Committee signs off on Amendment Six to Bloomington'Normal Enterprise Zone, adding infill housing and mixed-use tracks

The McLean County Finance Committee approved an ordinance on Wednesday authorizing boundary modifications to the Bloomington-Normal Enterprise Zone (Amendment Six), adding six tracks of territory in the City of Bloomington focused primarily on housing and infill mixed use.

Tyler Cravens, interim director of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council (BNEDC), said the local administrator's role includes processing building-materials sales-tax exemptions and standardized property-tax abatements that make marginal housing projects financially feasible. "The most utilized and the most important is the building material sales tax exemption," Cravens said, and he explained the zone's property-tax abatement function for high-impact projects.

Cravens outlined six tracks added by the amendment, including the Jumer Drive infill site (a potential mixed-use opportunity), the old post office parcel (planned housing and potential retail by Holiday Properties), Leslie Drive (adjacent to an existing hotel site), Six Points Road (infrastructure already present near Hartland Hills), a South Morris apartment site described as close to construction-ready, and a former driving-range parcel targeted for housing.

Bloomington and Normal city councils had unanimously approved the amendment earlier in the process; Cravens said the state Department of A (administrative review) and the Illinois DCEO (final authority) remain steps in the state approval process. Committee members discussed whether maps could better indicate likely uses (residential vs. commercial) and asked which tracks had immediate developer interest; Cravens said track five had an active developer ready to move quickly.

The committee voted to approve the ordinance by voice vote. The amendment does not remove territory from the zone and will move on to state review for final designation.