WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:56 — 8.2MB)
Friday morning, County Commissioners will vote on a document that will shape the development of Monroe County over the next decade. This document is known as the Comprehensive Land Use Plan and will guide the development of all property in Monroe County excluding Bloomington and Ellettsville. This plan is several years in the making and has become a hot point of contention in the county, drawing massive citizen attendence during public comment periods at Commissioner meetings.
Proponents of the current plan say it will conserve county resources, prevent urban sprawl, and reduce erosion. Opponents of the plan contend that it will hinder economic development and infringe on property rights.
Once the Commissioners and the Plan Commission agree on a final draft, the County will begin passing ordinances that reflect the vision of the plan. In spite of the contention against the plan, County Commissioner Mark Stoops supports the current version of the Land Use Plan. He explains that current County ordinances do not reflect the Current Land Use plan and it is his goal to revamp and harmonize both.
“With our current comprehensive plan and ordinances, they’re out of sync”, Stoops explained. “So we have development petitions that will maybe meet the ordinances, but don’t meet the comprehensive plan, and vice versa. And that comes from a lot of fiddling over the years.”
The “fiddling” he is referring to is the fact that Plan Commission members are able to change ordinances at will, but are not able to amend the Comp Plan more often than every ten years. The fact that a Plan Commission can change with each election is why Stoops wants to settle on a Plan that can stand the test of time and political tides.
“There are shifts in politics, but the plan is supposed to be a long term document to guide growth and development in the County. So if there are constantly short-term changes in it, then you get a muddy-ing effect, which is what we have now.”
He says one of the results of the discrepancies between the ordinances and the Plan is the development of various subdivision-style neighborhoods across the County.
“We have quite a few cookie-cutter style developments way out in the county, way out in the rural areas of the county and the county doesn’t have the resources or infrastructure to service.”
Acknowledging the steady population increase of Monroe County, Stoops explains that under the proposed Land Use Plan, development would take place in previously urbanized areas.
“That means no more high density, cookie cutter-style developments in rural areas. Rural areas remain rural,” said Stoops. “That means that density in the urban areas around the core centers of Bloomington and Elletsville will get higher.”
This philosophy of keeping urban areas urban and rural areas rural is the epicenter of the debate over the bill. The real estate development of arm of locally-based Cook Pharmica, known as CFC, has mobilized Cook’s marketing team to warn area residents of what they perceive as a threat to local business, job growth, land use freedom.
“People are concerned about what they may or may not be able to do with their property,” says Jim Murphy, president of CFC. “This plan severely restricts what can be done in rural areas.”
CFC has computed a series of map overlays that account for all areas of land they say that the Comp Plan restricts development on, due to land slope, presence of endangered species, or karst formations. What’s left, according to Murphy, does not leave ample opportunity for job creation.
Stoops, however, thinks that these maps exaggerate the size of the restricted areas.
“This is very much a misinformation campaign,” says Stoops.
CFC and the Cook marketing team have created a website MyMonroeCountyFuture.com, where the organization states that if approved, the Comp Plan will cause those with fewer resources to suffer, while the affluent stand to benefit. The site also claims that local agriculture will continue to decline, sprawl will increase, and the county will lose money.
Commissioner Stoops believes that CFC is fighting his Comp Plan so aggressively because, according to him, CFC a financial stake in land development, referring to the company as a “land speculator.”
Murphy contends with this assertion, stating that they are purely motivated by corporate citizenship. CFC has no financial investment, present or pending within Monroe County, outside the city of Bloomington.
Murphy also indicated that Cook Medical, CFC’s parent company, has no intention of developing medical plants outside of Bloomington and therefore also does not stand to gain financially from opposing the Land Use Plan.
The Monroe County Commissioners will vote on an amended version of the Comp Plan and return it to the Planning Commission. If approved by the commissioners, the planning department can approve or reject the plan. If approved by the planning department, the document is finalized and the county will begin composing ordinances that will put the comp plan document into law. Friday’s vote is scheduled to take place at 9:00 am in City Hall.
-Ryan Dawes
