Land Development & Transportation Committee - Regular Meeting

Thoughtfully located and oriented on the site than the existing mall. So what we kind of kind of modern development now is, is we kind of try to push the parking fields to the middle of the site with the buildings on the periphery to kind of give them that that street front presence. Whereas the mall right now, it's the opposite. It's it's, you know, the improvements are in the middle of the site with a sea of parking around it. So we're kind of trying to create kind of the donut idea with parking screened in the middle of the site. all the buildings up against the roads to the extent they can be put there to really kind of create more of a presence for the community. So that's really the goal with our existing design.

And the space sits between Bardstown Road and Baxter Avenue. So you'll have kind of filling that entire space there, correct?

Correct. That's right.

And we were talking that there will be entrances from both roads into the space.

There will be entrances from both roads into the site itself. Most of the storefront entrances will either be on Bardstown or interior to the site along the parking or where the primary parking field is, which is in the middle of the site.

We were talking a little bit about what kind of businesses are you anticipating being in the mid city market?

So the goal in all these projects are very similar in the sense that we want a mixture of uses, medical, some office, restaurants, boutiques, typically heavily focused on service-oriented industries, as most of these projects are, kind of servicing the local community, and then a mixture of kind of national, regional, and local tenants. We want a flavor of all of it. There are certain national tenants that I think would be Highly sought after and highly demand in this particular location, but we also want the center to kind of reflect the community. And so the goal would be to get some local tendency in here as well that that the community knows loves and and is happy to embrace as part of the project.

Okay, and what has been a part of the mid city mall was the Shelby park library as well. And there were discussions about whether the library was going to be staying there. And can you give us an update on that?

Yeah, yeah, so so I think the mayor announced it. So this is public information that they have allocated money in the budget for the relocation of the library on site. We have entered into a letter agreement with with the city for the relocation of the library. And right now we're kind of working through the kind of binding contractual phase of that. But I can say this, there's been a true meeting of the minds at this point, and we're in agreement on the on the outline or general framework of the deal. And at this point, I don't see anything stopping us from from. ultimately creating a new library branch at this location, which we think is a huge amenity to the shopping center and hopefully really gives back to some of what the community really wanted to see as part of this redevelopment. So we're very excited for that component of this.

Absolutely. And speaking of that, you did have several meetings and had public input into the development of this project. Is that true? We did, yes.

I mean, I think today, to be honest, I think we're like, at meeting number 38 or 39, and that's over about a 7 month process. We knew that this project, given its location, given the educational attainment of the neighborhood, which is very high, given how long this project's been in the community now, you know, 50, 60 plus years, we felt like it was absolutely critical to get community engagement in the project and get community input. And a lot of our site plan and our design was shaped by the community. The addition of the Rosewood Park on the backside of our grocery tenant, The wall mural art on the backside of her grocery tenant, the relocation, incorporation of the library, the preservation of the park on the backside of the library, which is now called kind of affectionately referred to as Beachwood Park, which is actually owned by the mall ownership, but will now really ultimately most likely become part of the city property. Those type of that type of feedback and back and forth dialogue really did shape this development. The inclusion of 2 story shops up along Baxter to give the shops more of a street presence since we were, we were really limited on how much of the site we could affect by the existing leases. with Heine Brothers and both Raising Cane's. So the idea was even though we couldn't put the buildings right on the street, if we gave them more height, they would feel closer to the street. So we created story and a half design on the building behind Raising Cane's and a full two story, true two story design behind Heine Brothers. Those type of comments, both from city staff, but from the neighborhoods was really effectuated and affected our ultimate design. And I do, I'm very proud of the fact that ultimately what we ended up with, I think is going to be special as a result of that. So I think community engagement is good. It doesn't mean that everybody gets what they want in that process, but it certainly impacts design and typically in a very positive way.

Yes, yeah, and many, you know, you're saying almost 40 meetings or what have you. So that's a lot of opportunity for people to express their input what they'd like to share on there too. And I know you worked. Closely with the city as well on this project and how has that relationship worked up.

