The Breakers at Prospect Updates
Major Updates on 81 home Sutherland Subdivision Development Proposal
Updates as of July 2019
At the public hearing June 27, The Land, Development and Transportation Committee of the Planning Commission (LD&T) asked Kay Ball, The Louisville Water Company (LWC) Program Manager for Strategic Projects, one of the two engineers who spearheaded the Riverbank Infiltration (RBI) Well system, how long it would take the LWC to evaluate the impact of the proposed underground stormwater drainage infiltration wells on the public’s drinking water supplied through the RBI well system. She explained that there was nothing for the LWC to evaluate because there were no detailed drawings of the developer’s drainage plan. The developer’s consultant was not happy to be asked by LD&T to produce more detailed drawings by July 23. He, of course, complied. The LWC can report to the LD&T meeting the next day whether these drawings are sufficiently detailed to allow the necessary engineering assessment.
The next public meeting is currently scheduled for August 12th at 6:30 PM at the Kentucky Country Day School. Please sign up for our emails to be the first to hear of any updates!
June 2019 updates:
There was no storm water drainage plan in the original public proposal, and the developer has been working with engineers to develop a plan that MSD would approve. Proposals that storm water be drained through an existing 12” pipe to the Ohio River and that detention basins be constructed at the foot of the bluff in the flood plain have been rejected by MSD.
The developers have now come up with a new proposal to deal with the storm water, using injection wells that would send the storm water into the ground and directly into the ground water. It has been approved by MSD and is moving through the Planning Commission process as we have notified you earlier. This injection well technology has been used elsewhere in Louisville, but one agency reviewer called it “experimental” to try it in these circumstances. Importantly, this injection of stormwater is proposed within the Louisville Water Company’s Wellhead Protection Area. Louisville’s Wellhead Protection Area (WPA) was established to safeguard the Water Company’s award-winning Riverbank Filtration Wells which are currently the source of one-third of Louisville’s drinking water service area. Because of the purity of this water, the Louisville Water Company is seriously considering eventually making these wells the sole source of all Louisville’s drinking water. You can learn more about them here. Because the storm water drainage will be injected into the very groundwater that flows to these wells — pesticides, herbicides, hydrocarbons and oils would immediately enter this groundwater which is a source of one third of Louisville’s drinking water and most possibly yours!
River Fields is actively researching the impact of this brand new proposal and has brought these facts to both the Louisville Water Company and MSD’s attention. MSD was unaware that these injection wells were in the Wellhead Protection Area when it approved the new drainage plans. The Louisville Water Company was never notified of these plans until River Fields called them on Thursday of last week. The Louisville Water Company has concerns and needs more information and more time to analyze impacts.
It is River Fields’ position that further information and analysis must take place concerning the potential public health impacts of the injection of the stormwater and its potential contaminants directly into the groundwater within the Wellhead Protection Area which protects public drinking water.
Previous updates:
On January 15, 2019, more than 100 Prospect residents gathered at the Harrods Creek Fire Department to voice their concerns about a proposed subdivision being planned at 7800 Sutherland Farm Road called The Breakers at Prospect. The three major issues raised by those in attendance were drainage problems, which already exist in Sutherland; increased traffic through Innisbrook and Sutherland; and the serious natural and scenic impacts to the Garvin Brown Preserve, River Fields’s largest public property. Since the Neighborhood Meeting on January 15th River Fields has met twice with Stephanie Gilezan, the developer of the proposed 81 home subdivision, and her consultants at Sabak & Wilson.
Here is where the proposal is now:
- Due to the amount of public concern, the public hearing for review of the subdivision proposal has been moved from the Land, Development, and Transportation Committee to the Louisville Jefferson County Planning Commission. This latter venue allows for a more structured hearing and for additional time for citizens to voice their opinions.
- The meeting has not yet been scheduled because changes must be made in the development plan which was originally filed on February 11, 2019. These changes are necessary because:
- The developer presented no plan for storm water drainage when the marketing pieces were printed and when the Neighborhood Meeting took place.
- After the meeting, the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) approved a tentative drainage plan which provides that around 95% of the development’s storm water drainage would run through the center of Garvin Brown Preserve (GBP) in a 36-inch pipe.
- There is currently a drainage easement running through Garvin Brown Preserve and a deteriorated 12-inch clay pipe which the drainage plan proposes to replace with the 36-inch pipe. This change would require River Fields’s agreement because the drainage easement clearly states that the farm owner may replace the 12-inch pipe but may not enlarge it. The developer has offered no reason that River Fields should agree to this plan other than the private benefit of allowing the completion of the subdivision. River Fields is prohibited by law from providing this kind of private benefit, which, of course, would also be contrary to its mission of preserving natural and historic resources and land.
- The developer and her consultants are reviewing an alternative which would include the creation of detention ponds in their floodplain property. However, those detention ponds would have to also drain through the GBP drainage easement and “the jury is out” as to whether only a 12-inch pipe will be approved.
- As a result of these issues, the proposal is on hold until an approvable storm drainage plan, that requires nothing else such as widening the pipe, from River Fields.
- Meetings between the developer and River Fields are also on hold until that time.
You can view the thorough news coverage of the meeting, including excellent aerial film Garvin Brown Preserve, and the farm to be developed at the links below. The news coverage contained one error, however: the development is in Jefferson County not in Oldham County.
