RENARTWLK day seven

New things appeared on the murals on Tuesday. Another "Rensselaer Indiana" image was painted, this one by Cameron Moberg on the retaining wall along the Iroquois River. It will be another place popular for taking pictures.

 In the afternoon Mr. Moberg was outlining butterfly wings in preparation for a community painting party.

 People were invited to come to the bridge at 5:30 and make a contribution to a Rensselaer mural. A larger than expected crowd showed up. (There were more people on the other side of the bridge that are not visible in this picture.)

 Soon kids and some adults were filling in butterfly wings.

 Before they painted butterflies, the painters practiced spraying on the bridge pillar. By the end of the evening there were several layers of paint on this surface.

 Many people got a chance to fill wings or decorated them with designs. By the end of the evening it was a mess.

 Then Cameron took over and outlined the wings. What the locals had painted was still there, but now it was confined within lines.

 And it ended up looking very good. A lot of kids and a few adults will be able to point to a part of the painting and say, "I did that."

 The mystery of the center of Emily Ding's mural has been revealed. It is another bird.

 Chris Chanyang Shim has signed his portrait indicating that he is finished.

 Here is a detail of the hands. It is hard to believe that this is done with spray paint.

Although Mr. Shim is finished with this portrait, he is not finished with Rensselaer. He plans to do a small mural on the back of the Consolidated Insurance building. (I will be able to continue this series of posts for at least another day.) That extra painting is being at least partially funded with a gofundme account.

On Tuesday evening the Rensselaer Advisory Planning Commission met to consider a rezoning request. The property in question consists of ten lots in the Madison subdivision that the owner wanted changed from R1 to R3. R1 allows single family housing only while R3 is for apartment buildings and other multifamily construction. The owner said that when the subdivision was platted, he had intended that the lots be R3 but had not noticed that they were R1 until several years later. His plan, as I understood it, was to build four buildings each holding four families.

There were ten or twelve people attending and those that spoke all opposed the rezone.  They were concerned about traffic, parking, and density. They did not like the single road access to the subdivision and thought it unwise to add more people given that there was only one way in and one way out. They thought that putting more apartments into the subdivision would reduce their property values. After a lengthy discussion, the Commission voted 7 to 1 to recommend rejecting the rezone. Their recommendation now goes to the City Council, which can accept their recommendation or reject it. If it is accepted, the petitioner can come back with a request to rezone to R2, which would allow duplexes. There was some indication that there would be less opposition to that option.