Bloomington City council woman Sheila Montney is concerned about the scope of this massive Downtown Bloomington project that is estimated to cost $25-$30 million. What exactly is it? Well a streetscape, similar communities that have streetscapes are that of Decatur.
The city council should be considering Bloomington City Manager Tim Gleason’s plan in the coming weeks.
Montney tell Cities she is deeply opposed to going through with sending a consulting firm out to redo and revisit prior studies for drafting a plan.
“What do people want? Parking is going to be a big piece of this. There is a population that wants to see less parking and more parking in garages…and more pedestrian only zones,” said Montney. “And then there’s a population who say, ‘no, my customers want to be able to park at my door… and it’s going to reduce my foot traffic if we go to a centralized parking structure.'”
Montney said Gleason has mentioned this to council in smaller meeting but there hasn’t been anything brought council as far as something to vote on…
How will this be paid for exactly?
“I think the way you pay for that so that it doesn’t take away from the existing revenues and the other projects and other vision items the council has, I think we consider TIFing the entire downtown,” Gleason told WGLT.
Montney said there is a significant amount of reserves in Bloomington, also Montney said Gleason is looking at using ARPA funds… and of course the TIFs.
“The city provides an opportunity for businesses to invest but the city freezes their property taxes… such that as they invest and the property continues to appreciate they don’t pay tax on the property for the period of time that district is in place,” said Montney.
A Tax Increment Financing District (TIF) uses increased property tax revenue from improvements and development within a designated and qualified area to reinvest in that area.Gleason told WGLT the city would have to make sure the entire downtown is eligible for TIF.
“In fairness, there’s a lot of interest in enhancing Downtown Bloomington,” said Montney. “Downtown Bloomington has has a lot of improvements in the last 10 years. We had a prior streetscape study and a lot of enhancements were made at the time.”
Gleason apparently according to WGLT interviews he has the votes to get this big spend passed.
“We talk about are you for this or are you against this…but I don’t know if we really understand what we are for or against. It’s an all or nothing proposition. What I would like to see is a specific gap analysis. What does the city of Bloomington need in order for it be the best that it can? I am not sure what is being cued up is the answer to that question,” said Montney.
There’s multiple other projects, like the Public Library and the O’Neil Pool, but the most recent spend didn’t go as far as we thought it was going to go.
“Our streets need improvement. About 13 miles will be resurfaced out of the 800 miles in Bloomington,” said Montney. “This proposal doesn’t include all of the money we will be using for the roads but another thing is…inflation.”
