WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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The Bloomington Plan Commission gave a favorable review to plans for a multi-family development at 2182 West Tapp Road in its meeting last night. Last night’s review included clarification on a request from the city for a 30-year commitment to include workforce housing in the development. Workforce housing units are cheaper to rent and are set aside for people with relatively low incomes. Attorney Mike Carmin, speaking on behalf of developer Regency Consolidated, said a further discussion is need on a new request from the city to extend the workforce housing commitment to 99 years.
“In terms of that, the final nuances are matters we’d like to discuss with counsel. It ultimately is beyond just this petition. If this is the standard or expectation, it’s broader than just this petition, and it to me is really a policy issue. For the commitment of units and for duration, we had set it at 30 years. If it needs to go to 99, we’d like to discuss that with the counsel as a policy issue, and we look forward to doing that.”
Developers have agreed to designate ten percent of the units as workforce housing. That comes out to 12 units out of 111 dedicated as workforce housing. Additionally, the commission expressed concern in last month’s meeting about the lack of public transportation on Tapp Road. Commission member Isabel Piedmont Smith brought up the issue again in last night’s discussion of handicap accessibility.
“I think it’s unfortunate that we don’t have bus service to this area, but I do want to remind everyone that BT access is available for anybody who lives within the city limits. So, somebody who is handicapped in any way can call Bloomington Transit, and have the access bus pick them up.”
The Commission’s favorable recommendation only covers expanding the use of the existing planned unit development to include multi family residences. Ultimately, a site plan will have to be reviewed and approved for the development to go forward.
