THE HAND UPDATE

An updated listing of information for Bloomington residents!

Important upcoming dates for neighborhoods!
• April 7, 2011 – Neighborhood Leadership Series, 7 to 9 p.m. in City Council Chambers of City Hall
• April 18, 2011 – Applications due for Blooming Neighborhood Awards and Small & Simple grants.

BLOOMING NEIGHBORHOOD AWARDS & CELEBRATION
Saturday, June 4, 9 a.m. to noon, Farmers’ Market, 401 N Morton St.
The Blooming Neighborhood Awards/Celebration was created in 2001 by the City of Bloomington to recognize Bloomington Neighborhoods for their efforts and reward the accomplishments of organized neighborhood groups. The City provides tables for the neighborhoods to set up displays to promote their neighborhood during the festivities. Last year 20 Neighborhood Organizations had festive displays – promoting the unique character of their neighborhoods. The day provides a wonderful community event starting with our Farmers’ Market and a combination of activities for the Blooming Neighborhood Celebration.
There are three award categories:

• Mayor’s Excellence Award
• City Council Neighborhood Enhancement Award
• HAND Team of the Year Award

Deadline for applications: Monday April 18, 2011 by noon
Link to the site Blooming Neighborhoods for an application and to see pictures from last year’s event!
Call Vickie at 349-3505 for more information or to mail an application.
Have your neighborhood represented at the Blooming Neighborhood Celebration – tables will be provided free of charge to neighborhoods. This is a great opportunity to share with the community the wonderful aspects of your neighborhood. A map of your neighborhood will be provided to you.
Contact Vickie at provinev@bloomington.in.gov or 349-3505 to sign up!

NEIGHBORHOOD LEADERSHIP SERIES - Thursday, April 7, 2011, 7 to 9 p.m., City Council Chambers
The session on Thursday, April 7 "HANDS ON HOUSING" will be highly interactive. HAND staff will to talk to participants about their own housing as well as what is needed in the neighborhood. A wide variety of stations will be set up to help you improve your home, not just for your own comfort and pocketbook, but also for Bloomington as a whole. Programs cover how to purchase, maintain, and rehabilitate a home, how to deal with an emergency and how to make your home more energy efficient. Attend this fun and interactive session with HAND staff to learn how to make your home a part of our increasingly sustainable city.
HAND will offer a drawing for a free Home Energy Audit to one of the participants in each session!

CITIZENS’ ACADEMY – link to this site for an application
The City of Bloomington's Citizens’ Academy provides participants with an interactive learning experience about City services, programs and responsibilities.
Come to this free nine weeks program and learn more about how your City government functions! Link to our site for more information and registration available online. Class meets every Thursday from August 18 through October 13, 2011. Contact Vickie at provinev@bloomington.in.gov or 349-3505 for more information.

Renwick Proposal Withdrawn

Neighbors,

Below, I have posted an e-mail that I received recently from Patrick Shay, Development Review Manager, Bloomington Planning Department. Then, below that, I have posted a follow-up e-mail that I received from Dave Rollo, our City Council Representative.

-------------

Hello Everyone,

I am emailing all of you to let you know that the Renwick petition that had been scheduled to be heard on Monday March 7th has been continued. After they received the staff report for the meeting, they have requested to continue the case. They are going to re-evaluate their plan and may or may not be back before the Plan Commission on April 4th.

As I did last month, I emailed all of you because you have expressed interest in this case in the past. We are trying to get the information out to as many people as possible so that no one shows up on Monday night unnecessarily. If you know of anyone else that is not on this list, it would be greatly appreciated if you could forward this information on to them as well.

Thanks,

Patrick

------------

Dear Mindy and Barry, John, Chris and Robert,

I just wanted to follow up on Patrick Shay's e-mail to you re the postponement of the Renwick amendment. I've chosen just to write you, instead of the larger group, but you are free to discuss this with anyone.

The proposal, as was last envisioned, is likely not coming back. There are some indications that W/S may come with a significantly reduced proposal of some kind (perhaps by May) but that will be contingent on the planning staff's review of it. As soon as I know the nature of it, I'll let you know.

What I really wanted to convey was my discussions with Mayor Kruzan. The mayor watched your initial Plan Commission meeting closely. He agrees with your view that the proposal was completely out of alignment with the city's commitment for a new-urbanist neighborhood, that was crucial for the original passage of the PUD. He instructed his staff in planning to write a memo to the Plan Commission to reject the proposal.

The Plan Commission rarely votes in total opposition to the planning staff, and so W/S and CarDon must have realized that they would have a negative recommendation from the Commission. Since we on the council would likely reject it as well, they pulled it.

I wanted to briefly let you know what led to this outcome. I spoke with Mayor Kruzan this afternoon, and thanked him for his support of the original interpretation of the Renwick PUD.

All the best,

Dave