Louisville Courier-Journal - 25 February 2003
Shelbyville Road Plaza would grow significantly over the next couple of years under an expansion plan for the 30-acre site that has been taking shape over the past few years.
A final part of the revised development plan that calls for building on the last 3.2 acres is being reviewed by St. Matthews. About 17 acres is now developed, and overall plans call for less densely developing the remaining 13 acres, developer Benton Seay said.
More development would occur in the flood plain, which concerns some environmentalists, even though the drainage plans were approved by Metropolitan Sewer District after a long review.
Under the plans, more stores would be built along a second entrance off Bowling Boulevard that would run south from the back of the plaza and across a new bridge over Beargrass Creek. The road would extend to an entrance to Mall St. Matthew at Bowling Boulevard that has a traffic signal, next to the city’s Beargrass Creek Preserve.
That’s also where the long-planned Bunsen Parkway connector to Hurstbourne Parkway would start as part of a separate, long-term road improvement project.
The latest plan calls for an additional 13,867 square feet of retail space, which would be part of about 370,000 square feet of retail space in all – including the approximately 230,000 square feet that is there now.
Among the possible tenants is a large shoe store with more than 20,000 square feet of space, said Seay, of Hagan Seay Properties. Essentially all the space is filled in the plaza and there’s a demand for more, he said.
The latest plan was presented by engineer Jim Mims of Birch, Trautwein & Mims at the Feb. 11 St. Matthews City Council meeting, and it is expected to be voted on at the March 11 council meeting.
Binding elements from St. Matthews are still being worked out, attorney Bill Bardenwerper, who represents the developers, said yesterday.
At the last meeting, the council called for limiting uses in the expanded plaza, and Bardenwerper said the binding elements would exclude service stations and certain other uses.
The plans, which have been recommended for approval by the Louisville Metro Planning Commission, call for building in an area that was previously set aside as a detention basin. But an increase in drainage capacity is planned around the current Bowling Boulevard Bridge across Beargrass Creek.
Patrick Barry, an engineering technician in development planning review for MSD, said the developer obtained a flood-plain waiver for the project by agreeing to increase drainage capacity by removing part of the bridge embankment.
A stream-preservation plan for the creek also is required.
Environmentalist Bud Hixson with Friends of Beargrass Creek questioned the effectiveness of the protection plans, saying the plaza site is being turned into a “completely artificial area.”
“What are we preserving anymore?” Hixson asked. “We’re preserving the last engineering changes made … These types of corridor stream-preservation plans … don’t have any real ecological protection anymore.”
Bruce W. Scott, a member of the Metro Louisville Beargrass Creek Task Force, said, “The loss of (wildlife) habitat is tragic.”
Residents of Alcott Road next to the plaza had feared that drainage problems would worsen when plaza expansion began a couple of years ago, but resident Joan Neimeier said that hasn’t happened at her house.
But “I wasn’t really in favor of development behind here at all,” she said. “I liked it the way it was. I think St. Matthews is over-building for what we need in the area.”