Last November, when three Monarch High School girls attended an Open Space Advisory Board Meeting as part of a school assignment, they had no idea that it would provide them a front row seat at one of Louisville’s most explosive issues in the past decade.

On the agenda in that November 2019 meeting was the proposed development of the nearly 400-acre old StorageTek site in southeast Louisville. Denver-based Brue Baukol Capital Partners is hoping to transform it into what they call “Redtail Ridge,” into a massive development of nearly 6 million square feet of office, commercial, retail and residential space. The land is today owned by Phillips 66. To give you an idea of the size of the space in question, the 389 acres of the old StorageTek/Phillips 66 site is 45% larger than Davidson Mesa, which is 246 acres.

“We didn’t think it would be such a big thing,” said 15-year old Ava Carter of Louisville.   But it did not take long for Ava, and classmates Tessa Awald (15) and Katherine Marsella (15), to realize the potential impact of a massive development in their backyard.  And when I say ‘backyard,’ I mean it literally.  The proposed Redtail Ridge/old StorageTek land runs along the southern boundary of Monarch High School.  

After the Open Space Advisory Board meeting, the three teenagers were inspired to compose an email to Mayor Ashley Stolzmann.  “We are writing to address the issue with you,” the freshmen wrote, “because the impact of this decision will not just affect us as students going to Monarch High School, but all the members of the Louisville Community.”

Nine months after the students attended the meeting of the Open Space Advisory Board, the Redtail Ridge issue is barreling down on Louisville like a freight train on the BSNF tracks (cue the 4am train horn).  Developer Brue Baukol is proposing a small city to be built on the old StorageTek lands.  City Council will vote on August 4 whether to accept or deny the developer’s plan.  One Boulder County government official calls it “the largest land use issue Louisville has faced in decades.”

Tessa, Katherine and Ava are too young to vote, but old enough to have smart opinions. In the proposed Redtail Ridge, they see a threat. And they are not afraid to take a stand.  As the younger generation, they have more at stake than the rest of us. 

Their immediate concern is the impact the huge construction project will have on the learning environment at Monarch.  The Redtail Ridge plan includes 2 million square feet of office space, 900 multi-family residential areas, 70,000 square feet of retail space and over a thousand senior living apartments “The smells and sounds will be disruptive,” says Tessa. “ We often have lunch outside. Every student uses the outdoor spaces of our school.”  Even more worrisome are concerns about the potential health concerns from dust and debris sent airborne over the 389-acre construction site.  And then there is the noise. Katherine says, “We already hear airplanes flying overhead while in class.” Tessa is concerned about the daily, earth-shaking sounds of heavy construction equipment: “What happens to a conducive learning environment when all we will hear are loud drills?” she asks.  The scale and enormity of Brue Baukol’s nearly six million square-foot construction project is simply unimaginable to the three Monarch High School teens.

Tessa, Ava, and Katherine are also concerned about how traffic from the proposed development will impact not just the high school, but the K-8 school also on the Monarch campus.  Anyone who has been anywhere near the Monarch campus on a  school day understands the meaning of the word “gridlock.” “I live in Superior and on school days it takes at least 15 minutes to drive just a few miles to school,” says Katherine. 

For now, Campus Drive dead ends at Monarch’s southeast corner. A key part of the Redtail Ridge plan is to connect Campus eastward to 96th Street.   The “new” Campus Drive will include four roundabouts, and likely four lanes.  Developer Brue Baukol sees the new Campus Drive as an avenue to alleviate traffic problems.  Tessa, Ava, and Katherine fear it will cause additional ones.  They think the new Campus Drive could become another Dillon Road.   “You have a lot of drivers in this area who have just received their licenses,” says Ava.” The volume of traffic and  speed of cars traveling the new Campus Drive worries the teens. Tessa believes Campus Drive could also become a shortcut for travelers navigating around the proposed Redtail Ridge.   “More cars will make it more hazardous,” says Ava. 

Buried in the debate over the Redtail Ridge development is how it will impact the miles of open space that encircle most of Louisville.  It’s certainly not lost on these bright Monarch High students. “A big part of living in Louisville is that it is a place where open space is important,” says Ava.  Most would agree that our  designated Open Space areas take on added importance in the midst of a pandemic.

The three students were pre-schoolers when the StorageTek buildings came down over a decade ago.   For most of their lives, they have not viewed it as private land, but simply as ‘open space.’ To Ava, Tessa, and Katherine, the old StorageTek lands to the south and east of the Monarch campus are not much different than Davidson Mesa, Warembourg, or any of our city’s other designated open spaces.  After all, as citizens of Louisville, open space is in their DNA.

“It’s refreshing,” says Katherine. For students , a walk outside to breathe the clean air and take in the open views help them deal with the stress of school.  “After all day in class, it calms you down,” said Katherine. “Development here will be a disaster.”  Developer Brue Baukol touts the benefits of the plan having about 40 acres of open space.  Forty acres out of nearly 400?  As they say on ESPN Sportscenter: “C’mon man!”