Metro Council committee asks planning commission to identify land use inequalities

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – A newly formed Louisville Metro Council committee has taken a step aimed at leveling out the differences between housing in east and west Louisville.

The Council's new Equity and Inclusion Committee unanimously passed a resolution Monday asking the city's planning commission to identify areas where the city's land development code should be more inclusive. The committee has been studying how the development code might cause inequities between east and west Louisville.

Some blame a discriminatory practice called redlining, a systematic denial of services, such as providing mortgage loans, to people in certain neighborhoods. The nearly century-old practice contributed to dividing communities such as Louisville, and some say the thinking behind the practice still exists.

Jeana Dunlap, who is with the Louisville Coordinate Community Investment Project, said west Louisville is a good example.

"It's a predominantly black and low-income area, because that's what planners and developers and government officials have cooperated in doing, without regard for what that does for the market or, you know, what that does for the balance, equality of life," Dunlap said.

The committee is the result of calls within Louisville for racial equality.