Bloomington City Council squares off with IU about new student housing

Bloomington City Council members squared off with a representative from IU at City Hall Aug. 3 concerning the University’s plans to demolish four houses along East Third Street to make way for a new student apartment building.

The Council was set to vote on Ordinance 11-08, which called for the city to vacate the alley behind the four homes located between Rose Avenue and Union Street, south of IU’s Wilkie Residence Center.

The Council heard from Lynn Coyne, IU’s assistant vice president for Real Estate, concerning IU’s plan to build a new student apartment building to replace the already demolished University West Apartments. 

Council members Isabel Piedmont-Smith and Steve Volan were particularly vocal, asking Coyne if the University had considered moving the houses instead of demolishing them.

Coyne said the option was considered, but to do so would cost the University upwards of $100,000 per home, not including the cost of necessary paperwork and permits.

Coyne said IU has demanded if the houses are demolished, contractors would be instructed to collect material which could be “used, reused, recycled and resold to the fullest extent possible” given state law.

While most of the Council seemed prepared to give IU the alley and move forward with its plans for construction, some council members questioned what they perceived to be IU’s sense of urgency in demolishing the homes.

“I feel like IU could have planned ahead further,” Piedmont-Smith said. “I know [Council member] Satterfield said we should work more with IU and IU should work more with us, but what’s going to make them? We need to show our teeth.”

Volan also criticized what he perceived to be IU’s sense of noncooperation with the Council concerning its plans.

“Where do we draw the line?” Volan said. “Will we ever draw a line? Had we had more time to make it happen, we could have saved one of the houses. Is there really no way for IU to build this differently?”

Despite the criticisms from two of the Council members, the resolution giving IU the right to the alleys behind the four homes passed 5-2.

In other business, the council passed a resolution 7-0, allowing local governments to conduct a city referendum that permits local monies to go toward transit and transportation alternatives.

The resolution comes after the state legislature recently shifted the funding of its state transportation fund from a portion of the state sales tax to the state’s bi-annual budget.
 
Council member Andy Ruff, one of the sponsors of the resolution, said in a July 21 memo sent to the City Council, this changed resource allotment “leaves future funding uncertain and free to the annual vagaries of the economy and whims of the General Assembly.”

The state and federal governments may decide to reduce public transit funding, said Kent McDaniel, member of the Bloomington Transit Board and executive director of the Indiana Transportation Association.

If that happens, cities would need to find alternative revenue streams to support their own alternative transportation systems.

“Once you lose transportation funding, it’s incredibly expensive to get it started again,”
McDaniel said.