City Council Agenda and Packet 2019 04 02

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Louisville. This project came about to grow the company and stay in downtown Louisville. He noted this can be both a problem and part of the solution for the downtown economy. He wants to have a building where offices don't use retail space on the first floor. This keeps business people downtown and accommodates retail or restaurant uses on the main level. They would like to have room to grow in this new space. Sinkey stated this building and design are the best effort to make changes based on the feedback from Council last year. This project fits the downtown guidelines with less mass. There was feedback at the last meeting about restricting it to retail on the main level and that causes issues with financing a building. It would be a mistake to limit how retail can be used on this site. It is designed for retail and restaurant use as the market will allow. He thanked Council for their consideration of this project. Public Comments Rick Kron, president of the Downtown Business Association (DBA) and resident 746 West Fir Court, stated the DBA is in support of this project that is well designed. This is a quality space for retail and office uses. The DBA believes this deserves Council's approval. On behalf of Jennie Hlawatsch, owner of the Singing Cook, he read a statement. Her store is adjacent to the project. She is very supportive of the project which will bring much needed retail space. She values the historic nature of downtown, but we need to accommodate change. Boulder Creek is an asset to the downtown and their employees shop. This will be a positive change to the downtown. John Leary, 1116 Lafarge, stated the project with the changes now generally meets the requirements in the handbook. He is still concerned about the intent language for retail on the first floor. He thinks the building is significantly under -parked by up to 30-40%. Caleb Dickinson, 741 Grant Avenue, member of HPC, but speaking on his own behalf stated this is very tasteful infill that adds to the downtown without taking away from the historic nature of the surrounding buildings. This is respectful of the space and a great opportunity for the whole block. This should send a message that if you want to do infill in Louisville you have to meet a very high bar; this project checks every box and is the model of what we are looking for as a community. Cindy Bedell, 662 W. Willow Street, noted the job of elected officials is not to maximize profit for landowners. This has a better mass and scale than the first version. However the north section is not consistent with downtown. The roofline does not fit in in Downtown. Downtown is doing very well and we don't need more buildings to maintain sales tax revenue. Council should not approve this without a requirement to have some uses besides office space. Jean Morgan, 1131 Spruce Street, stated this building is out of place for downtown. If approved, it should have bird proofing glass. The building is under -parked and should 15