Really well, um, and we had numerous meetings with, uh, with the councilman for this particular district and Rena Weber. He, he definitely had an opinion and wanted, um. some of the neighborhood's concerns incorporated into our designs. We listened to Ben. He was an excellent advocate for the neighborhood. We had a couple of calls with the mayor as it related to the library, library staff, planning staff on certain design elements they wanted incorporated both from an architectural standpoint, from a site planning standpoint. So the city was very active in this process. And I have to say, we developed for municipalities all over the country, and this just isn't lip service. I felt like the Staff level and city level and municipal engagement on this was outstanding and I felt like leadership here was was particularly good because I think there's a there's a delicate balance between. Incorporating design elements and addressing neighborhood issues, but also having a practical mindset of at some point the project has to get developed. And this understanding that this process is a compromise, and I think there was a very pragmatic and practical approach on part of the city, which is there are certain must haves. But we also understand that some of this is a given to take if this project is going to happen. And I felt like at all levels. But all the way from the mayor council to even planning staff, I was, I was truly impressed with with with the Louisville staff on this on this project everybody.

But are there any businesses and the grocery any of them that you are like. Have finalized that will be part of the mid city market.

Not at this point. I mean, I'm happy at the appropriate time to make an announcement and we'll want to be very boisterous about that announcement because we, we do want to get everyone excited. I will say. The level of interest right now is extremely exciting. The type of tenants that are looking here, some of them are first to market level of exciting. So I think at the appropriate time and we can.

I couldn't be more excited for the second year of Louisville, Kentucky, here at Hurstborn Country Club hosting the ISCO Championship. It is wonderful to continue to build on this event year after year. And as you just heard, to have a PGA Tour event in Louisville, one of only 35 in the entire world here in Louisville every year, is really special. These events are so important to our city to help our local businesses, our economy.

Thank you.

All right, good afternoon. This meeting is of the Metro Public Works Committee's call to order. This meeting's being held pursuant to KRS 61.826 and Council Rule 5A. Items number one and item number two are being held. So we'll start with item number three. And just for some housekeeping, All of the remaining items on the agenda today are appointments to the Complete Streets Coalition Commission. So I'm going to ask Jeremy Chesler to come up first and describe for us a little bit what this committee does, And I'm also gonna ask, because I just don't know, does this commission have the same kind of diversity requirements that other commissions have? But before you get started, I want to answer the pregnant question in the room. Why are we doing this here instead of in the Government Accountability and Appointments Committee? Can you give me one second? Yes.

This meeting is being held pursuant to CARES 61.826 and Council Rule 5A, Red Info.

Thank you. I didn't see you.

I didn't see you.

I'm doing it fast. Oh, geez.

Sorry. I just wanted to make sure.

Oh, I am joined in chamber by Councilwoman Bast. I was, do we have a quorum anymore? I'm joined online by Councilwoman, or Councilman Ben Reno-Weber. Put my glasses on so I can see who I'm joining. There we go, now I can see. Councilman Benson, Councilman Bratcher. One, two, three, four, five. And Vice Chair Herndon. So the reason we're not doing this in the Government Accountability and Appointments Committee is because when the ordinance was written, it was written in the ordinance for this specific commission that the appointments be made in Public Works Committee. So that's why we're here. So I'll hand it over to you, sir. Introduce yourself for the record and address those two questions and we'll open it up for others.

Thank you. Jeremy Chesler, Transportation Planner with the Department of Transportation. So I serve as the Complete Streets Coordinator for our department. And Complete Streets, if you're not familiar with, it is the general concept that we plan our transportation systems with all users and all ages and abilities and across all modes of travel. That means that we have to get people from diverse backgrounds with unique experiences that all sort of come in to play a role and help us develop projects that work for everyone. So the Complete Streets Coalition was established in 2022 when the Complete Streets policy was updated last. And the goal of it is to review our transportation projects primarily through a Complete Streets checklist. So by doing that, we're reviewing to make sure that we're taken into account variety of users pedestrians cyclists so that doesn't mean that each project will include those uses but it does mean that we'll you know make our best effort to include as much as possible so the The members here, as I said, they're variety of experiences. They are supposed to be representative of the diversity and the demographics of Louisville Metro, so we do our best to make sure that that's reflected. It's definitely a challenge to find people to volunteer for these types of roles, so we do the best we can. but we do put an effort to make sure we are a diverse coalition.

