What Was The Point?
The meeting that I attended was Bloomington’s monthly Board of Zoning Appeals meeting. The purpose of this meeting was to hear petitions from two development companies seeking to get variances to specific Bloomington zoning guidelines for their properties. Both of the petitions involved Bloomington’s zoning rules on parking for private-owned buildings.
The first petition was from David Howard on behalf of Tabor Blue Architects. This petition seeked a variance from the minimum number of required parking spots for a residential property, to allow Tabor Blue Architects to rent the ground floor of their property to residential customers.
The second petition was from Walnut Star, LLC. This petition seeked a variance from the minimum required electric vehicle charging stations per number of parking spots at a residential property.
The handout packet from this meeting can be found here
Who Was There?
This meeting consisted of five Bloomington Zoning Board members: Barre Klapper (President), Jo Throckmorton (Vice President), Eric Greulich, and Tim Ballard; approximately five audience members, including the petitioners, and nine Zoom members, including myself.
Where Was The Meeting At?
This meeting was held in the Common Council Chamber in City Hall, and I joined the meeting via the council’s Zoom room.
So, What Happened?
This meeting included two petitions to give variances from Bloomington’s zoning rules. The first petition involved an existing property on South Walnut Street, just south of downtown. This property, which was built in 2019, is three stories tall with nine residences on the above two floors, and 1500 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor. According to Bloomington zoning law, residential properties must have half of a parking space per residential unit. When the property was built, the developer was given a variance to allow them to construct the property while only having two parking spaces on site (for reference, without a variance, this property would have to have at least four and a half parking spaces on site, not including street parking). Parking for the property is located off of an alley to the side of the property. The space only allows for two parking spaces, as the city added restricted space during the construction of the building that would allow for more parking space. A member of the public that lives near the building also shared that parking in the area is already hard to find without the added residential space proposed. The developer found it difficult to find commercial tenants for the ground floor, so they proposed converting it to a residential space. The variance was denied via a unanimous vote from the board. The board cited that the ground floor of the property did not have to be a commercial space, rather they could rent the space to a non-profit or for office space.
The second petition discussed in this meeting involved a planned construction for a residential building on the south side of Bloomington. Bloomington zoning code requires that new residential constructions have one electric vehicle charging station per 25 parking spots. The property proposes 121 parking spaces, meaning that at least five of those spaces must be electric vehicle charging stations. The developer was seeking a variance from the zoning code to allow them to only place two charging stations on the property. When asked for a reason for this variance, the developer cited the cost of electric vehicle chargers, a data model on the non-popularity of electric vehicles in the state of Indiana, and the concern that EV-only parking spots will take away spots from gas-powered cars on the property. One of the zoning board members suggested that having the five EV charging stations will actually attract prospective tenants that drive EVs to the property, rather than drive away those who drive gas-powered vehicles. This variance was also denied, as the board cited that the city is forward-thinking in its zoning laws and that they are trying to build for the future, rather than the present.
How Did The Meeting Resolve?
This zoning meeting was resolved with both of the variance petitions being denied. The first petition was found to not be detrimental to the public environment but was cited with the already lacking parking space and the opportunity for non-profits or office space to be used in the space instead. The second petition was cited as being detrimental to the progress Bloomington is making with diminishing its carbon footprint. The city has these zoning laws in place for future construction to include EV charging stations to encourage Bloomington residents to drive EVs.
What Smart City Technology Can Be Implemented to Solve These Problems?
Regarding the first petition, a solution that I can see being implemented for the already large-scale parking problem the city faces involves the ParkMobile app. ParkMobile, as you may know, is a parking app used at Bloomington parking meters and garages to allow a smarter way for citizens to park around the city. Developers could perhaps enter a program with the city that gets permits or reduced parking rates as an amenity for tenants of residences that struggle with parking space. In exchange with the city, the developers could build their properties using sustainable energy technologies such as solar panels on roofs. This would drive down energy costs for the residents and developers while giving residents more choices for parking near their homes.
The second petition mentions a popular technology that is still expensive to implement. To drive developers to include more EV charging stations, they need to become cheaper or provide more of an incentive to include them. For instance, the city of Bloomington could create a project that provides benefits to developers to include charging stations in their new constructions. This could involve tax breaks or more opportunities to partner with the city in future developments. Electric vehicle infrastructure is still in its infancy in the United States, and even more so in the midwest. Adding more infrastructure for electric vehicles in Bloomington will entice more people who drive EVs to live in the city.
Citations:
The City of Bloomington Board of Zoning Appeals
https://bloomington.in.gov/onboard/meetingFiles/download?meetingFile_id=11608
Leave a Reply