Redtail Ridge opponents gather enough signatures for ballot initiative

LOUISVILLE — A group of Louisville residents opposed to city leaders’ decision to approve plans for the large-scale Redtail Ridge development project have gathered enough signatures to potentially overturn the approval.

Louisville City Clerk Meredyth Muth confirmed the receipt of the requisite petition signatures this week and said a 40-day period to allow for protest of the petition has begun. 

According to Redtail opposition organizers, the petition garnered 780 signatures, nearly double the amount required by the city. 

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Redtail Ridge is a project by Denver-based developer Brue Baukol Capital Partners LLC, which seeks to transform the long-vacant, former Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) with the construction of as many as 3 million square feet of office, industrial and flexible-use buildings.

After more than a year of hearings and several iterations of the plans, the project was approved on a 4-3 vote of the Louisville City Council in late September.

Throughout the city’s development-plan approval process, which was put on hold last year after city leaders balked at the scope of the ambitious proposal at the roughly 400-acre site that formerly housed the Storage Technology Corp. headquarters, concerns have been raised both by officials and residents about loss of open space, economic viability, traffic congestion and environmental degradation. 

The City Council placed a series of conditions on the approval of the plans such as a 3-million-square-foot cap on development, increased public-land dedications and a minimum of three megawatts of solar power on site.

While these conditions were enough to win over the support of a majority of the council, some in Louisville remain unconvinced. 

Almost immediately after the project was approved, opponents began circulating a petition seeking to overturn the decision. 

“This is probably the biggest land-use decision in the century,” Sherry Sommer, one of the petition’s organizers and a former Louisville City Council candidate, told BizWest this month. “… I want to see something [developed on the Redtail Ridge site] that the majority of others in Louisville want to see as well.”

If the petition is not protested, or should any protest fail, statute requires that the Louisville City Council reconsider the ordinance that approved the Redtail Ridge plans. 

If the City Council decides not to reverse its decision, a ballot measure will be put to Louisville residents to decide the matter. 

A hearing to reconsider the decision is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 7, according to Muth.

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