Kirkwood debate goes over time

The stress of democracy began to take its toll about 1 a.m. Thursday. After debating an ordinance outlining the plans for the future of West Kirkwood Avenue for more than five hours, an exhausted Bloomington City Council gave preliminary approval to the plan, which is aimed at stimulating development in an eight-block section between Adams and Rogers streets. \nThough final action will come next Wednesday, the council voted 5-2-2 in support of the ordinance. Council members Jason Banach and David Sabbagh voted no, while Mike Diekhoff and Tim Mayer opted to pass until next week's final vote.\nNearly 50 residents attended the meeting to hear and discuss the issue, but a full agenda coupled with intense public comment pushed the meeting into the early hours of Thursday morning. Seventeen hands were raised when council member Banach asked to see how many people were there to support the ordinance. The preliminary vote was not taken until after 1 a.m. Many residents had left by that time.\nAt the heart of the ordinance is a plan to prevent the development of new business that aren't in line with the guidelines of the historical neighborhood. These guidelines call for all development to be consistent in design with neighborhood homes built more than 60 years ago. This rule applies to building materials and the design of new or renovated buildings. The ordinance, if passed, will provide financial benefits to those businesses and residential areas who comply with these new guidelines. \nSome Westside business owners see it as a sign that they're no longer welcome in the area. Representatives from Flora Ristorante and Kleindorfer's Hardware Store both expressed concerns over the plan and said that new building standards and parking were far from reasonable.\nClouding the issue even more were eight amendments to the ordinance, which were also discussed at length. Proposed by Richard Martin, some amendments simply cleared up certain words or phrases from the original ordinance, but others elicited a more heated discussion. \nOne of the amendments, regarding the use of building-types code, states: "The desirable building-types specification shall clearly illustrate forms of buildings that are considered appropriate on West Kirkwood."\nThough failing, 0-5-4, many residents said that the city should have no say in what is or is not "appropriate" for West Kirkwood, so long as the buildings meet all standards set forth by the city.\n"This is a vision," council member Tony Pizzo said. "It's going to be an experiment. All these ordinances are doing is trying to squeeze this into the current Growth Policies Plan for possible zoning in the future…for this eight-block area, we either accept it or we don't."\nIn other action, the council gave preliminary approval of a $19,000 grant to IU for its role in the sponsoring of Arts Week, which kicks off today and runs through March 2 at various locales throughout the city. Kim Walker, of the Monroe County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said she hopes the event will help jump start sagging tourism numbers, down seven percent since September. Walker said the MCCVB is launching TV commercials today on Channel 6 and many cable stations such as the Discovery Channel and TNN.\nWalker said Arts Week will have more than 1,000 participants and nearly 95 percent of events will be free. Council member Chris Gaal said he was "happy to support Arts Week and happy to cooperate with Indiana University on this event."\nThe council will hear more discussion on both issues 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20 at City Hall.