Commission approves youth justice center

The Bloomington Plan Commission approved a preliminary plan amendment to allow a new youth detention center and community corrections facility to be constructed just southwest of downtown Bloomington.\nThe petition now moves on to the Bloomington City Council for approval. The council is expected to hear the petition in late July or early August.\nThe 85-acre site is located on South Rogers St., just south of a Cinergy/PSI electric station.\nMuch of the debate focused on future uses of the land, such as a jail being built on this site in the distant future. The planning department also wanted the uses of this land to exclude general offices, which may move from downtown to this site.\nSteve Smith, the architect of this plan, and Brian O'Neill, a county commissioner, both disapproved of these conditions. \n"We need to include jails (in the plan)," Smith said. "The offices need to support the general public."\nO'Neill stressed that there were no plans to build a jail or any offices and that those are both long-term needs for the county.\n"Our short-term needs are county corrections and a juvenile facility," O'Neill said.\nThe final petition was amended during the meeting, and now includes a condition which will require the plan commission's approval if a jail is to be built on the site. \nJoe Hoffman, a member of the plan commission, supported the plan, but wanted to make sure bus service would be offered to this site. \nWhile Bloomington Transit has not discussed service to this site, they have confirmed that serving this site would not extend travel times on their routes. This satisfied much of the commission.\nTom Seeber, also a plan commission member, worried about the prospect of offices being moved out of the downtown area to this site if other buildings were constructed in the future. \nO'Neill reminded Seeber that there were no plans to build anything other than the two proposed facilities on the site. He also said that the construction of these two buildings would relieve some overcrowding in the jail, reducing the need to construct a new jail. \nAnother concern of this site was its proximity to a residential development to the south, and the impact on property values. \nJim Roach, zoning planner for Bloomington, said that a similar facility in Kokomo did not have any adverse effects on property values. \nSusan Fernandes, a member of the commission, felt that the site was in a good location and buffered visually and spatially from these neighboring houses.\n"I'm satisfied that the facility is buffered very well," Fernandes said.