Brady Flanigan
Editor
After an informal study session on Tuesday, Sept. 2, members of the Shelbyville City Council are now exploring the possibility of creating an “entertainment district” near the historic square, where alcohol could be sold and consumed in public. Dubbed the “Riverview Entertainment District,” the area would tentatively run down South Spring Street, beginning at the corners of Glass Hollow Table & Tavern and the soon-to-be completed Grindstone Cowboy.
The project’s concept took shape in February 2025, when City Attorney Ginger Bobo Shofner began drafting a memorandum detailing some of the project’s practical needs, as well as the city code changes necessary to make it possible.
“I don’t think you would ever want to create a district like that, that you don’t restrict vehicle traffic. You’d want to have it be a pedestrian way. So the first thing would be to actually close South Spring Street,” she said.
This would mean erecting bollards where the entertainment district meets the street, as well as placing signs denoting where the permitted drinking area ends. The only vehicles with access to the district would be emergency vehicles, and perhaps delivery trucks bringing supplies to Glass Hollow and Grindstone Cowboy, during designated hours.
Shofner noted a few changes that would have to be made to city ordinance to make the project possible.
“What I think we could do is change our own local laws about open containers. Because we have one of those miscellaneous misdemeanors in the City of Shelbyville where you’re not supposed to have open containers in public. So the intent would be that folks could walk outside of those restaurants and walk up and down the part of the street that’s closed to through traffic.”
Shofner noted that before doing this, the boundaries of the district would have to be settled, as this line would separate where open container laws changed.
“I think one of the bigger things we first have to determine is the exact location of the district,” she said, “I don’t know how far we want to go down the street, but also do you want to extend it into our parking area, the parking area of The Fly, part of what our new park will be.”
Councilman Henry Feldhaus supported a larger area for the entertainment district.
“I’ve been a proponent of this downtown entertainment district for a very long time,” he said, “and I’ve talked to virtually everybody down there for years about what they want to see envisioned in this area, and this is the square, and about a block off the square would be an entertainment district—specifically that’s what I’ve used in the past for a border around that—to the riverfront down toward Lane Parkway here to South Brittain on the other side. The Fly would definitely like to be included as part of that.”
Councilman Josh Blevins pressed Feldhaus on his comment, saying, “you’re talking about a pretty big area around the square. Other than these two businesses, do we even have anybody in the central business district that’s selling liquor or mixed drinks? I don’t know that we do.”
Feldhaus clarified that including such a large area was forward-thinking, hoping it would encourage more bars and eateries to move to the area. Noting the amount of money the city has invested in revitalizing the area around the square, he considered this to be a fiscal issue.
“The big stick that the city needs, I think, is that we need to begin to get the revenue off this district. Everybody’s seen the costs that we’ve been putting into it to develop it to this point. We need to start realizing the revenues off that,” he said.
He noted some data he’s gathered on similar areas across Tennessee, such as Beale Street in Memphis or Station Street in Chattanooga, which according to him, can often average an “LBD tax” or liquor-by-the-drink tax rate of 18%. In reality, LBD is fixed at 15% by state law. Municipalities cannot impose higher taxes on alcohol, but municipalities can benefit from increased sales-volume by drawing in more customers.
Another issue to address is the position of The Fly Arts Center, which formally sits on South Main Street, yet backs up against South Spring Street.
Councilwoman Betsy Noel mentioned speaking with affiliates of The Fly.
“They heard that we were looking at closing the road and setting this entertainment district for the open container, and she just asked that we remember The Fly when we’re discussing this. Because they could potentially be the backup for some of these outdoor concerts and activities that they have up there…they want to make sure that we remember that they’re a part of this. They don’t want to be just separated from it.”
Without a specific carve-out including The Fly in the entertainment district, many concert-goers may be inadvertently barred from drinking at outdoor concerts immediately adjacent to South Spring Street. The ordinance is conceived so that only businesses in the entertainment district could sell drinks, in specially designated plastic cups, outdoors. No outside alcohol would be permitted. Without this designation, The Fly would be unable to serve drinks.
When a pause came in the discussion, Mayor Randy Carroll took a moment to express his reservations with the prospect of outdoor drinking.
“[We can have] that entertainment district…without having the liquor out in the street. I just don’t go for that right now. I don’t see any way that I would go for it. I’m afraid we’ll have people that are supposed to be in that little district walk right out onto the square, which is where people will be driving,” he said. Being mayor, Carroll is only granted authority to vote in the event of a 3-3 tie between council members.
Rather than voting on the creation of an entertainment district at its upcoming board meeting on Thursday, Sept. 11, the council chose to first refer the matter to the beer board, who meets Wednesday, Sept. 10. While the beer board has no authority to block the project, council members felt its input would be valuable before taking a final vote.
Before moving on to another issue, Mayor Carroll made a final suggestion.
“Just think about this: we’re affecting all the citizens of Shelbyville. Do we need to do a poll or do you guys, in each one of your wards, need to be contacted by people that let you know what their thoughts are on this?
In response to this call to action, Councilman Joshua Blevins, who also serves as a reporter for local media outlet Shelbyville NOW, released a poll on the outlet’s Facebook page, asking the public if they supported the initiative. As of publication, the results are supermajority in-favor of creating an entertainment district on South Spring Street. The council is expected to revisit the proposal again after hearing from the beer board. Until then, the future of South Spring Street’s “Riverview Entertainment District” remains unsettled.