Well, thank you for that. And the reason I asked the question, and I appreciate the effort put into it, but is it a requirement is the question. Because I'm looking at the demographics of the commission, It is very diverse as far as gender and council districts and age go, but it's very white and very Democrat. Yes.

So I believe that it says that they're supposed to be... I believe they are supposed to be representative of the demographics of Louisville Metro. It says... that they shall comply with A and B under LMCO 32.001, which I believe is that section about the diversity of the committees. CHRIS JERRAMSEN.

So thank you for that. But this wouldn't meet that. So how do we go forward?

Yeah, I'm happy to work with all the council districts and find representatives that meet the requirements to fill in the gaps where we are lacking the demographics.

I appreciate that. But if we go forward today and appoint all of these, then we can't. There's only two other spots available. I think maybe the director wants to speak.

Yeah, so we do have a couple of vacancies. Do you want to introduce yourself for the record? Oh, sorry. Wes Sidnor, Director of Public Works. So we do have a couple of vacancies that we can look to fulfill those requirements. And then, yeah, I guess on the bigger question of vacancies, we would have to research and have to talk to the county attorney's office to see how we can meet those requirements. It might be that we, I don't know if we were limited on number of seats on this commission, but we could look at adding seats

And please don't take my comments to mean that I think any one of these people are not qualified to be serving here. I just want to make sure that we're following the rules here. And if we filled those two remaining spots with an African-American Republican in each of those, we still wouldn't be able to. so that is representative of the budget.

Yeah, so what I would like to do is, yeah, take a look at what are the restrictions, can we, I don't know if we have a limitation on the number, like I said, the number of seats that we have on this commission, but we can look at adding those to get to that percentage and get really active in trying to fill those to meet those requirements.

So do we have anyone from the county attorney's office that could speak to that?

Michael's been long from the county attorney's office. Um, we'd have to look more into that to figure out exactly how we would fill these, this last couple, um, spots and see if that we can, uh, reach the requirements of, he is correct. It is 32.001. Um, in order to make sure that the appointments do reflect the, geographic, political, gender, age, racial, and other elements of diversity.

So is it your counsel that we go forward and add more to be able to get to that goal at a later point or hold these until we can follow the rules as they're set forward.

Right. Um, it, it may be best to hold them to see if we can make sure that we can, we can fill all of these spots and make sure that we're, um, uh, good to go.

Okay. Okay.

Yeah.

I have a follow-up to, I'm sorry, what? Is the number, you have 15 slots here, is that set in stone on this commission? I think that's the question. So is that true of any commission that we have? If we can't meet those requirements, are we allowed to add any number to do so, or is there some kind of?

I'm not 100% sure on whether we can add, and if that works on every commission. I'm checking real quick, seeing what I can pull up right now, but give me one second.

Okay.

In this case, as Councilman said, if we do fill those last two, that's not gonna get to the requirement, so then we're kind of in a hard place potentially.

And I know that a lot of these are reappointments. If you wanna do those first while I take a look at this, that's fine, or whatever you all would prefer to do.

I'd prefer to wait until we get an answer there. Take as much time as you need.

Seven or nine. Amen.

While we're finding this out, I have a general question about complete streets and who shares the streets, bikers, et cetera. And this is not a proposal, it's a question. If there's a bike lane available, are bikers required to use that or is that just an option for them?

I've just always been curious and never knew the answer, so I'm just asking it since I have an opportunity to do it. Yeah, I mean, it would generally be an option. There are places where there's like a bike lane and then like a shared use area adjacent to it. So yeah, they wouldn't be required to use the bike lane. They're still allowed to ride on the road like normal vehicles are. Sure, okay.

One of the, yeah, one of the, sorry.

situations that arise, and one of the questions we get, you might have a bike facility that is designed to meet a range of, you know, skill levels, and so, Yeah, don't necessarily want the cyclist that's able to go 25 miles an hour or 30 miles an hour in a shared bike lane with other pedestrians.

Yeah, I just recently just did a ride through Cherokee Park, for example, and I wasn't mad at anybody, but there was a bike in Walker Lane, there was a car lane, but I will tell you, there was a biker in the car lane who was going like 11 miles an hour. It was just creeping along. Shouldn't you like, you know... be over there so we can, not that I wanted to floor it, but it was just a bit of an annoyance, honestly.

