Defending Historic Perspective When Many Desire Change
By Peggie Elgin
Change in the Cherokee Triangle may be an antithesis to those who have worked long and hard to preserve and restore architecturally beautiful structures in the preservation district. When structures that do not add to the neighborhood’s historical context are standing next to our architectural jewels the result is a plethora of unsatisfactory choices.
A proposal by the Jefferson Development Company to tear down the Bordeaux Apartments and replace them with a 17-story condominium building called the Willow Grande, would require a zoning change from its present category of R-7TN (traditional neighborhood) to R8a. The CTA Board of Trustees has taken a position that the proposed zoning change would have adverse effects on the future of the neighborhood.
The first round decision has been made. The Cherokee Triangle Architectural Review Committee voted Feb. 22 to approve the Certificate of Appropriateness in a 3 to 2 vote. The CTA Board of Trustees has hired attorney Bill Seiller to work with the Board and appeal the ARC decision before the Landmarks Commission.
The proposed zoning change, which must be brought before the Planning Commission for a decision, would represent a change back to R8a, the category that existed on the property when the Cherokee Triangle, along with other neighborhoods, developed detailed plans for major changes to the then existing zoning maps.
Although the specifics of the Willow Grande plan call for a fewer number of units than the existing structure, the size of the units and the height of the building cause a larger floor area ratio and necessitates an up-zoning. The Bordeaux fits into a category called “Infill” development, which existed at the time the Neighborhood Plan was developed, but did not fit an historic profile. Many residents would be happy to see a number of these developments replaced or substantially re-developed. However, the proposed re-zoning to R8a would be a reversal of the Cherokee Triangle Plan of 1989, a key tool the Plan Committee of Cherokee Triangle worked two years to develop.
Chaired by Gerald Toner, the Plan Committee of the Cherokee Triangle worked together with city officials to develop the nearly 200-page document in accordance with Louisville Ordinance 22. Citizen participation was an integral part of the process.
The recommendations of the neighborhood committee, combined with Planning Commission, approved the zoning map changes in 1989.
The committee set to work creating what they called a blue print for the Triangle’s future. Generally speaking, the plan was focused on single-family homes.
Many large older homes had been cut up into four to eight units or more and were being developed in areas where other individuals worked to restore homes to single-family use. A new category was developed in single-family areas that permitted development of two units per parcel, the main house and a carriage house. At the same time, higher density zoning classifications were reduced throughout the neighborhood.
“The whole point was that as density went down, that it didn’t go back up,” Toner notes. “That was a main theme. You didn’t want to add more density.”
If the Willow Grande proposal gains approval for a zoning change from the Planning Commission to R8a, the decision would reverse an important theme developed by the neighborhood committee in the late 1980s and implemented in the 1989 zoning map changes.
One important fact to consider is that zoning attaches to the land, not to the specific project. Once the zoning is granted it cannot be rescinded even if plans change due to economic conditions or the land is sold to another developer. New plans must come before the ARC for approval, but the new zoning classification remains.
The zoning, which existed when the Cherokee Triangle plan was being developed, allowed greater residential densities than existed in much of the neighborhood. That zoning theoretically would have allowed the number of dwellings in the Cherokee Triangle to increase from 2700 to 6100 units. So re-zoning was proposed. Many areas with high density zoning were down-zoned. This included the Bordeaux apartment location.
The Cherokee Triangle plan also aimed at protecting residential neighborhoods from adverse impacts of proposed development and land use changes by avoiding residential development with a significantly different size, height, mass or scale than adjacent development.
Cherokee Triangle Association Board of Trustees believes that the current proposal for up-zoning attacks the efforts to protect the historical nature of the neighborhood.
