Julie Roberts
Here are a few of the key points everyone needs to know about Bloomington’s Growth Policies Plan (GPP) update that is being debated by the Bloomington Plan Commission this month and will then go before the City Council.
1. GPP is just the framework. The Growth Policies Plan is a philosophical document outlining values that our city purportedly holds in regard to zoning, land use, and development. However, the GPP itself HAS NO WEIGHT OF LAW. Unless the city council passes ordinances that codify the ideas in the GPP, those ideas are indefensible in court. But the GPP is important because an ordinance cannot be passed unless it flows logically from what is stated in the GPP. For example, impact fees would be impossible to add to the ordinance package unless they are cited as an option for the city in the GPP. They would be immediately overturned in court. So we must sign up for the long haul, including the ordinance phase. If you haven’t participated yet, there are months and months left for you to help.2. City/county relations are crucial. Vastly more developable land exists outside the city’s jurisdiction than inside it. The City of Bloomington has double or triple the resources to oversee a relative sliver of land compared to what Monroe County must oversee. This inequality of planning resources shows. Recently at public meetings, I have seen a rash of beleaguered westsiders begging both county and city to stop using them as a dumping ground. The city and county must begin to share information and, wherever legally possible, other resources. City dwellers can do double duty in demanding this important change because they are constituents of both levels of governance.
3. Fight the mentality that all growth is good. Sustainability does not come naturally to any of the planet’s mammals. Given the opportunity, ANY herd will overgraze its range. Our “grazing” is just dangerously amplified by technology. Fortunately, humans can learn. When antisepsis was discovered, doctors and the public refused to believe in a world of invisible germs. It was decades before antiseptic practices were used in all levels of American healthcare. Likewise, Americans have no concept of “running out” of anything. We must pound the podium for sustainability whenever possible, because every little bit adds up. Someday, it will be the growth proponents who look like lunatics.
4. State code favors the status quo. Indiana code neither mandates nor prohibits some of the sprawl-control measures we would like to see. In Indiana, Fishers is one of the only cities to implement impact fees. The land there is so hot that developers don’t care. However, fees in regions like ours will be challenged in state court. A long-range goal for Greens is to change state laws. Citizens deserve the right to craft both the quality and quantity of development in their towns.
What you can do: Tell a city or county official how you feel about Monroe County’s disappearing greenspace. Attend city meetings on the GPP in September. Read Suburban Nation, a great citizen’s guide to combatting sprawl by Duany, Plater-Zyberk, and Speck. Be an MCGP Shadow Government observer of the city or county governments. See the GPP yourself at www.city.bloomington.in.us/planning/projects/gpp/2001.