Old Louisville’s 2000 Neighborhood Plan, Revisited
The plan was relatively ambitious, but how much did we actually follow through with?
Right after Y2K permanently destroyed the world's computing, the City of Louisville (pre-merger) and the Center for Neighborhood’s predecessor released a neighborhood plan for Old Louisville/Limerick. It was a pretty ambitious plan that highlighted a lot of the optimism that was held for the city at the dawn of the millennium. I have lived in Old Louisville since I was 18, and have fallen for the neighborhood's tight urban fabric and historic architecture. Despite my love, it feels that there is a lot of unseized potential. This made me curious as to what residents were hoping the neighborhood would be like by now, 25 years ago.
The 2000 plan is the most recent neighborhood plan for Old Louisville, but it was published in a very different, pre-merger context. The document does propose a significant amount of more technical changes to land-use and building regulations in Old Louisville that have been adopted, but they are not super interesting unless you are an urban planner. I’d like to take a look back at the major proposals, goals, etc. and see how much was adopted.
Fourth and Oak
Fourth and Oak is the commercial center for Old Louisville. If you ride the 4 bus through the area, it is often where you will see a significant amount of folks board or get off. In order to capitalize on the density and walkability of much of the neighborhood, the 2000 plan recommended that a “pedestrian-oriented commercial district” be created surrounding this intersection. This would entail buildings be built right up to the sidewalk and an increase in mixed-use density so that most of the ground level on these structures were retail/commercial. At the time, both blocks directly west of this intersection had low-density commercial buildings set back from the sidewalks with parking surrounding them. The setback structures present danger for pedestrians as cars cross into parking lots, and it makes it difficult for pedestrians to engage with the storefronts unless they want to cross into a parking lot.
This is a great proposal, but much of it never became reality. Only one structure along the corridor was extended to reach the sidewalk, the former Family Dollar which now sits empty. The major commercial structure directly on the intersection (currently a Dollar General and laundromat) still sits a ways back. There has been no introduction of denser, mixed-use structures at all. No building here even approaches the height limit besides the church which has been around for decades. Oak Street has seen some positive infrastructure additions, though, with sidewalk and crosswalk upgrades along with the addition of new street trees.
I am not sure what this area was like in 2000, since I was not alive and no data about the city really goes back that far, but now the area may see less activity as both grocery stores nearby have since closed. The Oak Street corridor is also the center of crime in the neighborhood, which likely makes folks less inclined to walk down there and visit businesses. It is ultimately subjective, but it does not seem like this area has been transformed into a pedestrian district.
Housing
For multiple decades now, Old Louisville has had the highest density of housing units of any neighborhood in the city. Preservation of historic buildings, new(ish) developments, and conversions of victorian mansions into apartments has assured that we stay ahead of the pack. Despite this, housing is still an issue in the neighborhood. Since 2000, Old Louisville’s housing density has actually been on the decline, with around 100 units being lost according to ACS data. Most new housing in the city is being built way outside the urban core.
The 2000 plan mentions housing less than you would hope for given the density of the neighborhood. One of the main objectives was to “encourage the development of new housing in keeping with the character of the neighborhood”. They also seek to increase housing stock through new multi-family housing in neighborhood transition areas (such as near campus or Fourth and Oak) and mixed-use structures throughout the neighborhood.
There has been some major housing construction since 2000, the main example being Cardinal Towne on the very southern edge of the neighborhood. This development added hundreds of units to the neighborhood as well as a variety of businesses (including my heaven on Earth, Mt. Fuji). These units are used pretty much exclusively by students, as it is part of UofL’s off campus housing. Despite the construction of Cardinal Towne and some other smaller housing options, our total stock still declined, so it is clear the pace of construction is not up to snuff.
Transportation
As the densest area in the city, Old Louisville and Limerick are prime for transit and transit oriented development. This density is reflected in a relatively high amount of transit and bike ridership. The planning task force in 2000 seemed to agree that transit was vital for Old Louisville’s success, but some of what they envision for the future very much reflects a different time for the city.
The task force recommended the extension of ninth street down to 7th and Myrtle. The plan acknowledges that the one way streets in the neighborhood are a problem and cause speedy traffic to constantly bother or harm residents, but the plan recommends this extension as a solution. Today, we know this did not stop the problems stemming from one-way arterials, with two-way conversions having taken place on some roads (such as Oak, which was recommended by this plan) and more slated for 2nd and 3rd Streets. Residents still complain about the impact of these streets to this day.
The other recommendations in the plan ranged from reasonable to good. Some smaller highlights include establishing 3rd Street as a parkway, posting of bus schedules on bus stops, new bus stop designs to fit the neighborhood character, a neighborhood alley study, and a streetscape plan. All of these did not happen or only partially happened. Although they are not the gut punch that some of the bigger recommendations are.
The plan came out as Louisville’s hype around a new light rail system was building, and this manifests in the document. A major light rail investment study occurred in 1996 and TARC’s T2 plan was released in 2002, but eventually fell through in 2006. At the time, a light rail line through the densest neighborhood in the city seemed very plausible, but that obviously never ended up happening. The line in this plan would have gone along Preston Street and included a transit-oriented development. A vintage trolley was also recommended, largely for Tourism, and this never ended up happening unless you count those private tour buses.
Its not a plan about Old Louisville if it doesn’t mention the problem with trucks. A truck routing program was recommended so that semi trucks did not go through the neighborhood, or did so on specific routes. This did not happen, or it did and the trucks have failed to notice. The problem still has not been fixed, although this year we got slight hope that maybe it would. The folks at the Old Louisville Mobility Coalition utilized AI to track the amount of tracks passing through one of Old Louisville’s major thoroughfares, this created some momentum and a truck ordinance was back on the table and then was swiftly off the table as is tradition.
Parks, Plazas, and Public Space
The document makes a series of recommendations related to improvements in Old Louisville’s parks. A lot of these upgrades did end up happening, which is great, but few of the recommendations relating to new infrastructure ended up becoming reality. The largest of these is the aforementioned 3rd Street Parkway. Although the street is tree-lined, I doubt anyone would consider it a parkway, as it has high vehicle speeds and mostly functions as a cut through. The only other major recommendation was to create a parks master plan for Old Louisville, which did not occur.
What's the plan, man?
It has been 25 years since a plan was produced for Old Louisville. This is a city that generally loves producing document after document for things like this, but somehow the densest urban neighborhood in the city has not had a new plan or at least updates to its plan in a quarter century. While there is some great stuff in the 2000 plan, most of it did not come to fruition sadly and reflects a pretty different time period. It would be great if work could begin on a new plan in earnest, and it is needed if we want to spotlight many of the neighborhoods problems that have still not been addressed since 2000.