From a courtesy perspective, probably. Legal perspective, they have the.

I didn't honk or anything. I was just like, well, I didn't know what the rules were, so now I do.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah. Right, yeah. The one I have here is just like a draft copy, but I think it's... Yeah, we do. It's...

You identify yourself on the record, please.

Sorry, Claire Yates, transportation planner, supervisor with Public Works, Department of Transportation. It's not an official Metro Border Commission, and it's also the ordinance stipulates the number of coalition members and things like that. Yes, the Complete Streets Ordinance, the latest version, correct? Yes. Thank you.

Chair recognizes Councilwoman Chappell.

Just to give a little background, The Louisville Complete Streets Coalition was mandated in 2022 through Louisville's Complete Streets Ordinance and includes membership from across the city appointed by Metro Council. In the fiscal year 2023 budget, $500,000 was allocated for the Complete Streets Coalition and Metro Public Works to advance much needed pedestrian safety and traffic calming improvements and the CSC members are prioritizing spending much of this in underserved areas and school zones where our city is at risk. And then in fiscal year 2025, I believe that we did not fund Complete Streets anymore. And I have a statement on why that was, if you'd like me to read it. OK. Let's see. This is allegedly from Mayor Greenberg. I'm happy to forward these emails. I did not make the conscious decision to defund Complete Streets. I'm very passionate about Complete Streets. And Deputy Mayor Maton mentioned that She wasn't able to find complete streets in the budget, but it might be under the umbrella of something else. I don't know. I'm just pulling this up, and so I'm just hoping that I can shed some light, but it is correct in that it is not a Metro Council. It's mandated by ordinance, but it's not a traditional committee or So it did not fall under the purview necessarily of the ad hoc committee that met last year, but it was also a defunct board. But I know that this organization, these members have also helped with grading things such as our council directed traffic calming program that we had, and we funded a few of those projects last year. But since then it's just kind of gone by the wayside, especially because of funding. I hope any of that helped. Sorry, there's a lot to come through, but I hope to help if you have any other questions. Okay.

Chair recognizes Deputy Mayor George.

Thank you, Chair. Just for a bit of historical context, and I hope we're able to find the Complete Streets ordinance that was passed in, again, I believe 2022. Is that what you say, Council Member Chappell? Yes. This should not be a defunct board. This was established by Council, again, with the idea of implementing Complete Streets. Initial funding that was devoted for that was funded as a one-time initiative to establish the group while requirements were being established. And so past 2022, Mayor Greenberg, the administration made the decision to integrate traffic calming across investments within Metro, and so with that in mind, at that point, Complete Streets was set up to begin implementing and had projects to start, quite frankly, to inspire connectivity amongst the group, as well as give meaning to the process. It was not designed to necessarily, I guess what I'm trying to say is, Complete Streets Coalition was not contingent on always being funded to move the work forward with Complete Streets.

Thank you.

Pressure, pressure, pressure. The only thing I can find about membership, it's literally there. Well, maybe Director Sidnor and Mr. Chesler could answer this one for me. Other than having incredibly inconvenienced the nominees that have come here today and joined us online, what would be the consequences of holding off on these nominations?

Other than the inconvenience, which I'm not aware of any consequence other than, I mean, we don't have a meeting timeline that we have to hit, right?

Yeah, I mean, other than the inconvenience, I think that would be the biggest thing, yeah.

Well, then, with the apologies of this committee, I am... extremely sorry that we have hauled you in here and not been able to go forward today but i'm going to hold these nominations until we can get an answer from county attorney on how we can diversify this group and who would have thought a republican would be enforcing diversity councilwoman chapel But I think it's important. I think it's important that we, number one, follow the rules, need to understand what the rules are. And then, oh, got an answer?

Yeah, I've consulted with three or four of our people. I mean, we are unable to say at the moment what to do next. So we would recommend tabling this and seeing if we can figure it out.

Then I think it's the right decision to table. So we'll be tabling, or not tabling, we're holding. of the remaining items on the agenda. And again, I apologize to the nominees that made the effort to come and join us online as well. And again, this is no reflection on your qualifications to serve on this board. But we have rules for a reason and we need to make sure that we're following them. And I appreciate you coming. And again, I apologize. So with that, without any other business on the agenda, we are adjourned. Thank you.