WMBD On The Record: Bloomington city manager Jeff Jurgens and state Sen. Li Arellano

Yahoo

28-04-2025

As cities across the country face housing shortages, Bloomington is no exception.
Jeff Jurgens, Bloomington's city manager, joined us to discuss efforts to address its ongoing housing crisis, highlighting two key projects recently passed by the City Council.
The council on Monday will consider a new housing incentive policy 'that will help incentivize developers to come in and add more single family homes and more units into our community,' he said.
Zillow data for March 2025 shows the average home value in Bloomington is around $250,000, with properties staying on the market for just five days. That is, if you can even find one.
'I heard from a realtor the other day who was talking about we only have about 80 houses on the market. That number should be closer to 800. We are really at low supply in Bloomington-Normal,' the manager said.
The former State Farm headquarters, a historic landmark in downtown Bloomington, is set to undergo a major redevelopment. Jurgens said the project will bring 183 new apartments to the area, including studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom options.
The building's top floor will be home to a destination restaurant, while the ground floor will offer a mix of restaurants, shops and offices.
'Bringing that many people to our downtown is going to be fantastic. And we are just really excited about it,' he said.
Another project involves the redevelopment of the former Verizon site, which has been vacant for several years. Holladay Properties will be completing the project, which Jurgens said will include seven buildings with 220 market-rate apartments. Additionally, the site will feature green spaces, including a dog park.
State Sen. Li Arellano shared insights into his freshman year in the Illinois Senate, his efforts to address homelessness, and his perspective on the state's financial situation.
Arellano, a former mayor of Dixon, has spent his first months in office navigating a challenging budget year. Despite being part of a super minority in the Senate, the Germantown Hills Republican remains optimistic about his ability to make a difference, especially in committee work.
'The majority party move to less than 10% of Republicans bills out of the committee process off the Senate floor. Where we're at right now in the schedule, we just finished Senate business and our bills over to the House, and the House sent their bills to us. So we're about to flip in. Unfortunately, Republicans, even though having much bigger numbers than under 10%, we don't get a lot of the bills,' said Arellano.
Arellano called for a strategic approach to reducing Illinois' pension debt. Drawing from his experience in Dixon, where the city is on track to be debt-free by 2038, he advocated for a gradual debt repayment plan so the state can shift more funds from debt service to services and tax relief.
'We're not going to do it in four years. Anybody who tells you that is lying. We're not going to do in ten years. But we need to have a long term plan so that each year and year five and year ten and year 15, we are spending less money on debt and more money on our citizens. We'll wait to see what happens,' he said.
Arellano stressed the need for better funding for regional child advocacy centers.
'That's about $650 per clinical visit. They've had to ask groups like the United Way to come in and help pay for those. Those are the kind of things to me that should be covered, right? But because of our tough financial situation, they haven't been,' he said.
Arellano was recently appointed to the Senate Republicans' Task Force on Homelessness. He said the state's ballooning debt is getting in the way of progress, noting complex factors driving homelessness, such as mental health and addiction.
'I know Peoria has had some struggles with those. I worked with it a little bit as a mayor. We don't have enough funds in Illinois because we carry $8 billion in debt every year, and that's hundreds of millions of dollars that should be going into those things 'We need to get ourselves out of debt so we can properly invest in Illinois and our region,' he said.
Arellano also touched on the recent announcement that U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) would be stepping down after more than four decades of service. He acknowledged Durbin's extensive legacy but said it also time to pass of the torch.
'It is time for him to move on and let younger voices come in. We're going to have a big debate at the statewide level about representation and what it means to be, in Illinois and take that message to Washington D.C.,' he said.
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