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Downtown Task Force Issues First Report, Eyes 'Catalyst' Project Next

Bloomington Public Library entrance
WGLT file photo
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Bloomington Public Library
Bloomington Public Library, located near City Hall and the Bloomington Police headquarters.

A new library. A new hotel. A new YWCA building.

Those are all possible big-picture projects as the Downtown Bloomington Task Force works to establish top priorities for the city’s next three to five years. 

The task force released its initial report Thursday, and its next meeting Tuesday will focus on finding a major “catalyst” project.

“The preliminary report focuses on smaller, easy-to-achieve projects that could have a meaningful impact on Downtown revitalization. However, interest remains strong in a larger, catalyst project,” Ward 4 Alderman Amelia Buragas, the task force chairman, said in a Facebook post. The city’s 2013 Downtown Strategy Plan identified a hotel, YMCA, or library as a potential catalyst project, she said.

The task force has been meeting with experts and stakeholders since May, hoping to create a strategy for implementing various planning documents and studies that already exist.

The task force’s initial findings, released in its report Thursday, include several smaller, easy-to-achieve projects that are separate from the potential catalyst project.

Public places: Items under review include public plazas, improvement of existing public places, tactical urbanism to reclaim space in the public right-of-way, pedestrian mall.

Walkability: Ideas include pedestrian walkways, more shade, more ground level retail, more street facing windows, street art, wider sidewalks, enhanced crosswalks, public plazas.

Beautification and public art: More decorative lighting, tactical urbanism projects, brick crosswalks, brick streets, more and larger trees, continuity in Downtown plantings, more planters, increased historic preservation, sculpture garden/park.

Parking: Parking meters, replace parallel parking with slant parking, incentivize parking garages, move county/city vehicles to garages to open up surface space, analyze future parking structure needs.

The Downtown Bloomington Task Force plans to issue its final report to the Bloomington City Council in the next two or three months.

The task force’s next meeting is set for 12 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.

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Ryan Denham is the digital content director for WGLT.
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