By Joe Ragusa
BLOOMINGTON – A proposal to rezone a property at 1314 Fell Ave. was denied by the Bloomington City Council Monday night.
The proposal to change the property from a single-family residence to a multi-family residence was shot down by an 8-1 vote. Alderwoman Karen Schmidt was the lone dissent.
“It’s rezoning that honors the Pillsbury architecture and is being proposed by somebody who has a very good track record,” Schmidt said.
Developer Bob Vericella wants to remodel the property but wants to change the property into a multi-family residence, something several neighbors have objected to. Every house around the property at the corner of Fell and Phoenix Avenues is a single-family home.
Alderman Kevin Lower said he has concerns with it staying a single-family home, despite his vote against the rezoning.
“With the amount of remediation that would be required with the asbestos, the mold and the other issues, it doesn’t seem to be financially viable as a single-family residence,” Lower said. “Unless someone wants to spend a lot of money and throw it to the wind because it’s probably not going to appraise out in the end to the same amount of value.”
The city council also voted to require the owner of a proposed mobile-home park to have an agreement in place with a neighborhood mobile-home park when it comes to storm drainage as a condition of approval for the proposal.
PMO Properties Manufactured Home Park is near the intersection of Hamilton Rd. and Greyhound Rd. It used to be part of a larger mobile home park to the south and east, but since it was separated, it needs its own storm drainage system.
The owners of the proposed mobile-home park want to use the old drainage system but they haven’t been able to come to an agreement with owners of the developed mobile home park.
“Its troubling that we’re putting this smaller development at the mercy of the larger one who has no compelling interest in cooperating because they are a direct competitor,” Alderwoman Amelia Buragas said.
Tom Dabareiner, director of community development, said the owner of PMO properties has other options like building a retention basin within their own property. Either way, he said the four residents of the current property located at the mobile-home park won’t be forced to move. The four homes were allowed there before PMO Properties was required to obtain a license to operate a mobile home park.
In other action, the council voted to shoot down a recapture agreement from Pamela Tucci that would have required neighbors of her property at 1504 E. Emerson St. to pay several thousand dollars each for the extension of a sanitary sewer. The project cost Tucci $148,000 and she said properties surrounding her’s would benefit from the extended sewage line, despite the fact no recapture agreement was discussed with those neighbors prior to the sewage line being built.
If approved, the agreement would have required the owners of benefiting properties to pay $37,000 each in the event a currently-working septic system failed or needed repair.
Joe Ragusa can be reached at [email protected].
