This is the WFHB Local News for Thursday, September 2nd, 2021.

Later in the program, the 4th Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts will take place over Labor Day Weekend. WFHB News spoke with President of the Festival Committee Sidney Bolam about what the festival will entail. More coming up during today’s headlines.

Also coming up in the next half hour, the Buskirk Chumley Theater will require vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test ahead of its fall season. We spoke with Executive Director Jonah Crismore about what led to that decision.

But first, Emily McCoy has your Statehouse Roundup:

On Tuesday this week Mark Figg discussed in an interview, the ongoing annexation process in Monroe County and its correlation with housing development. Figg served as a Chairman of the Bloomington Economic Development Incorporation in 2019 and 2020. Figg also partook in the committee that overlooked the recent housing study completed in 2020.

According to Figg, the outcome of the housing study showed strong housing scarcity that has caused housing prices to increase. Figg commented that the annexation of Monroe County will be beneficial to the city’s housing development in the long run, by decreasing housing scarcity. The newly annexation areas would be held under the city’s recent Unified Development Ordinance which looks into land use and Bloomington city development.

Figg continued on to address concerns on rising taxes from county residents living in the proposed annexation zones. Advising that while there will be a tax increase, the long term benefit of that would be a decrease in housing scarcity and housing prices overall. Allowing for more urban economic development in the county.

"The Board of Bloomington Economic Development incorporation actually made housing scarcity our number one economic development," said Figg.

Monroe County Board of Zoning Appeals 

The Monroe County Board of Zoning Appeals considered granting a variance retroactively. At the September 1st meeting, County Planner Anna Crecelius discussed a slope variance at South Oak Ridge Drive. She pointed out that the petitioner had already started working on the land, and that the petitioner was pushing the debris off their property.

Board member Skip Daley wondered why staff had presented a variance instead of moving to enforcement. He questioned Crecelius on why the planning department had not gone straight to mediation.

Daley suggested the board continue the variance for 30 days to give the petitioner time to create a remediation plan. Board member Margaret Clemens commented on the importance of discouraging actions like this from happening again. She added her surprise that someone would take these actions without consulting the county first.

An initial vote to continue the variance failed. Clemens moved to deny the request along staff recommendations. This motion passed 3 to 2, with board members Skip Daley and Bernie Guerrettaz dissenting.

4th Street Art Festival Returns After Covid Hiatus

The 4th Street Art Festival will return this weekend after its cancellation last year due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The event will run from 10 AM to 6 PM Saturday and 10 AM to 5 PM Sunday, featuring 80 artists working in a wide range of mediums.

Sidney Bolam, president of the 4th Street Arts Festival Committee, described the festival’s offerings this year.

The festival will return with new measures in place to protect against the transmission of COVID-19.

The past year has been a difficult one for artists, according to Bolam, because of the absence of art fairs and public shows.

Bolam encouraged Bloomington residents to support local art organizations, as artists recover from income shortages incurred during the COVID-19...