Preliminary Summary of the August 31 City Council Hearing

On August 31, Louisville city council decided to pass an ordinance approving the Redtail Ridge General Development plan essentially as it was proposed by the applicant with a few minor changes. The final decision will be made on September 21 when planning staff and the attorney work out the wording of the conditions.

Expected Results

·         No reduction in density

·         Relatively small increase of 9.3 acres of open space

·         Backwards move from Planning Commission resolution related to LEED

·         Allows natural gas infrastructure that applicant already agreed to forego

·         Unnecessary density bonuses for achieving net-zero energy

·         Many sustainability proposals from the public ignored

Reducing density was the best tool city council had to promote sustainability and they didn’t use it. Vehicle trips, energy use, and loss of habitat are all directly related to the size of the development. Jeff Lipton, Dennis Maloney, Deb Fahey, and Caleb Dickenson all voted in favor of the applicant’s proposal for 3M SF.  Only Kyle Brown and Ashley Stoltzman favored reducing the density of the development. Even though the city attorney explained that the  2.5M SF in the ConocoPhillips GDP is not the applicant’s “use by right”, Jeff Lipton, Dennis Maloney, Deb Fahey, and Caleb Dickenson, and Chris Leh would not support reducing even to that amount.  

The second most important tool that the council had to improve the sustainability was to require more open space. Increasing the amount of open space would force the developer to cluster the buildings, reduce the overall footprint, and preserve habitat. While Ashley Stoltzman and Kyle Brown favored increasing the amount of open space substantially, no other council members joined them. Jeff Lipton and Dennis Maloney voted against adding a mere 9.3 additional acres proposed by Caleb Dickenson.  Dennis Maloney even suggested providing giving the developer a density bonus for additional open space, but fortunately that was voted down. Most supported a suggestion by Ashley Stoltzman to add a footnote to cluster building to the maximum extent possible, but the effect of this will depend upon final wording. Jeff Lipton and Caleb Dickenson refrained from voting in support of adding this footnote.

City council made a move backwards in sustainability commitment from the Planning Commission hearing. The proposal before city council included a commitment from the applicant to certify all retail and office buildings over 10K SF as LEED silver and to certify all industrial buildings as LEED certified. The planning commission passed a resolution to add a condition to require LEED silver for industrial. Jeff Lipton, Dennis Maloney, Caleb Dickenson, Deb Fahey, and Chris Leh all voted for the applicant’s proposed LEED commitments, ignoring the resolution put forth to strengthen it by Planning Commission. Ashley Stoltzman proposed including the planning commission’s condition to bring industrial up to LEED silver and Kyle Brown proposed strengthening LEED commitments even further. No other council members agreed.

The city council also moved backwards from applicant’s commitment to building electrification. The applicant committed to Electric HVAC and hot water in all buildings and use of natural gas only for process uses, consistent with Planning Commission’s resolution. Jeff Lipton, Dennis Maloney, Deb Fahey, and Caleb Dickenson all voted in favor of changing this to allow natural gas use for back-up emergency electrical generation power. This essentially allows developers to include natural gas lines for buildings that otherwise would not need it for process uses. The impact of this condition will depend upon final wording.

City council offered density bonuses for Net Zero energy buildings, an unnecessary give-away to the applicant. Jeff Lipton, Dennis Maloney, Caleb Dickenson, Deb Fahey, and Chris Leh all voted in favor of allowing developers to increase building space in each parcel by 10% if they achieve “net-zero” buildings on a given parcel. The effect of this is difficult to judge before final wording is approved. The applicant already committed to efficiency, electrification, onsite solar, which could result in one or more buildings being eligible to be designated as Net Zero Energy (NZE) without the density bonus. This bonus could increase vehicle trips by 10% negating some benefits of reduced energy use.

City council failed to advance sustainability in other parts of the hearing. Prior to the hearing the applicant agreed to increase their commitment to solar generated electricity from the originally proposed 2 MW of power to a minimum of 3 MW. No councilmembers proposed pushing this further. Ashley Stoltzman proposed that the applicant pay for offsite traffic improvements resulting from the development. Though she didn’t sate it this way, this may have incentivized traffic demand management measures. She also proposed changing the alignment of Campus Drive to reduce traffic queue lengths but only Kyle Brown supported these two measures. Kyle Brown proposed requiring wildlife relocation and termination plans but only Ashley Stoltzman supported this. Though he didn’t state it this way, this may have been a method for the city to require a commitment not to use anticoagulant rodenticides for prairie dog extermination, thus protecting other wildlife.

Overall city council made no bold moves to protect the environment or public welfare. They stuck closely to the applicant’s proposal, ignoring many suggestions from the public.