WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:24 — 13.0MB)
Subscribe: RSS
On Wednesday May 19th, the City of Bloomington is set to resume annexation of nearly 10,000 acres of Monroe County land, a process that has become a divisive issue among residents in the city and surrounding areas.
Beginning in 2017, the Annexation process was initially halted after state legislation was passed by the Indiana General Assembly and signed by Governor Holcomb in April of that year. The City of Bloomington would go on to challenge the constitutionality of this legislation in both county and state court, citing two violations of Indiana’s Constitution.
Over the course of the three-year legal battle, the City of Bloomington would go on to receive favorable rulings from both the Monroe County Circuit Court and the Indiana Supreme Court.
In an interview with WFHB community radio, State Senator Shelli Yoder, representative of Monroe County, shared her thoughts on the best course of action moving forward. Sen. Yoder said, “Bloomington residents are a member of Monroe County; it’s not ‘us and them’, it’s just ‘us’. We have to sort out what is going to be a beneficial, collaborative relationship” between community members and City Council leaders.
During the May 11th meeting of the Bloomington Commission on Sustainability, City Council member Matt Flaherty broke down how this annexation process will take shape.
According to the City of Bloomington website, “annexation is a procedure for bringing unincorporated areas of a county into an adjacent incorporated city or town. In short, annexed properties become ‘in the city.’ The process is outlined in Indiana Code 36-4-3, and allows a municipality to expand its boundaries to include existing developed or urban areas and to accommodate future growth opportunities and planning”.
In a community update earlier this year, in April, Mayor Hamilton said that “[he] [agrees] with City Council President Jim Sims who says, ‘As our population increases, it is proven that we regularly reassess Bloomington’s boundaries in the interest of maintaining the health of the greater collective community at large for the long term’”.
Over the past few weeks, City Council has met a handful of times to allow for public comment on the proposal. These City Council meetings saw enough demand for speaking time that they were led to call additional special sessions to allow remaining community feedback to be heard.
WFHB spoke with Peter Dorfman, editor of “The Dissident Democrat” at stopbtownupzoning.org about the community reaction to the annexation process. Dorfman explained why many community members have initially stood in opposition to the proposed annexation.
The City of Bloomington has maintained that this expansion of city limits will be gradual and proportional to the growth of the city population, however, many Bloomington residents are worried about the possibility of rising expenses for property owners in the city.
According to a 2017 interview with local media, “State Representative Jeff Ellington said he was pleased with the annexation’s 2017 pause, citing concerns about increased property taxes for residents who were to be annexed into the city, among other things.” Rep. Ellington would go on to say, “There’s those who purchased property in non-urban areas just for that specific reason. They don’t want to be on a development. They don’t want to be on a city bus line.”
WFHB reached out to Representative Ellington but were unable to reach him prior to broadcast.
Beginning on July 21st, the City will hold public hearings at which they will “review and evaluate boundaries proposed by ordinances” after they have given notice to property owners. Once these hearings have been completed the City Council is expected to meet in September to consider the official adoption of the proposed ordinance changes. Within 30 days of this decision being made the City of Bloomington plans to mail information specific to the “remonstrance process” to the affected property owners.
Under the current plan, those living in newly annexed areas within Bloomington City limits will not see City taxes show up on their property tax bills until 2025. More information on how residents of Bloomington, both current and future, can expect this to affect them can be found on the City’s “Frequently Asked Questions” page regarding annexation.
