Shelbyville council signals support to convert Riverview street to pedestrian use as construction advances

Shelbyville council members on Tuesday signaled they are prepared to convert a stretch of roadway in the Riverview District to pedestrian use as part of ongoing downtown improvements, even as staff said the change requires a formal ordinance and a planning commission recommendation.

City Manager Scott, reporting on recent work, said crews have been placing concrete and that portions of the project "will actually look almost like a river walk, a river rock," and that the new configuration is intended to be safer and more efficient for the area around the riverwalk and downtown businesses.

The question of whether the street should be legally closed to vehicles or merely have its use changed dominated nearly an hour of discussion. Buck, the city's public-works director, told the council the change would be framed as a change of use rather than a legal closure: "We're not closing that per se. We're changing the use. So it's a change of use." He also warned the council that ongoing construction…