Bloomington plan commission (April 15, 2024)
Alyssa Gallina, with Core Spaces, addresses the Bloomington plan commission (April 15, 2024)
The demolition of about two dozen buildings—several of them single-family houses—north of 17th Street, between Lincoln and Washington streets, will start sometime in the last three months of this year.
The removal of the buildings will make way for a new student housing development called Bloomington HUB II, by Core Bloomington Lincoln, LLC, which will include 411 apartments with a total of 1,143 bedrooms. The development will also include 651 inside parking spaces.
Site plan approval for the project was given unanimous approval by Bloomington’s plan commission at its regular Monday meeting.
It’s the second significant student housing development in the same part of Bloomington for the developer Core Spaces. Last year in April, Bloomington HUB I was approved for the site where the former Great Wall restaurant stood on North Walnut Street. With 172 apartments and a total of 463 bedrooms, that project is smaller than the one approved on Monday night. It’s currently under construction.
The approximate bedroom mix for the Bloomington HUB II development is 114 studios, 22 one-bedroom, 127 two-bedroom, 27 three-bedroom, 59 four-bedroom, and 92 five-bedroom apartments.
The area is zoned MS, which is mixed-use student housing. Trohn Enright-Randolph, who is the Monroe County non-voting representative to Bloomington’s plan commission, observed that the phrase “in compliance” was a high-frequency item during the presentation from the planning department’s case manager, senior zoning planner Eric Greulich.
Enright-Randolph put it like this: “It seems like we mentioned that they’re in compliance, they’re in compliance, and they’re in compliance, like this almost feels like it’s almost a by-right…Would that assumption be kind of correct?”
Greulich replied: “Yeah, absolutely.” Greulich noted the specific MS (mixed-use student housing) zoning district where the project is planned. “The zoning district here does allow for this use,” Greulich said. He added, “The petitioners have stepped through…every single element here that pertains to site plan approval.”
The sheer size of the project is made possible by the fact that Core Spaces is taking advantage of two incentives in Bloomington’s unified development ordinance (UDO) that allow for bigger floor plates.
One incentive involves sustainable development, which requires that the building meet the requirements of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC’s) Silver level LEED certification.
The other incentive involves affordable housing. Under Bloomington’s UDO, it’s possible to satisfy the affordable housing incentive without building income-restricted housing onsite. Instead, a developer makes a payment to the city’s housing trust fund, based on the number of income-restricted bedrooms that would ordinarily have to be built as a part of the project to satisfy the incentive.
In the case of the Bloomington HUB II project, the payment works out to $3,440,00—at a rate of $20,000 per bedroom, for 15 percent of the total 1,143 bedrooms.
That payment will more than double the amount that is currently in Bloomington’s housing trust fund balance. According to the DLGF (Department of Local Government Finance) Gateway, the fund balance at the end of 2023 was $2,634,269.86.
Hopi Stosberg, who is the city council’s representative to the plan commission, expressed concerns about the tenants of the existing multi-family building at 205 E. 17th Street.
Stosberg reported that she’d spoken that day to the owner of the building, who told her 22 of the 23 apartments are rented. The building is located in city council District 3, which is her district, Stosberg said. She is familiar with the building, because she knocked doors in the neighborhood when she was campaigning last year, Stosberg said.
“This is a low-income complex,” Stosberg said. She continued, “These are folks that need affordability very badly.” She noted that even if the current tenants are able to find a new place where they can afford the rent, “moving costs money.” Stosberg said that some of the tenants are elderly or disabled.
It was Alyssa Gallina, with Core Spaces, who presented the site plan to the plan commission on Monday. Stosberg asked Gallian if Core Spaces had considered reaching out to tenants to help figure out how they might pay somebody to help them move.
Gallina responded to Stosberg by saying that it was not something that Core Spaces had considered, but added, “It’s something we can certainly look at going forward.”
The demolition of several of the houses where the new apartment building will be constructed was approved by Bloomington’s historic preservation commission at its Feb. 22 meeting.
Enright-Randolph lamented the sacrifice of front yards to the big student apartment building. He also noted that for a time he had rented one of the houses that would be demolished to make way for the building.
Plan commissioner Chris Smith, who is a real estate agent, recused himself from the deliberations and the vote, indicating that one of the landowners, who would benefit from the sale of their land to Core Spaces, is a client of his.
