By Allison Scarbrough, News Editor
SHELBY — The downtown area of the Village of Shelby will undergo a major transformation this summer with a streetscape project.
The plan includes: new streetlights, bump-outs for placemaking and traffic calming, concrete stamped sidewalk accents, tree plantings, flower beds, updated benches and garbage receptacles, improved accessible parking and wheelchair ramps, pocket park signage and entry arches.
OCP photo/Shelby Village Administrator Phil Morse
The project is set to break ground the Monday after the village’s Chainsaw Carving Festival, which is July 10 and 11, said Village Administrator Phil Morse. One of the amenities included in the streetscape plan are pedestals for the wood carving sculptures.
The project is expected to be completed by Thanksgiving.
The anticipated cost is $1.2 to 2 million, said Morse. “It all depends on how much we raise. If we don’t have the money, we’re not going to borrow it.”
The village’s general fund is handling $200,000 of the project cost, the village administrator said, and the village’s major and local streets fund will allocate $300,000. “The village is putting in $500,000. Then, we have a very generous donor that is matching up to $620,000.” The donor wishes to remain anonymous, he said. There is also an additional $76,000 in commitments from other donors. The total amount committed so far is $1,152,000.
The Shelby Village Council recently approved the funding for the project and authorized the blueprints to be drawn.
Tax rates will not be increased for the project, and a recent water and sewer rate hike are not funding streetscape, said Morse. “You can’t take money from the water or sewer fund and spend it on a downtown project. The water and sewer funds are like their own business. Revenue into the water fund can only be spent on water fund expenses and the same with the sewer fund.”
The project will make the downtown more easily accessible. “The whole sidewalk will be raised in certain areas so that we don’t have to have ramps going into the buildings,” said Morse. More handicap parking spots will be added.
“We’re going to take some parking spots on Michigan Avenue, but we’re adding some angled parking spots on Fourth Street — what is now parallel parking will become diagonal.” Overall, the project will either increase parking spaces or the total amount will remain the same.
Four-way stops are proposed at the Third and Fourth streets intersections on Michigan Avenue.
The idea for a rejuvenated downtown has been “years in the making,” said Morse. A vision session last January involving several officials, community members and business people ignited the project.
Recent improvements to the village’s Getty Park, including a new splash pad, Basketball, tennis, and pickleball courts, updated playground equipment and a community pavilion, also helped spark the downtown project.
“While we have the sidewalks broken up, we’re going to put new water service lines in as well.” A $790,000 drinking water state revolving fund grant is financing all of the water service lines.
A downtown building facade improvement program is also being developed, so business owners can get a financial boost for sprucing up their building fronts. “There is a private anonymous donor who has verbally committed to giving $25,000 a year to the village.” Every year, two businesses will be selected from a field of applicants to split the $25,000.
“It’s going to bring people back downtown,” said Morse of the streetscape project. “People are going to want to sit in these public spaces — these outdoor bump-outs — and hang out there.” Downtown businesses will benefit from the added downtown activity. “Hopefully that creates more businesses wanting to come here.”
“The project hasn’t spurred just the downtown — it actually spurred private investment to the downtown.” The empty lot across the street from Shelby State Bank has been purchased, and construction of a two-story building is planned at the site. Morse said he believes it has been approximately 70 years since a totally new building has been built in Shelby’s downtown. “It will be commercial on the bottom with three different suites, and on the top will be studio apartments.
“It has spurred other interest in downtown properties as well. That means there will be more people living here, shopping here and socializing.”
The next phase of redevelopment in Shelby is renovating the bike trail pavilion along the William Field Memorial Hart-Montague Trail that winds through the town. This phase Morse hopes to have under construction in three years.
The Shelby Chainsaw Carving Festival, now in its second year, is expanding into a CarvePrize event — modeled after ArtPrize in Grand Rapids with a $2,000 cash prize for first place and $1,000 for second place. “From May 15 to July 11, we will have carvings downtown and people will vote on them.”
A Hispanic festival in Shelby is also being examined.
The village also received initial approval for Safe Routes to School conditional commitment of over $1 million for sidewalk improvement and implementation in the vicinity of the school campus in 2027.
“This streetscape project is going to spur all this energy to bring people downtown, and it’s exciting.”
Drawings by Spalding DeDecker Engineering & Surveying Firm
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