Bloomington panel won’t support chain store ban

A task force appointed by Mayor Mark Kruzan is going to consider steps other than his proposed ban on new chain stores and restaurants to protect the character of downtown Bloomington.

Supporters of the restrictions said they believed some limits should be placed on businesses around the courthouse square and streets near campus.

One businessman, however, told the group Tuesday that the threat of chain stores to the city’s character isn’t that great. CFC Inc. President Jim Murphy said his company couldn’t attract chain-store tenants to its downtown property because of the city’s design restrictions and a lack of foot traffic.

Those issues haven’t deterred all chain stores and some downtown sites could be redeveloped for such businesses, said Tom Micuda, the city’s planning director.

“They could be substantial, and they could be substantially impacting us,” he said.

Kruzan asked task force members in September to start considering chain store restrictions. He has said he wants to protect areas with distinctive business identities.

A single chain restaurant interrupting the downtown’s stretch of small, ethnic eateries would “erode the character, and certainly the marketability, of Restaurant Row,” Kruzan said.

City Councilwoman Isabel Piedmont-Smith said she didn’t want to force out existing chain stores, but wants to ensure they don’t dominate the community.

City staffers intend to present several proposals for restrictions to the task force early next year, Micuda said.

“We don’t expect (to reach a) consensus,” he said, “but our goal is to appeal to some of the different points of view we’ve heard.”