WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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This interview was lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Aaron Comforty: Isabel Piedmont-Smith is a Bloomington City Council Member. She recently published a statement in response to some of the claims made by the Stop Upzoning group, a group which is against proposed changes to Bloomington’s zoning laws. The changes, which are called the Unified Development ordinance, or UDO, would allow for duplex, triplex, and quadruplex construction in Bloomington’s central neighborhoods. Piedmont-Smith joins us now to talk about her statement. Council Member Piedmont-Smith, welcome on WFHB Local News.
Isabel Piedmont-Smith: Thank you for having me.
Comforty: Your statement is fairly detailed and issue based. You focus on nine different points. We don’t have time to get to all of them today, but what is the distilled take-home message that you want everyone to understand?
Piedmont-Smith: I want everyone to understand that, first of all, I recognize that there are legitimate concerns about the UDO changes that have been proposed by the Mayor’s administration. But I think the arguments against the greater density in some of our inner neighborhoods are based on conjecture and supposition rather than on fact. I also think that there has been some exaggeration of the proposal itself.
Comforty: Do you believe that the proposed zoning changes have enough regulations to ensure that housing affordability in the central neighborhoods improves?
Piedmont-Smith: The short answer is no. I think that housing affordability is a huge problem that has to have many solutions to it. I don’t think this proposal for the increased density in some of our core neighborhoods is a silver bullet. I think creating more housing, especially close to where people work, play, and go to school is a good idea. It won’t necessarily be affordable housing because those locations are highly valued in the real estate market. I think overall we need more housing of all types. In that respect, I am in favor of increased density close to our downtown and close to campus. I think we also need to look into some of the issues which have been raised by people living in those neighborhoods, like parking and current infrastructure which might be insufficient. But the petition really just assumes that everything is going to go to hell if the zoning is passed, and I think that that is not reasonable.
Comforty: What is one of the major misconceptions that you believe people have about the zoning changes?
Piedmont-Smith: I think one misconception is that houses that are build in the R4 district are going to be larger than what’s currently there. The R4 district has set requirements for the maximum allowable impermeable (built upon) surface. The flip side of that is they also have requirement minimums–requirements for green space. Those are going to be the same, whether your building has two units, four units, or is just a single family house. The footprint of that building is still going to be the same. Right in the prelude to the Stop Bloomington Upzoning Resolution, it misquotes the proposal. It says, ‘[T]his would allow significantly outsized structures.’ and that’s just not true.
Comforty: We’re going to have to leave it there, but Council Member Piedmont-Smith, thank you so much for joining us on WFHB.
Piedmont-Smith: Thank you for your interest.
