The Bloomington City Council delayed a vote on an ordinance that would impact affordable housing zoning until February.
Ordinance 2026-01 aims to revise Bloomington’s current Unified Development Ordinance by increasing the maximum coverage of impervious surfaces, which includes roofs, driveways and sidewalks, to 80%. Currently, the UDO allows for an impervious surface coverage of up to 50% in certain residential zones.
Jacqueline Scanlan, assistant director of the Bloomington planning and transportation department, told the council an 80% maximum would allow for larger housing options and let Habitat for Humanity build larger developments.
Councilmember Dave Rollo raised concerns that stormwater runoff could increase if the council implemented the new zoning regulations, as impervious surfaces prevent stormwater from being absorbed into the ground. He said that retention ponds might not be able to keep up with excess water from heavy rains in the spring.
Scanlan said the 80% maximum came from looking at current affordable housing projects, which she stated have around 60-65% impervious surface coverage.
Ordinance 2026-01 also seeks to increase the amount of affordable housing units by increasing the percentage of units that must be below 70% or 90% of area’s median income depending on the development type.
Scanlan said the ordinance aims to limit how often developers can get around constructing affordable housing. These payment in lieu options allow developers to pay the city instead of building affordable housing or parks.
“The idea here is to be more careful or thoughtful about single family development and how our incentives affect those,” Scanlan said.
Because of a technicality in the wording of the resolution, which Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson worried could make getting a mortgage more difficult, the ordinance will have a third reading at the Feb. 4 council meeting.
According to data from the Indiana Association of Relators, the median sale price for houses in Monroe County from December 2025 was $325,000, while median sale price statewide was $263,000.
A 2020 Housing Study conducted by the City of Bloomington concluded Bloomington will need an additional 2,592 housing units by 2030 to support its growing population, with the greatest need being for households making less than $25,000 annually.
“My ask would be to change the language to accommodate owner occupied if we want people to actually be able to climb out of poverty and end generational poverty,” Thomson said. “The way that we do that in this country frequently is through ownership, and I believe it’s what people need in our community.”
