Pam Pommer, a Lincoln High School graduate who still lives in East Bloomington, has a warning for her neighbors: check the block before you check the listing, because the city might be about to change it. In a Sun Current opinion column, Pommer argues Bloomington needs stronger protections for existing neighborhoods as development pressure mounts, pointing to several projects she says are already reshaping the streets around her.
The example driving her column is a 33-unit townhome development planned for the 86th and 87th Street area, where a developer identified in city records as Twin Win 1 L.L.C. bought and demolished houses along Bloomington Avenue starting in January 2024. The company is asking the city to rezone the parcels — 1525, 1601, 1603 and 1605 East 86th Street and 1604 and 1606 East 87th Street — from R-1 single-family to R-3 middle housing to make way for townhouses.
The city's Planning Commission recommended the rezoning and approved the site plans on July 9. The City Council is scheduled to take up the same application, filed as Case PL2026-105, at a public hearing on August 3.
That case sits inside a bigger shift: the city adopted a "missing middle housing" ordinance adding new zoning definitions and standards for three-family dwellings, fourplexes, detached townhouses, cottage courts and multiplex housing, following a public hearing in February. That's the broader policy opening the door to projects like the Bloomington Avenue townhomes, and it's part of what Pommer's column is reacting against.
Pommer also points to the Community Health and Wellness Center under construction on 98th Street between Penn and Newton avenues, where she says nearby residents have complained about unrealistic traffic studies and ongoing demolition and construction noise, plus the conversion of what she calls "Creekside Park" into parking. And she cites the Penn Lake Cityhomes project at 86th and Penn, a proposed 15-unit townhouse development she says has sat stalled and vacant for years — evidence, in her view, that the market itself is skeptical of adding density in these neighborhoods.
Her ask is straightforward: give residents real tools to protect the value and character of neighborhoods they've already invested in, rather than leaving zoning changes to be decided project by project. She's encouraging neighbors to weigh in before the August 3 council meeting, and lists the council's contact address, [email protected], for anyone who wants to make their case before the vote.