LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Preservation advocates are appealing a city board’s ruling that denied historic status for shotgun houses set to be demolished in the Meriwether neighborhood.
The Historic Landmarks and Preservation Districts Commission voted 6-4 on January 24 to grant a landmark designation for houses on Lawton Court. But the action fell one vote short because of a Metro government ordinance that requires a majority of the panel’s overall membership – and not the assembled quorum -- to approve such changes.
A WDRB News investigation last month found that the vote threshold at the landmarks commission is rare among public boards and commissions in Louisville. The Lawton Court decision also is thought to be the first landmark petition to fail despite getting a majority of votes since the Metro Council approved the ordinance in 2019.
In its suit filed Tuesday, the nonprofit Neighborhood Planning & Preservation Inc. claims the commission’s “meeting procedures and nature of the ordinance adoption process denies the community their due process rights. The community participated in good faith both in the adoption of the ordinance and in the subsequent Landmarks hearing without knowing that their participation was essentially pointless.”
The lawsuit says the Metro Council “left out of the conversation” the part of the ordinance that changed the commission’s voting requirements when it made sweeping changes to the landmarks law in 2019. Needing a majority of the overall body to approve a landmark petition is an “exceptional provision,” the suit claims.
It also argues the landmarks commission's January decision was “not supported by evidence on the record” and that several members had a “strong bias" against the landmarking process and couldn't objectively apply the ordinance.
The suit in Jefferson Circuit Court is seeking a jury trial and a ruling reversing the commission's denial, among other things.
Neighbors who pushed for the landmarks designation argued that Lawton Court is unique in Louisville and deserves protection.
It is one of 22 pedestrian courts in the city, joining better-known examples such as Belgravia Court in Old Louisville, a landmarks commission's staff report found. Most of those courts have bungalow or Craftsman-style houses.
The report found that Lawton Court, which sits in an industrial area near Preston Street and Burnett Avenue, not far from Interstate 65, is the only one with shotgun houses.
Most of the houses are boarded up and owned by a nearby manufacturing company, CEPEDA Associates Inc., and set to be demolished. One demolition permit has been issued, according to the lawsuit.
Jody Hamilton, a spokeswoman for the Louisville Forward economic development agency declined to comment for this story because the lawsuit is pending.
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