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Louisville Metro Government’s Office of Advanced Planning and Sustainability will host a public workshop on Jan. 29 to gather feedback from residents about the current conditions of the Butchertown, Phoenix Hill and NuLu neighborhoods and listen to their ideas for the future as part of a neighborhood planning process.
The neighborhood plan will encompass 6.3 square miles on the edge of the Central Business District. Home to historic residential areas, energetic commercial corridors, and regional destinations, Butchertown, Phoenix Hill and NuLu are unique part of Louisville’s urban fabric.
“Over the last several years, the Butchertown, Phoenix Hill and NuLu neighborhoods have experienced an influx of investment activity and development, turning the neighborhoods into destinations for locals and visitors alike,” said Mayor Greg Fischer. “As they continue to evolve, it is critical that we take the time to ensure that that development is thoughtful and honors the history and individual character of these neighborhoods.”
The public workshop will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at the Waterfront Botanical Gardens, 1435 Frankfort Ave. Doors open at 5 p.m., with a presentation starting at 5:30 p.m. The event is open to all Louisville residents. All are also encouraged to submit their thoughts via an online survey at www.bpnplan.com.
Neighborhood plans are used to find solutions to neighborhoods’ unique challenges, identify areas of opportunity, and provide a roadmap for future development. The success of the public visioning process is a critical step in building understanding, support, and ownership of focus areas that will ultimately lead to effective implementation across time.
The neighborhood plans for Butchertown and Phoenix Hill were last updated in 2008 prior to the establishment of NuLu. Since then, the neighborhoods have seen investment in retail, restaurants, hotels, multifamily developments, and the start of construction on major destination projects such as the Waterfront Botanical Gardens and the Lynn Family Stadium. The city also drafted and adopted the 2013 Downtown Master Plan, which envisioned the neighborhoods as prime opportunities for infill development that could be stimulated through better connections to the central business district.
Development of the new Butchertown-Phoenix Hill-NuLu Neighborhood Plan will be led by a team of consultants – landscape architecture and urban planning firm MKSK, transportation engineering firm WSP, and landscape architecture firm Booker Design Collaborative – in partnership with the Office of Advanced Planning and Sustainability.
“This plan is an exciting opportunity for Butchertown, Phoenix Hill and NuLu residents to help build on the area’s momentum and set a community-driven vision for the next ten years,” said Andrew Knight, Design Principal with MKSK. “The plan’s recommendations will be shaped by what we hear from the public, so we encourage residents, workers and visitors to get involved and share their ideas at our public meeting and through our online survey.”
The consultant team also is currently seeking volunteer ambassadors for the Butchertown-Phoenix Hill-NuLu Neighborhood Plan, who will provide grassroots outreach to residents, business and property owners, and visitors to ensure the plan include input from a diverse group. For more information or to volunteer, contact Kristin Booker of Booker Design Collaborative at kbooker@booker-design.com.
Louisville Metro Government is moving forward with plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for climate change. The city also will provide a progress report on the goals set out in the city’s first sustainability plan, Sustain Louisville, later this month.
On Nov. 1, Mayor Greg Fischer announced the release of a draft of the Emissions Reduction Plan at the annual Louisville Sustainability Summit. The plan, part of a commitment to the Global Covenant of Mayors, serves as a framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Louisville Metro’s Office of Advanced Planning and Sustainability, which helped guide the Emissions Reduction Plan, also is developing a climate adaptation plan, Prepare Louisville, to address existing and anticipated effects of climate change. Input on both will be critical to determining the best approach to tackling climate change now and in the years ahead.
“Despite national action to abandon the Paris climate accord, Louisville is listening to our residents, especially our young people who spoke out during the Climate Strike, and are stepping up to keep fighting climate change,” said the Mayor. “The release of the Emissions Reduction Plan and formulation of a climate adaptation plan takes us to the next stage as a community – to an urgent and critical conversation about how we move forward to achieve the necessary greenhouse gas reductions and how we work together to address the current and future impacts of climate change.”
The strategies included in the Emissions Reduction Plan were derived from best industry practices and reflect our best understanding of where current trends will take us in the years ahead. It is intended to be flexible in nature as new technologies and regulatory changes drive change in our community.
Louisville Metro recognizes that since the plan’s 80% emissions reduction target was set, recent scientific reports have expressed the need for more urgent and accelerated action to avoid irreversible impacts of climate change. In response, the city will continue pursuing actions that will propel Louisville beyond the 80% reduction target laid out in the plan.
Residents can submit their feedback on the Emissions Reduction Plan now through Saturday, Nov. 30 at https://louisvilleky.gov/government/sustainability/greenhouse-gas-inventory .
Residents also are asked to help shape Prepare Louisville, the climate adaptation plan, by sharing their experiences, concerns, and ideas via a short online survey at www.surveymonkey.com/r/preparelouisville . The deadline to complete the survey has been extended to Wednesday, Nov. 13.
Lastly, the Office of Advanced Planning and Sustainability will be releasing a progress report on Wednesday, Nov. 13, updating the goals and initiatives set forth in Sustain Louisville. The report will describe the strides made and highlight the key successes toward these goals, as well as identifying areas for improvement.
For more information about Sustain Louisville, visit https://louisvilleky.gov/government/sustainability/sustain-louisville
Photo: Louisville Metro Office of Advanced Planning
The Louisville Metro Office of Advanced Planning will hold public meetings at 6 p.m. on April 19 and May 18 at Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana, 2115 Lexington Road, to discuss safety improvements coming soon to Lexington Road between Grinstead Drive and Payne Street.
The meetings are designed to allow citizens to view and to discuss the proposed improvements with Metro staff. The planned changes implement recommendations of the Lexington Road Corridor Transportation Plan, which was completed in 2015 after extensive community engagement.
Project details include:
- Extending the left turn bay on eastbound Lexington Road to northbound Grinstead Drive, for those traveling to I-64, to accommodate rush hour congestion. The number of lanes at this intersection will not be reduced.
- Lanes in the lower traffic volume area between Grinstead and Payne will be reduced from four to two so that a flush median (buffer zone) can be introduced to separate oncoming traffic and reduce the number of collisions.
- Dedicated left turn lanes will be introduced at Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana, The Woods at Lexington Road, and Payne Street.
- With the reduction in the number of lanes in the lower traffic volume areas, the pavement width will allow for painted, flush medians and bike facilities.
The safety improvements will be coordinated with a scheduled repaving of the Lexington Road corridor slated for later this year. The current Average Daily Traffic (ADT) count—a measurement of the volume of vehicular traffic per day—is currently 10,800 vehicles and has been decreasing since the completion of the Ohio River Bridges Project.
Typical roadway reconfigurations of four lanes to two lanes can accommodate up to 16,000 ADT.
Lexington Road is very similar in design to Grinstead Drive, which underwent a similar reconfiguration in 2012 and has shown a 67 percent reduction in collisions.
Lexington Road from Payne Street to Baxter Avenue is not part of this proposed project, though funding is available to study the Payne to Baxter segment. As part of this future study, additional opportunities for citizens input will be provided.
To view the Lexington Road Corridor Transportation Plan or provide a comment on this project, please visit https://louisvilleky.gov/government/advanced-planning/lexington-road-saf…
