Pam Pommer asked her East Bloomington neighbors to lean on the City Council before it voted on a townhouse project off Bloomington Avenue. The council has now voted, and the project passed in a somewhat smaller form. Council members voted 6–1 to rezone 6 single-family lots on East 86th and 87th streets from R-1 to R-3 middle housing. They also approved the final site and building plans and a plat for a 30-unit townhome development, which goes by the name Bloomshire Village. Council member Rivas cast the only no vote.
The version that passed isn't quite the one Pommer wrote about. Before the vote, the developer cut the project from 33 units to 30 and lowered the roof line slightly, to about 39 feet 4 inches. The developer also widened the side-yard setbacks and increased open space by about 14.4 percent, which leaves more room for green space and snow storage. That works out to about 10.9 units per acre, which the city considers consistent with its medium-density guidance for the area. Rivas asked whether the traffic study accounted for buses stopping near the project's new driveway. The city and the applicant said the plans had been shared with Metro Transit, and one condition of approval requires the developer to coordinate with Metro Transit on any stop relocation or temporary fixes during construction. Council member Lohman made the motion to approve.
Here's how it got there. Pommer is a Lincoln High School graduate who still lives in East Bloomington. In her column, she wrote that a real estate company began buying houses along Bloomington Avenue between 86th and 87th streets in January 2024. It bought 6 houses and demolished 5 of them. The company then asked the city to rezone the land for 33 townhouses. On July 9, the Planning Commission recommended the rezoning. Pommer pointed her neighbors to [email protected] so they could make their case before the council took the case up on August 3.
The city's hearing notice names the applicants as Twin Win 1 L.L.C. and E&T Property LLC, and the case is Planning File PL2026-105. It covers 1525, 1601, 1603 and 1605 East 86th Street and 1604 and 1606 East 87th Street. The application asked for the rezoning, final site and building plans, and preliminary and final plats to subdivide the properties.
The townhomes were only one of Pommer's examples. She also pointed to the Community Health and Wellness Center under construction on 98th Street between Penn and Newton avenues. She said nearby residents have complained about unrealistic traffic studies and ongoing demolition and construction noise, and that parking for the project is displacing Creekside Park. She also cited Penn Lake Cityhomes at 86th and Penn, a proposed 15-unit townhouse project she says has sat stalled and vacant for years.
What she asked for was simple: protect the neighborhoods. With this vote, the council decided the 86th and 87th Street block on its own merits anyway. It will likely be the test case people point to the next time a block of houses quietly changes hands.
