Redtail Ridge developer must compile with codes
The Louisville Planning Commission must act to ensure that Redtail Ridge fully complies with the City Code now and in the future. Brue Baukol, the developer, recently, announced a pivot to biotechnology. The City Code requires developments to “promote the health, safety, convenience, order, prosperity and welfare of the present and future inhabitants of the city.” Questions need to be asked and answered. Biotechnology can mean many things. An online dictionary defines biotech as “the exploitation of biological processes for industrial and other purposes, especially the genetic manipulation of microorganisms for the production of antibiotics, hormones, etc.” At the University of Colorado, Biotech includes Computational Biology and the following types of engineering: Aerospace — Bioastronautics; Chemical & Biological — Biomaterials, Biopharmaceuticals and Tissue; Electrical, Computer and Energy — Optics, Nanostructures and Bioengineering; and Mechanical- Biomedical. We need to know what Brue Baukol means by biotechnology.
The property is currently a Planned Community Zoned District with a commercial PUDC overlay. Generally, industrial activity requires an industrial PUD-I overlay. Here, however the permitted uses probably allow for some industrial activity. But in my opinion, the applicant cannot convert a Pud-c/commercial Overlay to a Pud-i/industrial Overlay through the backdoor (i.e., by using one of the 13 permitted uses to completely change the character of Redtail so that it is exclusively or primarily industrial). If this were permissible, no developer would ever apply for a Pud-i/industrial Overlay. This section of the Code would become meaningless, leaving concerns about pollution, congestion and public utilities unaddressed.
It is the job of the Planning Commission to ask enough questions to determine whether the planned biotechnology center is truly commercial. If it is not, the general development plan must be amended so that the current commercial Pud-c/commercial overlay is replaced by an industrial Pud-i/industrial overlay.
— Cathern Smith, Louisville