Five houses in the Green Acres neighborhood have been demolished since mid-October. The houses, built in the 1940s and early 1950s, bordered the eastern edge of Indiana University’s campus and sat along the 300 block of North Jefferson Street.
Now, a real estate development company lists rental properties on its website for the recently demolished addresses, indicating plans to build townhouses on those sites. These listings advertise newly built five-bedroom townhouses that will be available in August 2026 and 2027.
The demolished houses, which were all directly next to each other, were at the forefront of unsuccessful attempts to designate Green Acres as a conservation district last year.
In May 2024, there was a proposal to tear down the houses — possibly to create low-density student housing — but approval for the demolitions was pushed to August 2024. During that time, some Green Acres residents worked to obtain conservation district status for the neighborhood to prevent the houses from being destroyed.
The pursuit of conservation district status ultimately fell through in September 2024 when the application failed to draw support from the Bloomington City Council.
City Council President Hopi Stosberg, who represents Green Acres on city council, said in an email the proposed conservation district was very large last year, and that creating such a large district would not have been wise.
“I don't have an opinion moving forward in terms of official historic preservation as a neighborhood,” Stosberg said.
Some Green Acres residents are unhappy with the developments slated by The Brawley Group, the property managing company behind the planned townhouses.
“Some of the outrageous things we predicted are happening,” William Schaich, a Green Acres resident, said. “Modest houses on modest lots are being knocked down to build monstrous duplexes.”
Members of the Green Acres Neighborhood Association are concerned that larger buildings like the townhouses going up on North Jefferson Street could disrupt the neighborhood quiet.
“As long as the people living in those redeveloped plexes are good neighbors, I think it could be net neutral in terms of effect on the neighborhood,” Stosberg said.
Amanda Figolah, a Monroe County Community Schools teacher who has lived in the neighborhood since 2021, said living next to a home rented by students is a different experience than living next to a student condo. She enjoys living next to students, but is concerned about loud parties that could come with large student housing developments.
“So, it's not one place making noise occasionally,” Figolah said. “Now you have a, you know, animal house basically in your neighborhood, which is different than having an occasional party.”
The Brawley Group did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.
The majority of Green Acres is zoned as R3, with certain sections zoned as R4. These zoning districts are both residential; R3 zoning is intended for residential small lots, and R4 pertains to small residential urban lots, which is sometimes used as a transition between residential and urban development.
Portions of the neighborhood closer to campus, however, are zoned as RM. The RM zoning district, or residential multifamily, is meant for residential development “at a scale that is larger than neighborhood-scale but smaller than urban-scale.”
“It'll be gradual, but eventually this will be a neighborhood of large, cheaply built duplexes rather than a neighborhood of nice little homes with nice little yards,” Menge said.
At the corner of South Clark and East Fifth streets, which is in the area’s R3 zoning district, another home is being considered for demolition as requested by the owner. Green Acres resident Margaret Menge is concerned a large student residence will be built on the site.
“So, this would be a large hulking structure, that on a corner in the middle of a neighborhood, replacing a tiny little two-bedroom cottage,” Menge said. “This completely changes the feel of the neighborhood.”
After the neighborhood’s conservation district application was withdrawn last year, Ann Kreilkamp and her neighbors were motivated to revitalize the neighborhood association and increase a sense of community.
Kreilkamp has lived in Green Acres for over 20 years, and during that time bought the two homes surrounding hers to create a community of urban gardens, the Green Acres Permaculture Village. She has since sold one of the houses but still invites her neighbors to get involved in the garden through word of mouth, signage outside the gardens and her blog.
Formerly president of the Green Acres Neighborhood Association, Kreilkamp, who is 83, passed the torch to fellow Green Acres resident Mariella Arredondo recently.
“Just because people live here temporarily does not mean that they can't connect or care or learn and grow,” Arredondo said. “So, I would love for more students to.”
Arredondo and Kreilkamp want their neighbors, especially student renters in Green Acres, to know they can get involved in the community.
Kreilkamp and her neighbors host work parties to maintain the garden, which is open to anyone. They also host community dinners at the permaculture village twice a month. That’s how Arredondo came to be involved in the neighborhood association.
“This is a neighborhood that definitely exemplifies the challenges Bloomington faces as the university gets bigger,” Figolah said. “So I think this community is interesting. I'm fairly new to this group, very new to this group, but it's inspiring to see a sense of community in a time like this, right?”
While Kreilkamp and Arredondo hope to seek conservation district status for Green Acres again in the future, their focus right now is on connecting with neighbors in order to start more conversations about what the neighborhood needs.
