Downtown Zionsville street closures

By Sophie Pappas

At the June 2 Zionsville Town Council meeting, councilman Steve Mundy briefly introduced a document to the council that was drafted by the Zionsville Chamber of Commerce in regards to downtown street closures.

This document states: “After a review of the special events policy, [the chamber thinks]limitation is the best route to take,” thus potentially limiting the number of street events in Zionsville.

The chamber is recommending that an addendum be made to the special events policy. This addendum would only address Saturday street closures, only full-day closures that prohibit parking, and “not rolling closures for walks, runs, and things like March-a-Thon.”

There are only two Zionsville events every year that would be considered full day closures. These are Brick Street Market, which is every May, and the CruZionsville Porsche show, which is every June. The four partial-day closure events every year are Street Dance, Fall Festival, Miss Indiana and the Christmas in the Village parade.

The chamber proposes “limiting it to that number.”

According to councilwoman Candace Ulmer, this addendum has yet to be adopted and will first be reviewed by the Zionsville Merchants Association.

“[The merchants] are affected by what happens on Main Street,” Ulmer said.

The proposed addendum states that no new full-day or partial-day events on Main Street could be created without petition, because of the “special nature of Zionsville’s Downtown Business District.”

The Downtown Business District is defined as the area bordered by Elm Street to the east, Sycamore Street to the south, First Street to the west, and Poplar Street to the north.

Councilman Mundy said that the final rendition of the proposal will be available at the council’s July meeting, noting that action is “not urgent at this point,” however, the council must approve the chamber’s proposal for this plan to be effective.

“After this is approved, if there is a request for another full day street closure with great merit, they will consider those as well,” Mundy said. “There may still be opportunities for other closures.”

Mundy, along with councilman Tim Haak, are schedule to meet with chairman of the downtown committee, Tom Casalini, this month to discuss the proposal.

Casalini could not be reached before the time of publication.