Some of Bloomington’s older neighborhoods are concerned about what kind of houses might fill-in vacant lots between their pre-World-War-II homes. Traditional zoning only regulates the use, but not the form of the structures. So you could have a beautiful, Italianate-style home next door to a McMansion, or a split-level, or a ranch, or something else that’s single-family but completely incongruous with the neighborhood.

To help these neighborhoods, Bloomington is going to try form-based zoning, just like Peoria is in the middle of doing. Peoria recently had charrettes to get the public’s idea of what they want the built environment of their neighborhoods to look like. Bloomington isn’t calling it a charrette, but they are having an open meeting this Wednesday to get public input.

If you want to keep up-to-date on the progress of Peoria’s form-based code, check out the Heart of Peoria website (a link also appears on the sidebar). You can also see the results of the recent charrettes, including artists’ renderings of how the Prospect Road and Sheridan Road corridors could look.