September 26, 2009

What has the city council been up to?

September 2: Regular Session and Committee of the Whole

The following items were introduced and discussed.

Appropriation Ordinance 09-06: To establish the 2010 Civil City Budget for the City of Bloomington, including creation of the Vehicle Replacement Fund and appropriating money from this new fund in 2009

Appropriation Ordinance 09-07: To adopt the budget for the City of Bloomington Utilities (water, stormwater, and wastewater) for 2010

Ordinance 09-13: To fix the salaries of officers of the Police and Fire Departments for 2010

Ordinance 09-14: To fix the salaries of appointed officers, non-union and A.F.S.C.M.E. employees for all the Departments of the City for 2010

Ordinance 09-15: To fix the salaries of all elected City Officials for 2010

Ordinance 09-16: To approve the budget of the Bloomington Public Transportation Corporation for 2010

September 9: Special Session

To take final action on the above budget ordinances.

September 16: Regular Session and Special Session

The following items were introduced for first reading at the Regular Session.

Appropriation Ordinance 09-08: To appropriate $13,861 from the Electronic Map Generation Fund to hire a consultant for the City’s Geographic Information System. This fund generates income through fees for maps generated by the city. The balance in the fund is $17,967. The City’s GIS system has been in place for almost 20 years, and Rick Dietz, director of Information Technology Services, said it’s time to evaluate how well it is working and what upgrades may be needed.

Appropriation Ordinance 09-09: To appropriate income ($16,498) into the General Fund from a PetSmart Charities Grant to be used by the Animal Shelter for refurbishing kennel floors.

Ordinance 09-17: To vacate four public parcels: A portion of N. Madison St.,West 12th St. and two alleys located between N. Rogers St., the Indiana Railroad, 350 West 11th Street and West 11th Street. (Petitioner: Upland Brewery and Middle Court real estate). Upland Brewery wants to expand but is constrained by Right of Way that the city owns but does not use as public streets and alleys. Therefore Upland is requesting that the city “vacate” the right of way. Whenever ROW is vacated, it becomes the property of the surrounding property owners. In this case, the Madison St. ROW would become property of Upland and Westwood LLC (which owns the property to the east), whereas the 12^th St. and alley ROWs would become the property of Upland only.

The Special Session was to finish discussing amendments to the city’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO).

1. Defining “primary” and “secondary” building materials, which are specified in some zoning districts.

2. Reducing void-to-solid ratios downtown, and establishing such ratios for the downtown part of the B-Line trail. Void-to-solid means a certain % of a building façade must be comprised of windows or doors to add visual interest and fit in with other downtown buildings.

3. Prohibiting residential use on the ground floor along certain streets in the downtown.

4. Requiring landscaping of lots where demolition has taken place unless a development plan is approved.

Then the Council voted to approve the final version of Ordinance 09-12 (Amendments to the UDO) and send it back to the Plan Commission for their information.

September 23: Committee of the Whole

The three items from the Regular Session on Sept. 16 were discussed, plus:

Resolution 09-08: Approving the City of Bloomington utility identity theft protection program. New federal regulations require creditors, including utility companies, to enact “Red Flag” rules to spot instances of possible identity theft. The City of Bloomington Utilities Service Board has adopted a set of procedures to comply with the federal regulations. The goal is to identify instances when someone is trying to use someone else’s identity to set up an account or change an account with CBU. The federal regulations do not deal with the security of personal information that CBU has in its records, but CBU already has procedures in place to protect customers’ social security numbers, addresses, and other personal info.

Update from the Plan Commission

1. Patterson Pointe development: Corner of W 3^rd St. and Patterson Dr.

This site is currently occupied by 14 vacant buildings and one occupied building, the New Tech High School. It is 86% impervious surface. Currently it is zoned Industrial General and Commercial General, plus a portion is a PUD. The developers are seeking rezoning as a new Planned Unit Development (PUD). Proposed are three areas plus an open creek corridor (currently underground):

Area A – 4.93 acres of comercial use on ground floor, residential above

Area B – 11.36 acres of multi-family residential

Area C – 2 acres – New Tech HS

2. McDoel Station development: Corner of S. Morton St. and W. Dodds St.

This site is 1.6 acres currently zoned Commercial Limited which is seeking rezoning as a PUD. Proposed are 19 narrow single-family lots with a portion “affordable housing,” and using several green building features.