Canterbury approved

Environmentalists weren't pleased when the Monroe County Council approved a tax-free bond for the controversial Canterbury Apartments project at its monthly meeting Tuesday. \nSo the several dozen in attendance seized control of the courthouse meeting room, which they occupied for an hour. Sheriff Steve Sharp, who was waiting to report to the council on finances, made no attempt to wrest the situation under control.\nInstead, he summoned three of his deputies, who stood watch outside the chamber while Monroe County Commissioner Brian O'Neil tried to calm down the indignant activists.\nAfter the vote came down, they loudly alleged the council was "in the pocket of developers" -- vowing to vote the offending councilmen out of office and throw themselves in front of the bulldozers that might set to work on the project as early as July.\n"I've tried every legal means available," said Eric White, a Bloomington resident. "I don't want to go to jail. But I'll use whatever means are available to save Bloomington from these greedy and short-sighted developers and their political surrogates."\nHerman & Associates, an Indianapolis-based developer, plans to build a 208-unit apartment complex, of which 174 units are designated affordable housing. It would involve clear-cutting most of Brown's Woods, a small forest surrounded by apartments on the east side of Ind. 37 near West Third Street.\nThe Indiana Housing Finance Authority has given its blessing to the proposed apartment complex, which would rent out one-bedroom units for $469 a month and two-bedroom units for $569. Tuesday's vote was the last barrier the developer needed to cross to qualify for $10 million in tax-exempt housing development bonds.\nIt was the council's second hearing on the matter, and public comment wasn't required before the vote. But Joni Reagan, council president, deferred to the six or seven dozen people who had showed up in opposition.\nOne after one, they filed up to the lecturn to decry what they saw as an assault on Bloomington's greenspace. Many questioned whether the project really constituted affordable housing, claiming they wouldn't be able cough up the rent.\n"I ask you to think generations into the future," said Mike Englert, who asked the councilmen if they had bothered to visit the site they were going to vote on. "I ask you to think about our grandchildren's grandchildren's grandchildren."\nThe environmentalists loudly cheered one another on, an uncommon practice during the generally staid council meetings. As the evening wore on, tensions flared and the words became more heated.\nOne man likened the project to prostitution.\n"The whore is the public," he said. "And when the whore doesn't want it, it's rape."\nAfter more than two hours had passed, the council finally made a motion to vote. To the wild applause of those gathered, councilman Mark Stoops spoke out against the project.\n"This gives the community nothing," he said. "And the developers get all the profits."\nBut Stoops and councilman Scott Wells, both liberal Democrats, were the only dissenting voices on the council. Most cited a need for more affordable housing in the Bloomington area, noting that the occupancy rate of apartments has been hovering around 98 percent -- a tight market.\n"I've lived in this community for all my life," said Democratic councilman David Hamilton, who sided with the majority in the 5-2 vote. "I've seen this community grow -- it's not stagnant."\nAfter the vote, the council disbanded.\nThe irate environmentalists rearranged all of the chairs in the room to form a circle, where they plotted civil disobedience and political strategy. When the council reentered after a 10-minute hiatus, the activists shouted them down. Reagan then rescheduled the rest of the meeting for next Tuesday.\nO'Neil told those gathered that they could remain in the chambers until 8:30, calming them down somewhat. He did his best to explain the situation -- the site of the project has been designated for multi-family housing since the 1970s.\n"I've voted to stop developments like this in the past," he said, repeatedly asking not to be interrupted. "And it always goes to court. We have to pick and choose what we'll fight -- the county only has so much money.\n"We can't spend it all in court"