Monroe County officials getting flak for proposed zoning changes during housing crisis – The Herald-Times

Monroe County’s plans to update how people can use their property — including what types of buildings can be built where — got some serious pushback last week, primarily from economic development officials and developers who say the proposed documents would impede the region’s growth and access to housing.
More than 50 people provided comments in the courthouse Tuesday with many saying the proposed update to county zoning laws would hinder the construction of homes during a housing crisis — though a few also opposed allowing denser developments on the fringes of the city of Bloomington.
Other speakers said the proposed rules would make it more difficult for them to subdivide their land to pass it to children or grandchildren. Some speakers, including farmers, also said they were unclear about rules regarding setbacks or the number of animals they can keep.
Monroe County Planning Director Jackie Nester Jelen said many of the issues raised by speakers, including subdivision rules and animal density, are not changing from already existing rules. In fact, she said, the new document would allow more people to keep chickens, for example.
Tuesday’s meeting ran so long that the Monroe County Plan Commission decided to continue the meeting to a second day: People can again provide comments at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Nat U. Hill meeting room in the courthouse — though people who already have provided input won’t get another chance Tuesday.
The county for years has been working on a roughly once-in-a-decade change to local zoning rules. The rules would apply only outside of Bloomington and Ellettsville. This time, the county is combining several local documents into one, to be called the County Development Ordinance. You can read the nearly 500-page document at monroecdo.com.
Jelen said Friday the county aims primarily to simplify the current documents and to make sure property uses make sense based on how the county has developed.
For example, the county is proposing to reduce the number of zoning districts roughly by half, to 16. The county currently has at least 18 zones that allow residential structures. Many of those zones have letter and number abbreviations, such as RE2.5 and RS4.5. Under the new rules, the county would combine some of those zones to end up with only nine and give them easier designations such as RES for residential or LD for low development residential.
In addition, the county wants to reduce the number of designations that determine how people can use property. The county currently has 372 allowed use designations. The CDO would reduce that to 174. For example, the county is proposing that the single category “automotive sales and rental” in the new CDO replace five currently allowed uses that include “automotive rentals,” “automotive sales” and “automotive supply.” Along the same lines, the county wants to combine “temporary care facility,” “convalescent, nursing or rest home,” “nursing home” and “retirement center” into just one use category in the new CDO: “continuing care community.”
Among other things, the CDO will dictate how many acres people have to own before they can subdivide their land and how many and what types of animals they can own in residential areas. Other rules will determine how many homes people can build on their property. For example, the CDO in some areas requires people to own at least 20 acres to create two lots. In others, they would need 10 acres to create two lots. However, Jelen said the CDO is not proposing any changes in that regard. The rules were changed in 2015 and would be retained in the CDO.
Before 2015, property owners could subdivide their land so long as they could achieve the minimum lot size of 2.5 acres. The county changed that in 2015 because county officials want denser developments near public infrastructure, including municipal sewer service, Jelen said.
While the county is proposing changes, the overall land areas on which people can have dense residential developments or engage in other activity — such as heavy or light industry — are not changing by much. For example, under the current rules, the county has made just under 17,000 acres available for residential lots of 1 acre or less. Under the new rules that area is increasing by about 470 acres, or 2.3%. Meanwhile, the acreage that requires lot sizes of at least 2.5 acres is increasing by 1.2%, to just over 200,000 acres.
Some local developers, bankers, real estate agents and business leaders said in Tuesday’s meeting the county’s proposed changes would impede the construction of homes.
Six local organizations — Bloomington Economic Development Corp., the chambers of commerce of Bloomington and Ellettsville, Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County, the Bloomington Board of Realtors and the Building Association of South Central Indiana — issued a 40-page document last week to encourage county officials to make changes to the proposed CDO. You can read the document at bloomingtonedc.com.
Some members of those organizations, including BEDC President Jennifer Pearl, Habitat President and CEO Wendi Goodlett and Bloomington chamber President and CEO Eric Spoonmore, on Tuesday used their 3-minute public comment periods at the county plan commission to criticize some aspects of the proposal.
