By: Diane Benjamin
Opticos Designs is the California based consultant who is recommending zoning changes to single family neighborhoods in Bloomington. Note that Normal isn’t doing anything close.
Guess what?
Opticos is pushing the same talking points in Maryland: https://montgomeryplanning.org/events/what-is-missing-middle-housing-presentation-to-the-silver-spring-community-from-opticos-design/
This event will feature Tony Perez from Opticos Design who is a Missing Middle Housing expert in working with communities to establish and translate policy direction into clear and implementable development standards. Tony is a leader in advancing the practice of Form-Based Coding, and has authored or co-authored over 25 zoning codes and peer-reviewed or contributed to over 20 others, ranging in scale from small to citywide.
See this link, also from Maryland: https://www.fox5dc.com/news/montgomery-county-council-approves-missing-middle-legislation-address-housing-concerns
This county in Maryland has Missing-Middle housing too!
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Does every Opticos client municipality have “missing middle” housing? Citizens used to fight Form Based Code, Opticos in Bloomington is sneaking it in without saying those words.
Go back to this story: https://blnnews.com/2025/08/28/8-things-you-need-to-know/
Realtor.com claims Bloomington real estate is hot. There is nothing in their story about “missing middle” housing. It claims Bloomington has a mix of affordability!
Now go back to this story: https://blnnews.com/2025/08/27/the-only-paper-that-matters-is-what-jeff-jurgens-signed/
Opticos is not the action the Council charged staff to investigate. Bloomington isn’t Maryland, California, or Chicago. Local issues deserve local solutions. Packing people together isn’t Quality of Life. Remember when that mattered?
Once again City Code is immaterial. The City Manager exceeded his $50,000 spending limit.
These are the latest people prosecuted under City Code: https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/28541/638908453757030000
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Aldermen and the City Manager are exempt from prosecution. This is what local Equity means – elites exempt, you aren’t.
Everything with these planners is cookie cutter. Got a template, change the names of towns, streets, landmarks and wah-la, got a new plan. Same as the old plan. Nothing new really. Recycled plans that were replanned decades later, called something else.
Some people will snap up anything that has these words on the cover sheet – “sustainability”, “green”, “affordable housing”, “equity goals”, “free public transit”. They don’t need to read the fine print, check on actual performance, or ask a single question about it. SOLD! – Their existence revolves around the momentary thrill of moral superiority, no matter the cost to others, no matter the reality of consequences.