Bloomington's zoning code has 2 separate entries for places where people go to sweat: the "health club" and the "sports training facility." City planning staff have proposed folding them into a single use called a "fitness and sports facility." The proposal would also settle where these businesses can open in the city's industrial districts. It's still a staff proposal. No ordinance has been adopted and no vote has been taken on it.
Here's what staff laid out. The new combined category would be allowed in every commercial district except B1. In industrial districts, size decides. A facility under 10,000 square feet would be allowed in all of them. The exact rule for big buildings will be clear once ordinance language is published.
City of Bloomington@CityofBloomingtonMNStaff proposed merging the 'health club' and 'sports training facility' uses into a single 'fitness and sports facility' category, allowed in all commercial districts except B1.10/01
The idea makes practical sense. Climbing gyms, batting cages, turf fields, dance studios and CrossFit boxes don't fit neatly into a strip mall. Many of them want the high ceilings, open floor plans and cheap rent of an old warehouse.
Just for Kix, through AEY Associates, LLC and Mini Kix, Inc., applied for a privately initiated code amendment, Case #PL2026-146, to make sports training facilities a permitted use in the FD-2 district. The code currently prohibits them there. The Planning Commission held a public hearing on that request on September 3, and the city scheduled a City Council public hearing for September 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Civic Plaza.
The broader staff proposal would answer the same kind of question citywide. The current code treats sports training facilities as their own thing: gyms, multi-sport floors and practice space built for athletes in a particular sport. It keeps them separate from health and fitness clubs open to the general public. Under the merger, that distinction would go away.
We'll update this story as it moves.
From the meeting: Planning Commission Meeting, October 1, 2026.
