This is the WFHB Local News for Thursday, April 29th, 2021.

Later in the program, we have an excerpt from this week’s episode of Interchange. Producer Doug Storm talks with journalist Vincent Bevins about his book The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World. More coming up in today’s feature reports.

Also coming up in the next half hour, on Wednesday, Mayor John Hamilton announced that the city will resume annexation plans starting this spring. More in the top-half of today’s show.

Bloomington City Council Committee of the Whole 

Screenshot of City Council Meeting (Community Access Television Services.)

The Bloomington City Council Committee of the Whole began discussion over multiplexes in Bloomington. Development Services Manager Jackie Scanlan presented the ordinance, which would classify duplexes as permitted use. She said if more units are built in Bloomington, the overall price to live in Bloomington would drop.

Councilmember Dave Rollo introduced an amendment that would prevent duplexes from being built in Residential Zones 1 through 3. He warned that people living in single-family homes would sell to investors, making a large profit and raising the cost of all homes in Bloomington. Councilmember Jim Sims questioned Rollo on where homeowners would move, in Bloomington, after selling their houses.

After hours of public comment, Councilmember Steve Volan moved to adjourn. Councilmembers agreed 5 to 3. The Bloomington City Council will continue discussion of amendment one at a special City Council meeting on May 4th.

The City of Bloomington Resumes Annexation Plans

Bloomington Annexation Map (Photo courtesy of the City of Bloomington.)

On Wednesday, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton announced that the City of Bloomington will move forward with annexation plans starting in early May.

Four years ago, the city of Bloomington underwent plans to annex almost 10,000 acres of Monroe County land. However, that year, the Indiana General Assembly addressed the city’s annexation in the state budget. Section 11.8 of the budget prevented Bloomington’s annexation plans and barred the city from annexing the proposed areas for five years.

Then, the City of Bloomington brought a lawsuit against Governor Holcomb seeking relief on the grounds that the General Assembly violated special legislation and the single-subject rule.

Special legislation refers to laws that target a small, identifiable group but not all members of a given class — meaning the law targeted the city of Bloomington and not the state of Indiana.

In December 2020, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that the state legislature was unconstitutional by banning the city of Bloomington from annexing several areas of land in a 3-2 vote.

Mayor Hamilton outlined the decision to move forward with the annexation starting this spring in a 4-minute video announcement on Wednesday.

According to a city press release, Bloomington City Council will discuss fiscal plans in a May 12th meeting. A final vote on the ordinances is expected sometime in September.

In the meantime, public opinion will be offered at a later date and a slew of hearings are set to take place with the possibility of in-person meetings.

Some county residents outside of city limits are concerned with annexation ordinances, fearing higher taxes. A Facebook group even sprouted up in 2017 called the Citizens Opposed to Radical Annexation.

However, others like Council President Jim Sims,