LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A developer is suing the Louisville Metro Council, claiming city legislators overstepped their authority when they voted down a contentious apartment plan on Cane Run Road last month.
LDG Land Holdings LLC argues that the council's action violates the Land Development Code, which governs development in Jefferson County, and asks a judge to affirm the planning commission's previous approval of the project.
At issue are changes that LDG, a prominent developer of affordable housing in Louisville, made after it won a zoning change in 2021 for the property near Cane Run Road and Shanks Lane. The company originally submitted development plans for 106 rental townhomes in 2022. It revised those plans in spring 2023 and ultimately got the planning commission to sign off on 128 apartments instead.
Metro Council member Tammy Hawkins, D-1st District, who represents the area, called the move a "clear bait and switch" during a Dec. 14, 2023, council meeting where her ordinance to deny LDG's new plans passed, 20-4.
"This is not anti-housing. My constituents' voice was taken," Hawkins said during that meeting. "They wanted townhomes. They were promised townhomes a year ago. The bait and switch came in and now they were offered apartments. Diversity (of housing) is so important."
In the lawsuit filed last Friday in Jefferson Circuit Court, LDG argues that the rising construction costs made the initial plan "infeasible" and the changes were meant to "maintain and augment the benefits" of the original affordable housing aims.
Louisville's land-use rules required the Metro Council to take "final action" after it began a review of the new proposal, but it failed to do so in a allotted 60-day window, according to the lawsuit. LDG claims that the planning commission's approval became final on Oct. 28, 2023, because the "Metro Council had not by that time "upheld, modified, or overturned the decision."
The suit also claims a separate ordinance the council passed in October that sent the LDG plans back to the planning commission wasn't proper because the council hasn't had that authority since 2014.
Christi Lanier-Robinson, LDG's executive vice president, said in an interview Tuesday that the company lost out on financing from the Kentucky Housing Corp. for the Cane Run Road project that expired at the end of the year because of the council action.
The Jefferson County Attorney's Office was reviewing the lawsuit. It generally doesn't comment on pending litigation and has not yet responded in court.
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