Pearl said some of the county’s residential zones should allow for developments with smaller lot sizes. Goodlet said talent attraction, housing and job growth go hand in hand. Spoonmore said before the county creates a CDO, it should update its comprehensive plan, the county’s overarching policy statement regarding growth, quality of life, livability and economic health.
Plan commission members listened to nearly 4 hours of comments Tuesday. The members eventually will forward the CDO, after possible revisions, to the county commissioners, who on Tuesday sat behind the plan commission members.
Spoonmore, addressing the plan commission members, said, “I hope you all will take this feedback into account, especially our elected officials, who are known frequently to overturn your recommendation.”
About half of the more than 50 speakers on Tuesday had some kind of affiliation to the six groups or worked in related sectors, such as surveying, mortgage lending or home building.
Local developer Tom Wininger said the CDO would move Monroe County in the wrong direction. Wininger planned to build in the Clear Creek area 190 townhomes he hoped to sell for $250,000. Commissioners rejected that plan in 2021, and Wininger is now building single-family homes in that neighborhood, Southern Meadows, with prices starting at $442,000.
Wininger said Tuesday his goal, for a while, has been building workforce housing, with a price tag under $350,000. He said only 25 homes are being built in a 7-county area. And only two of those are being built in Monroe County.
Other speakers said the lack of housing supply in Monroe County is pushing up prices to a point where many people, even with decent salaries, can’t afford to buy single-family homes anymore.
Kristen Weida, executive of the local board of realtors, said she bought a home in Marlin Hills 15 years ago for $155,000. She sold it last year for $437,000. She downsized because she is now an empty nester, but could not find a home in Bloomington within her budget. She said she is now renting in Ellettsville.
Weida said people are afraid of losing their rights to make decisions about their own property and they are afraid of ever-higher property taxes, for which she partially blamed county officials who keep rejecting proposed housing developments that would increase the local housing supply.
“This room is filled with your constituents, including industry professionals who live and work here,” she said. “They’re here to help you recognize the crisis that your policies have created and suggest changes that will create an affordable and safe community while preserving our natural resources.”
Lindsey Boswell, development director for Habitat, said she moved to Bloomington eight years ago and decided to stay after graduating from Indiana University because of local jobs, education, arts and recreational opportunities.
“Truthfully, it’s been pretty difficult to remain in this area because of the high and increasing cost of housing and the limited availability,” she said. “If it’s a goal for our community to grow, attract and retain young, educated and diverse talent, thus maintaining the vibrancy of our community and ensuring its future sustainability, I would ask that you also consider how you can increase access to affordable housing.”
A few speakers also warned that allowing more developments in the county would cause irreparable harm to the local environment and already existing small scale neighborhoods.
Guy Loftman, a retired local attorney who lives in the Clear Creek area, said the development industry, which makes money from constructing impervious surfaces, was “extremely well represented” at Tuesday’s meeting.
“That minority of the community should not have control over the development that you all have worked on so hard,” he said.
And Anne Marie Thomson, who lives northwest of Bloomington, said she heard very little on Tuesday about the value of unused land, parks, forest and wildlife.
“How do we measure long-term economic benefits of green space?” she asked.
Thomson acknowledged affordable housing is a problem, but she said she felt “compelled to speak for the land.”
“Much of what we heard tonight feels to me short-sighted,” she said.
The plan commission will continue its meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Nat U. Hill meeting room in the courthouse. People can provide feedback during the meeting and by filling out a survey at monroecdo.com.
Once people have provided input on the proposed changes, the planning department will discuss the feedback with the plan commission to determine whether to make amendments. The commission eventually will pass the proposed zoning changes to the commissioners, who will then vote on them in a public meeting. Dates for any of those meetings have not yet been set.
Jelen asked that people who already provided comments on Tuesday either attend the meeting virtually or watch it in the overflow area on the first floor of the courthouse to make sure people who have not yet provided comments can attend the meeting in the Nat U. Hill room. Some people have asked for the meeting to be moved to a larger location, but Jelen said that was impractical on such short notice, as the county had to mail thousands of postcards to notify landowners of the meeting.
Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.

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