By: Diane Benjamin I was contacted last week by a resident of Nashville Tn after she found stories I wrote about Opticos Designs. No surprise their plans for Nashville are Missing Middle Housing, same story as Bloomington. Nashville has a bigger problem than Bloomington because the population growth is huge as people flee states like […]
By: Diane Benjamin . I am not speaking about anything on the agenda. I will post a story before 6:00 tonight with details. Agenda: https://bloomingtonil.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1009/files/agenda/6790 Missing Middle Housing and zoning changes are back again. The agenda doesn’t mention the City Manager exceeding his $50,000 spending limit by hiring Opticos. Did you know Chicago has Missing […]
By: Diane Benjamin Missing Middle Housing is supposed to be on the September 8th Bloomington City Council Agenda. There are some things the City and the Council either don’t know or do and aren’t telling you. No wonder some on the Council wanted a fast vote. Opticos has been using the same canned program for […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve done many stories on Opticos and Missing Middle Housing. Review this story, it contains what the Council told staff they wanted back in July 2024 to solve the “housing crisis”: https://blnnews.com/2025/05/31/remember-when-i-told-you-staff-wouldnt-drop-it/ There is ZERO in those instructions about creating “walkable neighborhoods” or hiring a consultant from California. That didn’t stop Jeff […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night’s Bloomington Committee of the Whole: Also on the agenda was a discussion of video gaming. Start with the Public Comment at 33:35 from a downtown bar owner that isn’t allowed to have video gaming because of the arbitrary limit on the number of establishments the City set. Now see 2:11:20. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Luckily Alderman won’t be voting on the Middle Missing Housing report tonight, Committee of the Whole is meant to assess policy. It will reveal who believes government solves problems and who knows they don’t however. The Bloomington City Council has approved MANY housing projects, almost all have ZERO action from developers. The […]
By: Diane Benjamin Monday night the Bloomington City Council is circling back to the May 27th discussion of Missing Middle Housing. In case you forgot, the City hired a California group called Opticos Design Inc. Some things you need to know: -The report is littered with the term “Best Practices”. That is a ridiculous term […]
By: Diane Benjamin Council members do NOT have a right to demand items be placed on the agenda. Aldermen have a procedure for doing it called Council initiatives. The public would know who is behind items and the Council has to vote to consider items at future meetings. Mollie Ward knows the procedure, maybe the […]
By: Diane Benjamin What is government speak? It’s elected officials or staff who use terms you’ve never heard of before. One example: Road Diet That one was big a few years ago. It means narrowing the roads to slow down traffic. East Washington was put on a road diet so bike lanes could be added. […]
By: Diane Benjamin It didn’t take long! The Planning Commission will be hearing a presentation about Missing Middle Housing next Wednesday: Meeting agenda: https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/cityblm/22c56154-ab60-11ef-ab4b-005056a89546-71aa7719-c1df-4797-9411-79d5d861f4b4-1748660679.pdf Staff decided to hire the consultant from Berkeley California. The Opticos mission is right on their website: https://opticosdesign.com/ We are urban designers and architects who believe in the transformative power of […]
By: Diane Benjamin One more thing from Monday’s Council meeting: Mollie Ward made a comment at the end of the meeting. She was one of the 4 who voted for the Missing Middle Housing plan. Hit play: . She recently attended an event honoring people who died riding bicycles. She attempted to shame the council […]
By: Diane Benjamin I might do Part 3. Did you know Bloomington has Missing Middle Housing? Nobody but staff did until last night. This item was thrown in front of the Council with no previous discussion. Normally a Committee of the Whole meeting would have explored this before a vote was brought to Council. Instead, […]
