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 has already reduced the corridor to one-way traffic in places and that "we're a week of construction away from that no longer being passable." Buck said removing or reworking recently installed work would be costly: "Physically, we would have to tear out all the work we put in."

Council members framed the move as a safety and economic-development measure tied to the riverwalk and an effort to make the area more pedestrian friendly and suitable for public gatherings. One council member summarized the rationale: converting the street is "for safety" and to create "gathering places" that support tourism and downtown businesses.

City staff reiterated that several formal steps remain. Tom, planning staff, said the planning commission is scheduled to take up the change-of-use question in October and make a recommendation to the council. He added that "the ordinance needs to be drafted" because the municipal code currently lacks a specific provision for changing the public right-of-way from vehicular to pedestrian use.

Funding and construction timing were a key part of the discussion. Council and staff said the project budget includes a $250,000 allocation for the Riverview District. Laurie Sadler, a city staff member involved in purchasing and bids, and Buck noted that the city's broader capital and maintenance budgets include approximately $1,100,000 for paving and about $80,000 for sidewalks; public-works staff will determine which line items best cover specific work. Buck said decorative bollards were expected to arrive in roughly three weeks to help control vehicle access during the transition.

Council members emphasized that entertainment-district questions — such as allowing open containers or staging private events on the street — are separate legal issues that would require additional ordinances and separate approvals. Several council members and staff agreed not to conflate the immediate safety-driven change of use with later discussions about alcohol or entertainment districts.

As a practical next step, council members asked staff to prepare the necessary ordinance language and to bring the planning commission's October recommendation back to the council. Staff said the drafting and code placement will take time because there is no existing municipal code section that directly addresses this kind of change of public-right-of-way use.

The council did not take a formal vote during the study session. Several members asked for a clear indication that the council will support an ordinance to change the street to pedestrian use; staff said they would proceed to prepare the ordinance and follow the planning commission timeline.

If the council approves the ordinance after the planning commission recommendation, the conversion will proceed in coordination with the Riverview District construction plan and available budget. Public-works staff said they will sequence work to avoid redoing newly installed elements and to coordinate with ongoing private building work in the corridor.