LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The Metro Council will be asked to approve a public subsidy for the redevelopment of the Urban Government Center site, sending up to $20.3 million in property tax revenue to the developers over 20 years.
An ordinance creating the tax increment financing (TIF) district for the properties in the Paristown Pointe neighborhood will be introduced at Thursday’s council meeting. It then would need committee and full council votes.
The Metro Council request is a key step in moving the yearslong project forward. The ordinance sent to the council from Mayor Craig Greenberg’s administration claims the 11.6-acre area “will not reasonably be redeveloped without public assistance.”
But as the subsidy legislation heads to the council, the fate of a community benefits agreement remains unclear. That pact, which is required for Metro government to sell the property for $1, outlines commitments by developer Paristown Preservation Trust and the city to those living near the estimated $249 million project.
The agreement, which has been a sticking point for at least 18 months, is “still a working draft,” said Caitlin Bowling, spokeswoman for Metro government’s economic development cabinet. While city officials would like all five neighborhoods to sign on, “it is not a requirement to move forward,” she said.
The project's current development agreement says that the agreement with "surrounding neighborhood associations" is one of the developer's four major obligations, including before the land is transferred.
Representatives from five neighborhoods – Smoketown, Phoenix Hill, Paristown Pointe, Germantown-Paristown and the Original Highlands – sit on an advisory panel charged with negotiating the benefits details.
The Paristown Preservation Trust wants to build apartments, condominiums, a hotel, office space, retail and a parking garage on the site.
Frank Ford, a Paristown Pointe resident who has been involved in the discussions since last August, told WDRB News he doesn’t plan to support the current deal.
“It almost seems like it needs to be restarted again, but how do you restart a process that has taken two years at this point?”
The panel’s representative from Germantown-Paristown, Rebecca Minnick, also said she remains concerned about the version of the agreement attached to the TIF ordinance. That version is dated December 20.
As of last December, Minnick said she and others weren’t willing to sign it.
“We didn't feel like the benefits proposed were enough for us to feel like we were getting enough out of it,” she said, explaining that the concessions to the neighbors aren't adequate given the amount of public funds being sought.
Ralph Melbourne, president of the Original Highlands Neighborhood Association, said his organization plans to discuss the agreement at its board meeting Monday. “I understand that the ordinance is putting it forward as a draft that’s still under negotiation,” he said. “So I think most of the panel agrees that we’re looking to get to some resolution soon.”
Other neighborhood representatives and leaders did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Under the draft agreement, Paristown Preservation Trust would give $25,000 to the neighborhood associations and donate $10,000 for the Paristown Pointe Community Garden or to the Louisville Parks Alliance to improve an existing playground in the neighborhoods.
Among other pledges, the development group would hang at least “Historic Paristown Pointe” banners on surrounding streets; keep an existing steam plant building on the site, if feasible; ban short-term rentals in the new units; and aim to create a “market/small grocer.”
Tony Hardin, legislative aide for Metro Council member Phillip Baker (D-6th District), who represents the area near the Urban Government Center, told WDRB News that he’s been told that Greenberg’s economic development department has gotten one neighborhood association to sign on. “And it's their opinion -- because we did ask -- that they only need one in order for it to be official.”
Baker said in an interview that he hasn’t yet decided if he can back the ordinance without the advisory board’s full support. He is listed as its sponsor because, in keeping with council protocol, he chairs the labor, economic development and appropriations committee, where the legislation is assigned.
“I do have my concerns and it did raise my eyebrows” that the community pact isn’t finalized, he said.
He expects his committee will hear the ordinance next Tuesday.
“It gives the council a chance to look at it as, you know, it is currently constructed,” Baker said. “You vote it up or vote it down.”
Paristown Preservation Trust is the third entity chosen to transform the site since former Mayor Greg Fischer began seeking private developers for the publicly owned land in 2017.
Copyright 2024 WDRB Media. All rights reserved.
