Floyds Fork protections passed in chaotic council meeting. Are they enough to preserve it?

A tense and chaotic meeting of the Louisville Metro Council on Thursday produced a landmark set of rules for building near Floyds Fork, turning guidelines into binding requirements meant to protect the stream from irresponsible development and ecological degradation.

The vote was a culmination of two years of rulemaking — involving countless hours of public hearings, stakeholder meetings and back-and-forth lobbying — as planners, developers, environmentalists and local residents sought to strike a balance.

The approved regulations are wide-reaching and promise to define both the health of the stream and the communities around it for decades.

But multiple council members expressed concerns about hurried, last-minute changes, and a major set of regulations that were not yet baked on the day of the vote. Some attempts at amendments were cobbled together in the middle of debate, and confusion over complex hydrologic concepts abounded.

Attempts to table the rules for further consideration failed twice. Democrats also attempted multiple amendments to keep builders out of the floodplain and further limit impervious surface, which all failed.

The approved final product, including some departures from the Planning Commission’s recommendations, will establish the “Floyds Fork Special Zoning Overlay District” in Louisville’s Land Development Code — still a far more stringent set of protections than the stream has had in the past, including strong stream buffers.

“I think this is going to be the most important piece of legislation that I work on in council,” said Ben Reno-Weber, a Democrat who helped lead the caucus’ work on what he deemed “generationally important” regulations.

But some longtime advocates of the waterway — who squirmed in their seats as council members debated the perils of filling and building in floodplains — said the council’s approved rules won’t be enough to save “Louisville’s last living stream.”

“We just watched Metro Council approve twice the level of impervious surface it takes to destroy a stream,” said Jeff Frank, with the Friends of Floyds Fork, following the vote. “It’s death by a thousand cuts.”

Late changes allow developers into the floodplain

Unlike an earlier version of the regulations recommended by the Planning Commission, the council’s approved rules will allow developers to build in the floodplain up to the conveyance zone.

The conveyance zone is where the bulk of the water is carried during a flood, and is a smaller area than the floodplain, which represents any land that will flood from a rain event with a 1% chance of happening in any given year — or a 26% chance of flooding over a 30-year mortgage.

The change came via an amendment from council member Anthony Piagentini, a Republican whose district includes part of the fork. Democrats’ push to amend the rules back, again barring builders from the floodplain, failed.

Many waterway advocates have consistently decried any form of floodplain development as irresponsible.

Council member Cindi Fowler agreed: “We should never be building in the floodplain.”

And across the country, outdated flood maps have underestimated some communities’ risks amid a changing climate and erratic, intensifying rainfall patterns.

The Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District, which maintains local regulatory floodplain maps and designates the conveyance zone, works to account for climate change in its estimations, according to chief engineer David Johnson.

“There are cases — even with stringent regulations and mitigation requirements — where building structures in the floodplain can be challenging and ill-advised,” according to a statement from the district.

But under the city’s floodplain ordinance, MSD reviews developments and requires “approved mitigation” for any impacts to the floodplain. Johnson expressed confidence in the district’s ability to properly vet each development and avert negative downstream impacts.

“It’s not a rubber stamp, I promise you that,” he told The Courier Journal in an interview last year. “We do a thorough review, because our name is on the plan when it’s approved.”

MSD is still in the process of mapping the conveyance zone for the entire length of the fork as it flows through the county, which it expects to finish in the next six months, according to a statement. Under the new regulations, where there isn’t a conveyance zone designated yet, developers will have to stay out of the floodplain entirely until the conveyance zone is mapped out.

New impervious surface limits

Another late revision lowered the limit on each site for impervious surfaces, like buildings, roads and parking lots, from 50% to 40%, in an effort to further reduce runoff and protect habitat.

Environmental advocates say it’s a slight improvement, but worry it risks hurtling the Fork toward a polluted, urbanized future reminiscent of Beargrass Creek. Multiple amendment efforts from Democrats to further lower the limit, more in line with environmentalists’ goals, failed.

“Incrementalism isn’t going to save Floyds Fork,” said Frank, who’s campaigned for rigorous regulations on impervious surface and other stream-killing factors. “We’re ignoring best practice again.”

With higher impervious surface in a watershed, rainfall does not filter naturally through the land, and instead runs off quickly into the nearest stream. This can increase risks of flooding and erosion, and research has tied water quality to the amount of impervious surface in its watershed.

“When impervious surfaces reach 10–20% of local watershed area, surface runoff doubles,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources advises impervious surface greater than 20% in a watershed leaves behind “unstable habitat.”

Piagentini said lowering the impervious surface limit to 20% would risk property rights lawsuits against the city — which he surmised the city would lose.

A lower limit would make many properties in the corridor “unbuildable,” he said during debate, adding he’d heard from multiple property owners who promised to sue if subjected to a stricter impervious surface limit.

The future of Floyds Fork

In recent years, residents along the fork have reported worsening erosion and more intense flooding, which some have attributed to irresponsible development along the waterway.

And at some points during Thursday’s discussions, attention turned to the ongoing PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club, which sits partially in a floodplain and has seen flooding on its course in the past.

As the newly approved regulations join Louisville’s Land Development Code, watchdogs for the waterway will turn their attention to the effects of development — and another local entity with the power to influence how the corridor is developed.

Responsibility for policing runoff and proper floodplain management along the corridor falls largely to MSD, an agency also tasked with a slew of local infrastructure obligations and a growing mound of debt.

“What this means is, we have to pay attention to MSD’s permitting,” said Terrell Holder, chair of the Kentucky chapter of the Sierra Club, following Thursday’s vote.

“That’s exactly right,” Reno-Weber said.

The district tries to stay in its lane, Johnson told The Courier Journal, and had a minimal role in the recent rulemaking process, although it did have discussions with the Building Industry Association about the need for strong stream buffers.

The agency's part in the permitting process for new development will be an important factor in the future health of the stream within the new regulations.

“This is a tightrope for them,” said Steve Henry, former lieutenant governor and head of the Future Fund. “They've gotten a lot of pressure on them from the development community.”

Groups like the Parklands and the Future Fund are also major determinants of the fork's long-term health, together owning thousands of acres of land along the corridor, and seeking more.

Stringing protected lands together in the area helps build up the wildlife corridor and protect important habitat. And in recent years, the Parklands has seen more than 3 million visitors each year, more than any other attraction in town, according to Louisville Business First.

In a bid for stronger regulations ahead of Thursday's vote, Henry told Democrats the protected land along the corridor will be the area's only green space 100 years from now.

"We've got to protect Floyds Fork," he said.

Connor Giffin is an environmental reporter for The Courier Journal and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. The program funds up to half of corps members’ salaries, but requires a portion also be raised through local community fundraising. To support local environmental reporting in Kentucky, tax-deductible donations can be made at courier-journal.com/RFA.

Learn more about RFA at reportforamerica.org. Reach Connor directly at cgiffin@gannett.com or on X @byconnorgiffin.