Committee addresses sidewalks, housing, downtown, other issues

SHELBY — Shelby City Council’s Public Works and General Operations Committee was updated on a variety of topics ranging from sidewalks to new housing and an issue linked to the upcoming downtown Shelby streetscape project.

The sidewalk issue — involving a lack of them in certain portions of the city — was brought to the spotlight as a safety issue late last year by Utilities and Streets Committee Chairman and Shelby City Councilman Nathan Martin. The sidewalk issue later was brought to the attention of Shelby City Council’s Public Works and General Operations Committee in February and surfaced at Shelby’s Board of Park Commissioners meeting in March.

At the March 23 Public Works and General Operations Committee meeting, city Project

Coordinator Joe Gies provided an update based on his research of how the issue was handled in years past and the Planning Commission having the ability to waive sidewalk requirements.

“The developer went to the Planning Commission pled their case about not putting sidewalks in, and the Planning Commission waived it every single time,” Gies said in sharing his research and in citing an example. “That was way before my (time with the city), and that is what I was told.” Committee Chairman and Shelby City Councilman Charles Roub asked about the existence of any meeting minutes from the Planning Commission at the time or a meeting agenda that showed action had been taken in the past.

“I know it’s probably going to come up at some point,” Roub said in asking about the documentation.

The location of the documentation was not immediately known.

“They’re (sidewalks) not there so something had to happen,” Gies said in reference to past decisions on the sidewalk issue.

Going forward, Gies reported positive signs on the issue.

“We’ve got two new houses on Glenwood (Drive) and one on Technology (Parkway) being built this year,” he told the committee. “They’ve all been informed they have to put sidewalks in.”

“The Planning Commission at that time, I was here for that when they approved that, it was sidewalks will go in,” Gies added. “It was at the time when the house is built.”

He said he had spoken to other cities, “and that is exactly how they do it” in terms of the timing of sidewalk installation.

“Because if you go in there and have the developer put a sidewalk all the way down in there, you don’t know where the driveways are going to be, and then they (sidewalks) just get