Eco-village encounters opposition to proposal

An eco-friendly plan for a cooperative in a residential area on the northwest side of Bloomington has encountered some opposition from residents in the neighborhood who are concerned about the impact it may have on their block.

The cooperative, known as the Bloomington Cooperative Plots Eco-Village, would include ten cabins, a community center with apartments and a communal kitchen, areas for gardening and space for raising goats and chickens. It sits on a 2.2 acre property on Spring Street, owned by one of the potential members of the Eco-Village.

The plotters (as the members of the Eco-Village call themselves) have an underlying philosophy of promoting connectedness and communal living.

They plan on having communal gardens, orchards and strongly encourage their members to eat together every day to encourage community inter-connectedness. They plan on being as sustainable as possible, growing most — if not all — of their food organically on the property in a way that they call “hyper-local,” according to their website and an interview with plotter Carolyn Blank.

The plotters plan to focus a lot of their energy on educating the community about sustainability and plan to hold concerts and events at the Eco-Village to encourage this. The Eco-Village will be a bike-only community, but they will share a truck and car for longer trips.

The Bloomington Plan Commission voted May 9 to delay voting to approve the project until its next meeting in June, allowing the Eco-Village more time to meet the concerns of their potential neighbors.

The Eco-Village already had a preliminary informational meeting with the Plan Commission in March, and the planners of the Eco-Village met the majority of the concerns of neighbors that were raised at that meeting.

The plotters agreed to reduce the number of cabins from 25 to 10 and to reduce the maximum occupancy of the property from 75 to 40. At the previous meeting, neighbors and the Bloomington Fire Department said they were worried about the density of the original plan.

They also notably included a plan to reduce the watershed off the property by 30 percent. The neighborhood where the Eco-Village would be located has perpetual flooding issues, which many of the neighbors expressed concerns about.

Commissioners focused their questions to Daniel Weddle, one of the co-founders of the Eco-Village, on the issues of water quality and drainage. Neighbors expressed concern that the presence of chickens and goats on the property would lead to animal waste polluting their yards during flooding.

They also asked that the flooding problem be fixed before the Eco-Village be approved.
Plan Commissioner Susan Fernandes said during the May 9 meeting that the Plan Commission usually takes a “we scratch your back, you scratch ours” attitude toward the type of proposal the Eco-Village was suggesting.

They proposed a “Planned Unit Development,” the purpose of which is to allow innovative developments that do not fit into the typical zoning requirements.

In order to win the neighbors’ and commissioners’ approval of the project, Fernandes and other commissioners encouraged the Eco-Village plotters to approach Bloomington Transit in an attempt to implement a new bus route to run through the area.

Additionally, the plotters were encouraged to reach out to Bloomington Utilities for the installation of street lights on Spring Street and the placement of culverts to eliminate the neighborhood’s flooding issues.

Isabel Piedmont Smith, a City Council member who also sits on the Plan Commission, addressed the other commissioners’ concerns by saying that “it’s not a petitioner’s job to fix a neighborhood’s old problems... I don’t think that’s very fair.” She also said she supported approving the plans for the Eco-Village, calling them a potential “beacon” for Bloomington.

The Bloomington Plan Commission will reconvene in June to decide whether or not to approve the Eco-Village. If approved, the issue would be forwarded to the City Council for their final approval.

For more information, visit — www.btowncooperativeplots.dwiel.net