City council opens garage

The Bloomington Common Council unanimously voted to approve a lease with Mercury Development Group LLC Wednesday night at City Hall. The vote will enable the downtown Regester parking garages to open to the public.\nThe council also questioned, for the third meeting in a row, the lack of a hotel across from the parking garage on the corner of Ninth Street and College Avenue.\nConcerns were raised about Mercury Development, who contracted Holiday Inn, earlier this year, to build a hotel at the corner of Seventh and College Ave. Holiday Inn backed out of the deal and is now scheduled to build a hotel on Ind. 37. Because Mercury Development promised a hotel when the deal was signed, council members are questioning the company about the project's status.\nAt last week's city council meeting, District II Representative Jason Banach expressed his concerns on the issue. \n"When this whole thing started, the hotel deal was in place," Banach said. "Now it is under debate."\nAlong with the hotel, the Regester Parking garage and several apartments were also a part of the overall project. Until the council voted on the lease for a hotel, the garage cannot be used and a main priority of the council has been to have the garage open and ready for use for the holiday shopping season. \nCouncil members voted last week to postpone a vote on the lease to build a hotel until Wednesday night.\nIf the council members had approved the lease, Regester Garage would have opened last Monday.\nCity Controller Tom Guevara reassured council members that the hotel issue would be taken care of and things are underway. \n"I think it's a good starting point," Guevara said. "We're at a point right now where the garage is ready for use."\nThe council voted to postpone the vote on the hotel after concerns were raised by the public about the lack of information. Council members wanted questions answered by the owner of the Mercury Development Group, David Ferguson, who was not present at the meeting last week.\nCouncil members questioned the finality of the lease and asked if interpretation could occur if the legislation is passed.\n"We have a means of assessing to see if the project follows guidelines, but it does leave room for interpretation," Guevara said.\nDistrict I Representative Patricia Cole said the overall goal is to make a decision for the betterment of downtown Bloomingotn.\n"I think we need to feel for our comfort level. We ultimately want what's good for downtown Bloomington," Cole said. "I think a hotel is a great idea. I'm not against the deal, I am just concerned about certain issues."\nThe council decided to unanimously approve the lease to open the garage and still continue discussion on the hotel matter.\nDistrict III Representative Michael Diekhoff said many topics for discussion remain, but the garage needs to be opened.\n"I will approve the lease, and this matter is very important to the city," Diekhoff said. "I think there is an importance of opening the garage and if we approve the lease, we can still raise concerns."\nThe council also voted on other issues as well in the past two weeks that have affected other areas of the city. The council approved an ordinance to give $14,295 to new software to appeal parking tickets online. City Clerk Regina Moore, who processes the ticketing system currently, said the new software will help make things easier for her and the community. \n"The result of this system will be easier and more convenient access for our citizens, more efficiency by the city clerk's staff and fewer opportunities for errors on data entry," Moore said.\nAnother piece of legislation was unanimously denied until further brought up at a later date. An ordinance to rezone approximately 102 acres of land next to the Southern Indiana Medical Park Planned Unit Development and also plans for the development of medical, industrial and commercial use on about 64 of those acres. Due to some unresolved issues, District IV Representative Dave Rollo has spoken to a petitioner about the issue and requested the denial of the ordinance.\n"I urge my colleagues to vote for this tonight and I think that the overall plan is environmentally sound," he said.\nThe petitioner will try to file a modified version with the Plan Department later this month.\n-- Contact staff writer Lindsay Jancek at lmjancek@indiana.edu.