Mayor Thomson Vetoes Kirkwood Ordinance 2026-12, Calls for Broader Community-Led Plan

Mayor Kerry Thomson today, June 22, 2026, vetoed Ordinance 2026-12, which would require the seasonal closure of five blocks of Kirkwood Avenue to motor vehicle traffic from April 1 through November 15 each year. The veto returns the ordinance to the Bloomington Common Council following its summer recess. The Council may consider an override at its next meeting on July 22, 2026.

In a letter to the Bloomington community and a formal veto message transmitted to the Common Council, Mayor Thomson said she shares the goal of creating a more vibrant, welcoming, and pedestrian-friendly Kirkwood, but concluded that the ordinance commits the City to a long-term closure without the fiscal analysis, identified funding solutions, or the community consensus necessary to carry such a consequential change forward.

“Many people who supported the ordinance and many who opposed it are reaching toward the same vision: a Kirkwood that feels alive, welcoming, accessible, and unmistakably Bloomington,” Mayor Thomson said. “The opportunity before us is to move from a shared aspiration to a plan the community can support and the City can fund and successfully deliver.”

The Mayor’s decision followed the June 16 public listening session and extensive feedback received by the Mayor’s Office, including substantial response from the downtown business community. The input raised unresolved questions about accessibility and mobility; shade, seating, restrooms, and lighting; deliveries, loading, staffing, and customer access; and how the closure would fit in within the broader vision for downtown Bloomington. It also highlighted that the benefits and burdens of a closure do not fall equally across the storefronts that make Kirkwood a commercial and civic destination.

Additionally, the absence of an identified funding source is particularly significant as Indiana communities adjust to Senate Enrolled Act 1, which changes the structure of local property and income taxes and creates substantial uncertainty for municipal revenue and long-term financial planning. In that environment, the City must be especially disciplined about adopting recurring commitments without first identifying their capital costs and annual operating expenses.

The Mayor also cited the administration’s responsibility to give serious weight to the professional expertise and operational knowledge of the City employees and community partners who would be charged with implementing and sustaining the closure.

Preparation for a comprehensive Kirkwood Corridor Study in 2027 to evaluate safety data, traffic and pedestrian movement, accessibility, infrastructure, and the corridor’s future economic viability.