LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- An effort is underway to expand Seneca Park by adding largely wooded areas already laced with hiking and mountain biking trails.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has agreed to give roughly 26 acres near Interstate 64 to Metro government to grow the park, public documents show, a move that would protect the land from future development and encroachment, such as a possible widening of I-64.
The area includes more than 18 acres bounded by Seneca Park Road and the interstate where the Olmsted Parks Conservancy has worked in recent years to rehabilitate multi-use trails and remove invasive species like bush honeysuckle.
Wilson Ethington, a conservancy project manager, said granting the city control over the land would insulate it from future highway expansion, cement it as a recreational area and provide a permanent buffer for the Beargrass Creek watershed.
After months of study, the Transportation Cabinet concluded in early 2022 that widening I-64 between Mellwood Avenue and the Watterson Expressway wasn't "feasible at this time," in part due to public opposition and cost.
"They haven't done that yet, but I know that that's still always on the table," Ethington said. "And as long as they own this land, it will be. So it's important to me to save this tract, especially because it's considered parkland by the public."
The parcels originally were purchased by the state as a staging area for I-64 construction in the 1960s, according to an Olmsted description. The conservancy says about $70,000 in labor costs was spent to restore the area and another $80,000 was invested on trail work with the state’s permission.
Besides the trails area, the other section that would be formally preserved as green space is a mostly sloping 7.7-acre hillside above Beargrass Creek not far from the northernmost edge of Bowman Field.
"We're kind of just adding that on as a protection for the watershed," Ethington said.
Olmsted says the addition of the properties would have no cost to Metro Parks because the conservancy already manages the trails, while the parks agency currently handles maintenance in the floodplain along the creek.
An ordinance introduced this week at Metro Council would provide $13,500 for a survey of the land. That work is needed before the land can be transferred, Ethington said. The money comes from neighborhood development funds controlled by council members Andrew Owen, D-9, Jennifer Chappell, D-15, and Betsy Ruhe, D-21.
The Federal Highway Administration also would need to approve the deal.
In late 2021, the Olmsted Parks Conservancy announced the first significant expansion of nearby Cherokee Park in more than 100 years when the park added about 25 acres owned by the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary that was eyed for development.
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