Bloomington council approves two bond sales, updates vehicle, height and art rules and joins multicity immigration coalition

Bloomington — The Bloomington City Council on Monday approved the sale of two general-obligation bond issues and adopted three ordinances updating city code on vehicle parking in residential areas, building height standards and incentives for public art.

The council voted unanimously to authorize a $18,265,000 aggregate principal issuance of sales-tax-backed general obligation bonds for the 9 Mile Creek Corridor project and to award a separate capital-improvement bond for construction of a new fleet garage. "We had a lot of interest in our bonds this morning," said Laurie Economy Schoeller, noting a final true interest cost of about 3.38 percent and that proceeds for the sales-tax bonds are expected March 3.

Why this matters: The sales-tax bonds provide the city with up-front funds to build and maintain major capital projects without immediate tax-rate increases; the council and staff said available reserves and projected sales-tax receipts support the 20-year debt service schedule.

Council members asked how the lower-than-expected sale pricing would affect projected property-tax estimates. Schoeller said the debt-service schedule will reflect the actual sale and that a reduction in projected obligations — roughly $3–4 million by staff estimate — will be spread across the 20-year amortization.

The council also adopted three separate…