Bloomington council adopts new rules for hotel and remote airport parking, delays final standards for existing off-site lots

The Bloomington City Council on Sept. 29 voted 5-2 to adopt an ordinance changing use allowances and performance standards for hotel airport parking and remote off‑airport parking and to require summary publication of the ordinance.

The ordinance formalizes hotel airport parking as a permitted accessory use with basic parameters and requires conditional use permitting for newly proposed remote airport parking structures. For existing off‑airport parking lots, the council followed staff direction to keep current interim use permit (IUP) requirements in place until August 2027 to give staff and property owners more time to negotiate longer-term development and compliance plans.

City planning staff presented three draft ordinance approaches after a months‑long review that included a moratorium, public hearings and planning‑commission recommendations. The staff/planning commission proposal would convert long‑running interim permits for existing remote airport parking facilities into permanent conditional‑use approvals while requiring operators to set aside roughly three acres per site for future transit‑oriented development and to meet upgraded site‑improvement standards. Council members ultimately directed staff to delay converting existing IUPs into permanent conditional uses and instead align existing operators’ permit expirations in August 2027 to allow more time for a negotiated path forward.

Planning staff described hotel‑based airport parking as an established practice the city now would recognize with a permit and modest standards. New remote parking facilities or parking structures would require a conditional‑use permit and must demonstrate that excess parking capacity is available for airport use (to avoid taking parking from existing users such as shopping‑center ramps).

One stakeholder, Rosa Development (owner of an existing Park‑and‑Fly lot), proposed a separate third option that would permit remote airport parking as a conditional use but exempt existing operators from many lighting, landscaping and parking‑island requirements while maintaining screening. Staff said that proposal would be a substantial policy shift from decades of treating remote airport parking as an interim use meant to eventually redevelop into denser uses.

Council members debated tradeoffs between imposing site‑improvement requirements now — which some said could discourage redevelopment — and giving operators permanent rights without substantial site upgrades. Council member Nelson and others pressed for performance standards tied to redevelopment, while Council member Moore said he would have preferred making the use permanent immediately.

After deliberation, the council adopted the ordinance updating Chapter 21 of the city code and later voted unanimously to direct summary publication of the ordinance.

Council members who spoke in the discussion included Council Member Lohmann, Council Member D’Alessandro, Council Member Carter, Council Member Nelson, Council Member Muah and Council Member Rivas. Planning staff presentations were given by Centenario and other city planning staff.