Louisville leaders put off Retail Ridge hearing, vote until next month

LOUISVILLE — Local residents will have to wait a week for a chance to chime in on the latest development proposal for Louisville’s Redtail Ridge site.

Tuesday’s City Council meeting ran late, and an ordinance to approve general development plan amendments was one of the last items on the agenda. City staff had an hour to present a report on the Redtail Ridge proposal, but the meeting was continued until Aug. 3 before a public hearing or vote could occur. 

Denver-based developer Brue Baukol Capital Partners LLC is back before city officials about a year after those leaders sent the company’s initial proposal back to the drawing board. 

Initially, the company sought to turn the parcel into a 5.22 million-square-foot live-work development anchored by a new corporate campus for medical-device maker Medtronic Inc. and a roughly 1,500-home senior-living community operated by Erickson Living LLC. Additional planned components included offices, retail space and apartments. 

Medtronic skipped town for a nearby site in Lafayette, and locals spoke out against the housing portion of the project, arguing that thousands of new residents would strain city resources and exacerbate traffic congestion.

Under the revised plan, Brue Baukol reduced density to 3.1 million square feet and completely eliminated the residential element.

According to a fiscal analysis developed by a city consultant to estimate potential tax revenues and service costs, about 1.7 million square feet could be dedicated as office space, another nearly 1.4 million to industrial users and about 150,000 for retail.

Louisville’s Planning Commission has recommended approval of the scaled-back Redtail Ridge proposal but asked the City Council to apply a handful of conditions. Those include ensuring all buildings over 10,000 square feet are LEED Silver certified, which the developer has agreed to; requiring electric HVAC systems, which Brue Baukol opposes; and acquiring commitment from the owner of a piece of right of way where a roundabout was planned, a move that’s no longer necessary as the developer has moved that proposed roundabout.

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