Neighborhood Plant Exchange, Sunday, April 29th!

Too many day lilies? Tall grasses need dividing? Black- eyed Susans taking over? Bring your extra plants, seeds, seedlings, starts and other living things to the neighborhood plant exchange. One gardener's weed is another gardener's salad. Perennials, annuals, shrubs, berry brambles,all are welcome. Exchange plants and gardening stories and get to know your neighbors. New to gardening, and don't have anything to share? Stop by anyway. Everyone is welcome. See you there! Sunday April 29, 1-4 pm, 611 West Dodds (@fairview)

Memorial Service for Laura Shively

Laura Shively, a much loved and valued McDoel resident, passed away on March 10th. A memorial for Laura will be held on Saturday, March 24th, at 3 PM, in her private gardens at her home.

A memorial fund has been set up to help her children with estate expenses and to help with her younger son's education expenses. Donations can be made to: the Laura Shively Benevolent Fund or the Joseph Shively Education Fund, both at Key Bank, (418 S. College Mall Road, Bloomington, IN 47401).

We'll miss you, Laura.

(Photo of Laura by Michael Redman)

Morton and Dodds Project Neighborhood workshop to be held Saturday March 3rd

Property developer and McDoel Gardens resident Matt Press will be hosting a workshop with neighbors on Saturday, March 3rd , from 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM, in the McDoel Baptist Church Basement. He will be seeking input from neighbors on plans to develop the property at Morton and Dodds, along the B-Line. Matt will have with him a civil engineer, an architect and a home-builder, to help with the discussions. There will be site plan drawings, conceptual drawings, and reference images for neighbors to look at and give feedback on. Light refreshments will be provided. For more information, contact Matt Press at mattpress@comcast.net.

*"ImagineBloomington" to Envision the City's Planning Future

Bloomington, IN* -- Mayor Mark Kruzan announced the kickoff of ImagineBloomington, the process that will update the City's Growth Policies Plan (GPP). ImagineBloomington will ask Bloomington residents and stakeholders to look toward the future and help develop a new vision addressing important planning issues for the City. The update of the GPP is a multi-year effort designed to reflect the community's goals, values and aspirations. Public involvement will be key to the ImagineBloomington visioning process. Once established, the new vision will be used as a foundation for future decisions concerning a wide range of land use, development and planning policy issues for the community. The Growth Policies Plan, which is the City's current comprehensive plan, was last updated 10 years ago, making this the perfect time to assess progress and seek input on the future direction of Bloomington.

"ImagineBloomington is a unique and exciting opportunity for Bloomington citizens to play an integral role in defining the future of our community's planning ideals," Kruzan said. "This is a chance for us to create a common vision for Bloomington and start working together to achieve it."

ImagineBloomington will begin with a series of public workshops in locations throughout the community, with the kickoff event scheduled for 7p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 21 at the Monroe County Public Library, Room 1B. The goal of these workshops is to gather feedback from the public in order to craft a future vision for Bloomington. There are 10 workshops scheduled for this phase of the process, and members of the public are encouraged to attend the one that best fits their schedule. Since all of the workshops will have the same format and content, there is no need to attend more than one. All workshops will start at 7p.m. and end at 8:30p.m. The full schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, February 21, Monroe County Public Library, Bloomington, Room 1B
Thursday, March 1, Bloomington High School North, Large Group Room
Tuesday, March 6, Highland Park Elementary School, Cafeteria
Thursday, March 8, University Elementary School, Cafeteria
Monday, March 19, Batchelor Middle School, Auditorium
Wednesday, March 21, Binford Elementary School, Auditorium
Tuesday, March 27, Tri-North Middle School, Auditorium
Thursday, March 29, Summit Elementary School, Cafeteria
Monday, April 2, Childs Elementary School, Cafeteria
Wednesday, April 4, Templeton Elementary School, Cafeteria

In addition to the workshops, the City will use a number of innovative input gathering tools to enhance the ImagineBloomington process. There will be a project website, as well as Facebook and Twitter pages. UserVoice, an interactive web forum tool, will be available to foster additional opportunities for public involvement. UserVoice provides a way for people, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to actively participate in topic discussions, offer feedback, submit ideas and vote on preferred options. Because ImagineBloomington is a civic engagement project, UserVoice has agreed to waive the typical service fees that are associated with the product.

A Steering Committee has been formed to help guide and assist the development of the ImagineBloomington vision statement, which will be presented to both the Plan Commission and City Council for final adoption in late 2012. The vision statement will then be utilized as a framework for updating the Growth Policies Plan, a process that will include continued Steering Committee guidance and further public input opportunities. The updated Growth Policies Plan will be presented to the Plan Commission and City Council for final adoption in late 2014.

For additional information and details regarding ImagineBloomington, or
to utilize the UserVoice interactive tool, please visit
http://www.bloomington.in.gov/imaginebloomington, or contact the
Planning Department at 812.349.3423.

Stuff is getting done!!

That's right, West Allen street still floods. Hopefully the work they are doing now will put that to an end. (Photos courtesy of Holly and David Thrasher)

Next Meeting Feb 2, Morton and Dodds development

We invite all members of McDoel Gardens to attend the next meeting at McDoel Baptist Church February 2, 6:30 pm. McDoel Gardens resident and local developer Matt Press will be there to announce his intentions to purchase and build on the property at Morton and Dodds. He is looking for feedback from the neighbors about the property. He hopes to hold a more formal design workshop with the public in about a month. More information forthcoming. Matt was responsible for the successful and popular South Dunn neighborhood development project.

Switchyard Update, bye bye Upland.

Sad news for McDoel Gardens, Upland Brewing has changed their plans for their new brewery and have decided not to move into the vacant building on Grimes lane next to the B-line trail. Instead they have decided to open shop on the far west side of Bloomington on Profile Parkway, west of Curry Pike. Doug Dayhoff, president of Upland Brewing was quoted as saying in the Herald Times, “My heart is still with the B-Line; the economics caused a change, we just got a better deal.” Upland plans to sell the building next to the B-line to Storage Express who plans on turning the property into indoor, climate controlled rental storage space.
Good news, the talks are underway for development plans for the 69 acre Switchyard Park surrounding the B-Line. On the list of factors is what to do with coal ash and cinders that blanket the park from its days as a railroad yard. The area will need to be tested for contamination levels and the city may need to remove the toxic soil. Another factor is the park lies in a flood plain. More public meetings are planned this spring and in August. The steering committee is confident that the park will go ahead as planned as soon as obstacles are dealt with.

For up to date information about the park go to http://www.switchyardpark.org

Image courtesy of Herald Times Online.