundmann said that 2009 looks like it’s not such a bad year as 2008, and that workers comp should be covered with an additional $250,000. Vote: 8-0 in favor. Appropriation Ordinance 09-05: To appropriate from the Telecom Non-Reverting Fund expenditures for a new “enterprise planning system” for the city. The city staff has decided that they need a new electronic record-keeping and reporting system for financial information, payroll, human resources, grant management, and utilities billing. Information Technology Director Rick Dietz, Employee Services Director Dan Grundmann, and Controller Mike Trexler all spoke in favor of the new system. They are requesting $500,000 from the Telecom Non-Reverting Fund, which is funded by cable franchise fees and currently has a balance of about $1.2 million. Vote 8-0 in favor. July 8, 15, 29 and August 5, 2009: Special Session to consider UDO Amendments The Unified Development Ordinance was adopted in February 2007 and is a set of regulations which governs land use in Bloomington. A series of amendments to the UDO has been proposed by city staff, plan commission members, and city council members. The amendments have all received a hearing by the plan commission and, during the above extended special session, they were heard by the city council, which has the final say as to whether to approve them or not. The plan commission heard 95 amendment proposals and adopted 85 amendments. A few of the amendments not passed by the plan comission were revised and brought to the city council for consideration. Here are highlights of amendments discussed and adopted by the city council during this long special session. Am. 65: Requires that the primary pedestrian entrance to a commercial building be from a public street (not an alley). Am. 67: Allows accessory structures and additions on single-family homes to have flat roofs. Am. 71: Regulates signs along the B-Line Trail. Am. 74: (Isabel) Encourages sustainable development practices including (1) reducing driveway width for some commercial properties, (2) requiring that all parking lots with at least 16 spaces use either permeable paving, rain gardens, or some other type of sustainable stormwater detention system, (3) requiring developers who plan to use green building features to provide details of such plans. Am. 75: (Steve) Converts density from units per acre to bedrooms per acre; Creates a weighting system that encourages efficiencies and 1-bedroom units and discourages 4-bedroom and 5-bedroom units. Am. 79: Adds architectural design requirements along arterial streets. Am. 83: Converts minimum to maximum parking in non-residential, multifamily and affordable single family developments. Am. 91: Severely restricts the use of the “suburban” subdivision to parcels of land no larger than 3 acres. The suburban subdivision is the type of layout found in The Stands, Winslow Farms, etc. Am. 93: (Isabel) Requires a property owner to consult with Planning when they want to remove trees. If the tree is diseased or hazardous, no certificate of zoning compliance (CZC) is required. If removal of the trees would significantly reduce the tree crown cover on the property, a CZC is required and will be granted if the tree crown cover will not be reduced beyond required limits. This will also save trees that were specifically designated to be saved when the development was built. This passed narrowly with 5 votes. Am. 95: Specifically allows urban agriculture and community gardens, providing guidelines for the latter. Unfortunately we did not get through all the UDO amendments during our designated Special Session meetings, and so we will get back to this in September. July 15, 2009: Regular Session Resolution 09-14: To approve expenditures from the Industrial Development Fund to encourage Envisage to stay in Bloomington and to facilitate its move to downtown. The IDF receives funds from the downtown Community Redevelopment Enhancement District (CRED), which captures state payroll, sales, and use taxes as well as county option income taxes from businesses located in the downtown. The current balance in the IDF is $3.9 million. Envisage is requesting $150,000 to help pay for renovation and adaptation of space in Fountain Square Mall to move its business (which is currently by The Fields on the eastside). Danise Alano, director of economic development, argued that the main reason to approve this expenditure is to make sure Envisage doesn’t move its business to another city. Vote: 9-0 in favor. Resolution 09-15: To approve reinvestment of a portion of the state payroll taxes generated by Envisage into the company through a partnership with the state’s economic development commission. Under this agreement, the state payroll taxes which would normally be paid by Envisage into the CRED would instead be paid back to Envisage provided they do indeed relocate to downtown Bloomington and retain their current 34 high-tech jobs. The period of this state payroll tax reinvestment is 10 years (a portion repaid to the company by the city, and a greater portion repaid to the company by the state). Some council members were skeptical that Envisage really needed this economic deal to get them to move to downtown and stay in Bloomington, but the motion passes 9-0. July 20-23: Hearings on the Proposed 2010 Budget General Fund: 2009 2010 Projected revenue: $27,942,790 $31,053,227 Budgeted expenditures: $31,753,521 $30,753,521 City Departments – Budget proposals for 2010 (General Fund plus other funds)
Parks & Rec: $8,161,501 (funded through Parks General Fund and various other funds) Highlights:
Discussion: Sanitation Budget The portion of the budget that received the greatest attention was the sanitation budget. Council member Steve Volan proposed that the city should partner with the Monroe County Solid Waste Management District (MCSWMD) to create a local materials recovery facility, which would sort recyclables and prepare them for sale on the open market. Most recyclable materials have value, but currently the city is not recouping any of that, instead paying $39.76 per ton for Hoosier to take our recycling. (This payment is for plastic, glass, metal only. We don’t pay Hoosier for taking paper.) The MCSWMD is studying the feasibility of opening a local materials recovery facility, and Steve thinks the city should partner with them because it will be wise fiscally to do so. After an initial modest capital investment, the city and county could be making money off its recyclable materials. See http://www.mcswmd.org/ (click on the link under “What’s new?”) to read the plan for the facility. To send a message to the city administration that we would like them to seriously consider involvement with the proposed local facility, 5 council members voted “pass” (abstained) on the sanitation department budget. August 5, 2009: Regular Session Committee Reports:
Upcoming: September 2, 2009: Regular Session and Committee of the Whole The city budget proposal will be discussed further.
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Paid for by Isabel Piedmont-Smith |
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