The results of a symposium concerning the future of housing policy in Bloomington was presented to city officials Monday night.
The backdrop of the event includes recent stress on homeless shelters in the Twin City area, resulting in developments like a homeless encampment near downtown. Deputy City Manager Billy Tyus presented information at the city council meeting, gathered from the symposium gathering of renters, financiers and builders that took place last week.
Tyus said attendees agreed that of the different types of possible projects, the community is most in need of affordable housing. He also targeted the city's west side as an area of high potential, in part due to the presence of companies Ferrero and Rivian. Tyus also suggested that in addition to making use of vacant land, the city could replace some unused and dilapidated structures.
The symposium also identified barriers to new housing development. Cost was a major theme, with complaints about interest rates for loans as a financing hurdle. Tyus also relayed that a lack of clearly understood zoning policy may stop some projects before they start.
Developers at the symposium favored financial incentives as a solution to the city’s housing woes, but Tyus brought other suggestions as well, like revitalizing older neighborhoods and targeting optimal areas for new housing. Also thrown out was the idea of collaborating with employers who attract people to Bloomington-Normal to produce further incentives.
“I think there’s an assumption that that [policy] has to be publicly funded, but why?" said Tyus. "Is there a conversation to be had with our local industry to say, ‘Hey, some of the reason we need more housing is we’re an attractive community and people come here to work.’ Is there a role for local business investing in housing as well?”
Director of Economic and Community Development Melissa Hon unveiled a new tool, a webpage called Building Bloomington, designed to consolidate information on city policies and connect developers with incentives. Hon hopes the improved communication will mean more interest in pitching projects.
On the other side of the equation, council member Donna Boelen said the perspective of consumers has been inadequately considered, and pointed out the economic predicament developers see has impacted them as well.
On that theme, outreach meetings to hear from residents will be held throughout the next month, with separate gatherings for Normal and Bloomington. The public is being encouraged to share input on how the city’s Community Development Block Grant will be deployed in the next five years.
Dates, times and virtual attendance accommodations can be found here.
City addresses bulk waste collection issues
Also Monday, the city heard proposed changes to bulk waste management. Many issues raised revolve around rental dwellings, including large disposals produced by evictions. Such properties also account for many pickups not normally covered by the city.
Suggestions include an increase in fees for bulk pickups from $25 to $100 per bucket, with a bucket being about the size of a couch, and implementing a “three strike” system with escalating costs for properties where the city must repeatedly go outside normal pickup to haul waste.
Policy language revisions also were proposed to prevent misuse of the citizens convenience center disposal facility by commercial scale haulers.
