Bloomington city council wants to prohibit vehicles on Kirkwood Avenue as soon as this year.

A new ordinance designates blocks of Kirkwood from Walnut to Indiana as a dedicated pedestrian zone each year from April through November.

It does give the city engineer authority to reopen the street for emergencies.

City council member Courtney Daily said prohibiting cars on Kirkwood started as an emergency pilot program to help local restaurants survive COVID-19 by moving tables to the street.

This year the city pivoted to a parklet model – keeping the road open to vehicles - citing accessibility, public safety, delivery access, and lack of interest from some businesses.

“We see codifying this closure now as a way to go ahead and start addressing all of those problems rather than just hoping they’ll get addressed down the road,” Daily said.

The city wants to conduct a Kirkwood corridor study next year to identify issues.

Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson said the city did intensive research and had conversations with every business on Kirkwood. She said any changes would be premature.

Read more: Businesses react to city’s decision to keep Kirkwood open this summer 

“The engineer, along with the rest of our team, had made a really informed decision about what we were doing with Kirkwood this year,” Thomson said.

City Council will hear the ordinance again June 3 for a second reading. The transportation commission plans to address the ordinance June 8.