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Peak Oil Task Force Report - City of Bloomington - State of Indiana

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Both the <strong>City</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Bloomington</strong> and Monroe County have redevelopment commissions whose<br />

power and duty is to establish TIF districts and designations as well as to control how<br />

property taxes collected within those districts are expended within the district. The<br />

Monroe County Redevelopment Commission has now established three TIF districts, all<br />

established over greenfield areas for development <strong>of</strong> medical <strong>of</strong>fices, warehousing, and<br />

suburban retail. The <strong>City</strong> has established seven TIF districts covering the immediate<br />

downtown and Whitehall Plaza as well as the RCA/Thomson Brownfield.<br />

The <strong>City</strong> and County Redevelopment Commissions are in competition to drive development<br />

to their respective TIF areas. This is largely a zero‐sum game as a firm induced to build on<br />

a county suburban greenfield is a firm not available to redevelop an urban brownfield, such<br />

as the RCA/Thomson site. In the County there are few brownfields but many remaining<br />

greenfields which the County, naturally, would like to see developed in order to grow the<br />

tax base.<br />

The situation <strong>of</strong>ten arises where the County wishes to convert a greenfield into some sort<br />

<strong>of</strong> retail, industrial, or employment use while urban brownfields remain undeveloped<br />

within <strong>Bloomington</strong>. Co‐operation between the two redevelopment commissions along<br />

with concessions between the <strong>City</strong> and County to help move in the direction <strong>of</strong> urban<br />

redevelopment as opposed to suburban greenfield development would go a long way<br />

towards slowing or even reversing the building out <strong>of</strong> suburban infrastructure. A regional<br />

(county‐wide or even multi‐county) redevelopment commission would be able to consider<br />

all parcels within the region as a whole, not just a particular political subdivision, and be<br />

able to make decisions that support the original intent <strong>of</strong> “redevelopment.”<br />

<strong>Report</strong> <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Bloomington</strong> <strong>Peak</strong> <strong>Oil</strong> <strong>Task</strong> <strong>Force</strong><br />

108

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