LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- There are new plans in progress for a vacant property in Louisville's Park Hill neighborhood.
Environmental cleanup is underway on the site that used to be home to the Rhodia chemical plant. It is a long-vacant brownfield property that is turning into a community-led mixed-use development.
Environmental cleanup is underway on a long-vacant brownfield property in Louisville's Park Hill neighborhood. The site of the former Rhodia chemical plant will be a mixed-use development. The former Jones-Dabney Co. varnish manufacturing building still stands on the property. (WDRB Image) Oct. 27, 2023
"We're not sure what all we're going to have here," said Bruce Sherrod, a neighbor who has lived across the road at the Parkway Place Apartments for about a decade. He's on the advisory board helping share ideas for what the property could become.
"We're going through that process now with people from the Algonquin and Park Hill neighborhoods. We're trying to get everyone engaged, see what they would like to see here," he said.
The site was home to the Jones-Dabney Co., a varnish manufacturer, during the early to mid-20th century and also housed dry cleaning businesses, a gas station and other chemical production before a plant there closed in 1994. It's now surrounded by a chain-link fence, with one lone building still standing.
Sherrod said plans are to keep that building. But the rest of the 17-acre site could become several possibilities.
Environmental cleanup is underway on a long-vacant brownfield property in Louisville's Park Hill neighborhood. The site of the former Rhodia chemical plant will be a mixed-use development. The former Jones-Dabney Co. varnish manufacturing building still stands on the property. (WDRB Image) Oct. 27, 2023
"It's a wide range of things that we could put here. We're going to find out what that is with the residents involved and having these workshop meetings," Sherrod said. "We're going to change this whole Algonquin, Park Hill, this whole corridor."
The property is bound by South Seventh Street, South 11th Street, Hill Street and the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks.
Metro government, which bought the land in 2002, selected the Re:land Group real estate firm in 2020 to eventually buy and redevelop the property. The Metro Council last year allocated $10 million in coronavirus stimulus funds for the cleanup.
"The site has quite a history, a lot of old buildings, a lot of chemical manufacturing operations, so we're seeing a lot of footers, a lot of infrastructure. All of those take a little bit of time to remove, dispose of, and take care of before the new development," said Joe Stephens, regional director of EnviroForensics, the group that was chosen to oversee the removal of contaminated soil.
Environmental cleanup is underway on a long-vacant brownfield property in Louisville's Park Hill neighborhood. The site of the former Rhodia chemical plant will be a mixed-use development. The former Jones-Dabney Co. varnish manufacturing building still stands on the property. (WDRB Image) Oct. 27, 2023
Stephens said right now aggressive remediation is going on at the site.
"We're averaging probably over 100 trucks per day removing contaminated soil," he said.
Stephens said there is an air monitoring program in place to monitor both the site itself and the perimeter. The soil is hauled to a landfill that's constructed to manage contaminated soil.
Sherrod said it's important that people who live in the area will have their voices heard about what will be developed here.
"That is something I mean, no one really in this city gets to experience. Developers come, they tear down, they build up, without much input from the community, the city, or their neighbors," Sherrod said. "This is a breath of fresh air. It's something that should be a model for the city, if not the nation."
Sherrod said seeing the environmental work taking place "says a lot."
Stephens said this project is something special to be part of.
"... and we're very excited to restore this legacy brownfield site so that the community and city can put it to use," he said.
In a statement Friday, Kevin Trager, who is the press secretary for Mayor Craig Greenberg, said: "The former Rhodia site has long stood as a symbol of environmental injustice in our city, and we are pleased that environmental cleanup work is now underway to change that. This is a major step toward building something new by and for the Park Hill community. We are excited to hear more about the neighbors' vision for the redevelopment of this site."
Stephens said pending weather conditions, the goal is to get the environmental work completed by the end of the year.
Related stories:
- Work slated to start soon at long-vacant Park Hill industrial site
- City of Louisville looking for company to deal with contamination issues at old plant in Park Hill
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