More than just Downtown
Bloomington has a lively and growing downtown, with high housing growth and even higher housing demand. Along with downtown, there are many employment and retail centers, parks, and schools that people need to commute to often, causing lots of intra-city traffic. Redeveloping a few of these areas into walkable neighborhood centers could give people who want to live and work in Bloomington a variety of options. Completing them with daily necessities like groceries, childcare, and healthcare could greatly reduce traffic and its related inequalities within the city.
College Mall, Eastland Plaza, and Whitehall Plaza
These areas are already zoned for high density mixed-use development characteristic of a downtown area, but roadblocks to development including height limits and parking mandates in the UDO hold them back. They are currently occupied by more surface parking lots than space for the businesses and restaurants those parking lots serve. By removing these roadblocks, the city could allow these shopping centers to become vibrant neighborhoods that house and employ people within walking distance of existing grocery stores, shops, and restaurants. This could be improved by adding an east-west shared-use trail similar to the B-Line that connects these new neighborhoods to each other, Ivy tech, the B-Line, downtown, and IU campus. These areas are already well-connected by bus service, so allowing them to fill in with housing would increase ridership and the effectiveness of our transit system. Redevelopment would also create the opportunity to add more trees, biodiversity, and park space to the area, reducing flash flooding risks. Other cities are undertaking similar cost-effective mall redevelopment projects, like the Northgate Mall redevelopment in San Rafael.
Above are Northgate Mall on the left, College Mall and Eastland Plaza on the right for comparison. Short of removing all parking, a couple well-placed parking garages could easily satisfy any remaining parking demand. This neighborhood would be similar in size to Bloomington’s downtown.
Bloomington High School North and South
Bloomington High School North and South
The areas surrounding high schools should be filled with job opportunities, restaurants, and places for high schoolers to hang out and experience some independence. At the same time, these should be areas that the school’s faculty and staff, as well as growing families, can afford to live in. Upzoning residential areas within a 10 minute walk of each high school to mixed-use medium density could provide anyone associated with the schools the opportunity to live close to work and their kids’ school. This could be combined with single-stair reform to gradually build more neighborhood-scale family-sized apartments. Bloomington can avoid the problem of isolated schools that induce lots of daily traffic by building schools as part of mixed-use public housing into future developments, like the previously mentioned mall redevelopment sites.
Besides upzoning, other land use improvements can be made near both high schools to accommodate the city’s growing population. One of the predominant land uses near BHS North is the Cascades Golf Course. Besides the negative environmental impact of water-intensive monoculture grass turf, golf is an economically inaccessible sport for most people. In my opinion, 9 of these holes should be converted to housing. This would leave a complete 18 hole course, while creating the opportunity for affordable homes to be built near the school. Some of this space could be used to make a more biodiverse urban park, which could be enjoyed by anyone in the area without spending money on golf clubs. The area would also benefit from bridging the divide between the two neighborhoods on opposite sides of Cascades Park. Shown below, what could be a comfortable ¾ mile walk on a path through a park is currently an hour-long trek along the shoulders of busy roads.
BHS South is separated from Switchyard Park and the neighborhoods west of it by a series of car dealerships and a liquor store. The nearest ways to access the park are the B-Link trail connection and Country Club Road, both of which are out of the way for someone living directly west of the school. Adding trails to Switchyard Park between these large lots and removing barriers to housing can help encourage redevelopment here.
This area has a lot of potential due to its close proximity to parks and the B-Line trail, and it’s already zoned for high density mixed-use development. Replacing traffic lanes with protected bike lanes, while adding chicanes, trees, and more frequent stops to Walnut in this area could make it more appealing to live, work, and relax in this area. In this concept, outdoor dining or merchandise space can be added on alternating sides of the street to create a smooth chicaning effect. Where the street narrows, the turn lane and chicaning can be removed. Converting Walnut Street to 2-way traffic would allow College Avenue to be a dedicated transit corridor, with exceptions made for emergency and delivery vehicles.
Bloomington Transit Area
Currently, the area around the Bloomington Transit station is heavily blighted and dominated by parking lots. This should be the most convenient area in Bloomington to live in for access to transit and opportunities. It would ideally feel like an extension of downtown, with comfortable streets to walk and bike on for those arriving to town via bus. The downtown overlay zoning district may be hurting this area more than helping it by adding to the delays and input costs of development. These restrictions combined with the unshaded and unpleasant walking experiences next to fast traffic along College, Walnut, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th streets make this area an unattractive place to invest in. This area includes the convention center, which is also impaired by the blighted and empty surroundings.
The blocks surrounding the station should be upzoned and filled with housing, employment, and dining, bringing together as many jobs, workers, and customers as possible. Transit stations around the world have abundant shopping and dining options nearby for riders to enjoy upon arriving in town or while waiting for their connections, and Bloomington could follow this model. Whatever government-owned land is leftover from the convention center expansion should be used for mixed-use public housing. This is the city’s first impression on people visiting for a convention or arriving by transit, and it could be much better.
Conclusion
There is plenty of under-utilized space within Bloomington that can fulfill the housing needs of our growing city, while creating unique neighborhoods and reducing commutes to the most congested areas. Changes like removing parking mandates and zoning restrictions won’t cost the city anything, while small investments like pedestrian trails and street beautification can go a long way to make these places pleasant.