Shelbyville mayor nixes downtown underground parking garage

He cited the cost, $25,000 per space, as the main reason. 

“We’re looking at other surface options now,” DeBaun said.

Several lots near the Public Square have parking spaces, but most are privately owned.

Building an underground garage was a major component of the Downtown Redevelopment Plan that DeBaun has proposed to attract new residents, particularly younger, educated millennials to live in the downtown area.

The estimated cost of the publicly-funded portion of the Downtown Plan, including the underground garage, was nearly $27 million.

Eliminating the garage reduces that cost to $19.3 million.

Meanwhile, the city is looking at other options regarding traffic on the Public Square.

At the Taste of Shelby County event, DeBaun pointed to cars and trucks moving around the Square as throngs of people tried to cross the two-lane street back and forth from the center parking area to the food vendor booths set up on East Washington Street.

The mayor said the situation stressed the need to do something about traffic on the Public Square.

The city is limited in what it can do about the downtown traffic because Harrison Street, which runs north to south through the Square, is actually State Road 9, which is controlled by the Indiana Department of Transportation.

As part of the Downtown Plan, DeBaun is looking into asking INDOT to relinquish control of the road to the city, but he said he has no estimate yet on what that would cost.