Council must adjust its thinking

It is truly unfortunate that the Louisville City Council could not figure out a way to make the Medtronic opportunity work. Rather than find a way to make this opportunity work, the council let itself get mired in process and delays. The council simply does not have the leadership necessary to navigate the difficult balance that needs to be made between community concerns and desirable economic development.

Our leaders, mostly wellmeaning individuals, stood by and watched this process unfold for more than two years. The applicant still doesn’t have a clear idea of what would be acceptable to the city on this property. Primarily because I doubt that there is any consensus on that issue — only fear of upsetting a small but vocal group of individuals who rabidly oppose all economic development.

Unless the Louisville City Council immediately gets proactive in defining what we can live with on this property, it will continue to linger. Eventually, the property owner will bring a plan that is compliant with our current master plan, but which will not have many of the benefits we could have enjoyed such as recreation fields, accessible open space, and a second exit to Monarch High School.

I urge the council to focus on this immediately and aggressively, or be prepared to have the pale of this failure haunt Louisville’s other commercial properties that need redevelopment plans for years to come.

Louisville’s current master plan is largely a relic of the 1990s era sales tax grab strategy. That approach worked well during the 2000s. However, that era has passed.

Louisville’s leadership and citizenry need to wake up to that fact and form plans that are designed to meet the needs of Louisville as it exists in 2021 and beyond. #Positivelylouisville.

DON BROWN

Louisville

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