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Planning department requests two new planners, emphasizes housing attainability and corridor studies
Summary
The Department of Planning and Transportation proposed two full-time positions for 2026 to increase long-range and alternative-transportation capacity and previewed corridor studies, a renewed Safe Routes to School program and UDO amendments tied to housing attainability.
David Bridal, director of Bloomington’s Department of Planning and Transportation, presented the 2026 departmental budget proposal on Sept. 3 and said the department is seeking two new full-time positions for planning services: a second long-range planner and an alternative-transportation coordinator (to be titled Safe Streets program manager for some duties).
Bridal described the department’s two divisions (development services and planning services), current staffing levels, and the budget drivers. He said personnel costs rose primarily due to citywide salary adjustments and the proposed two new FTEs. Bridal said the department will also commission an external audit of the development review process and continue Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) maintenance; pending UDO amendments include single-room-occupancy rules, urban agriculture, and affordability incentives.
Planning projects highlighted include the College–Walnut corridor study (safety focus), Kinser–Madison–Rogers corridor study, Indiana Avenue safety improvement project (active stakeholder coordination with Indiana University, IU Transit, Bloomington Transit and emergency services), Tenth Street study, and relaunch of Safe Routes to School with MCCSC (University Elementary, followed by Tri-North Middle School). Bridal said the department finished the MPO 2050 transportation plan that preserves federal funding eligibility and published a public crash dashboard to inform safety priorities.
On housing attainability, Bridal told council the department will conclude a housing attainability study by year-end and bring UDO-based policy recommendations to council. He said the UDO is one of several levers to address housing constraints and that the council and mayor (with plan commission input) control UDO text and incentives. Bridal described the affordability incentives section that ties development incentives to either on-site affordable units or a fee-in-lieu pending a linkage study; the city plans to hire an outside vendor to conduct that linkage analysis.
Council members asked about enforcement staffing, zoning violation increases (Bridal cited a maternity leave for enforcement staff in 2024 as a likely factor), the planned FTEs’ scope and ability to attract candidates, and whether some review tasks would be outsourced absent new staff. Bridal said current recruitment activity yielded a stronger-than-expected applicant pool for an open long-range planner and that hiring could reduce consultant spending; he said an expedited minor-permit path exists to speed simple approvals.
Bridal also emphasized the UDO’s maintenance burden and said the department planned to continue omnibus annual UDO amendments and incremental improvements. He concluded by noting staffing turnover (long-range planner Karina Pazos recently left for Chicago) and reinforced the department’s focus on outcome-based budgeting and metrics for permit timeliness and accuracy.
No budget appropriation was adopted at the hearing; council members asked for further detail on outsourcing vs. in-house spending and the proposed staffing costs.
