Sustainability Advisory Board Meeting
This Wednesday (17 July) from 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm, the Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board will meet at the Louisville Public Library. Access the meeting agenda and packet here. The Board will receive an introduction to the City’s economic vitality division, revise its mission statement, and work towards the creation of a legislative agenda of ordinances and policies recommended for adoption by City Council and City staff. Feel free to attend—in person or virtually—to learn about the Board’s activities, offer your comments to the Board, or just enjoy the Board’s company.
Sustainability Advisory Board Meeting
This Wednesday (12 June) from 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm, the Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board will meet at the White House next to City Hall. (Since next Wednesday is Juneteenth, the Board decided to meet on the month’s second rather than third Wednesday.) Access the meeting agenda and packet here. The Board will consider revising its stated mission to explicitly reference climate change mitigation, review and discuss the findings of a CU Anshutz study of commercial decarbonization opportunities in Louisville, and consider creating a legislative agenda of ordinances and policies recommended for adoption by City Council and City staff. Feel free to attend—in person or virtually—to learn about the Board’s activities, offer your comments to the Board, or just enjoy the Board’s company.
1-2-3 Electrify Workshop Series
Beginning this evening in Louisville, you can learn how to electrify your home, replacing all fossil fuel-powered appliances, systems, and vehicles with electrically-powered equivalents. The City of Lafayette, the City of Louisville, and the Town of Superior, in collaboration with Xcel’s Partners in Energy, have organized a workshop series on home electrification. The first workshop—dedicated to planning for home electrification—takes place tonight (Monday 10 June) from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm at the Louisville Recreation Center. The second workshop—dedicated to investing in home electrification—takes place on Saturday 13 July from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the Superior Community Center. The third workshop—dedicated to optimizing and maintaining home electrification—takes place on Thursday 15 August from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm at the Louisville Recreation Center. (Actually, there was an introductory workshop on 8 May, but the subsequent three workshops should prove comprehensive.) View the 1-2-3 Electrify website for more information.
Electrifying our homes is an essential step towards meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Accords. Appliances like natural gas-powered stoves and ovens, systems like natural gas-powered furnaces and water heaters, and vehicles like gasoline-powered cars and trucks constitute our homes’ most significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Replacing these appliances, systems, and vehicles with electrically-powered equivalents enables our homes to run on renewably generated electricity, which we can source from a rooftop solar array, a community solar farm subscription, Xcel’s RenewableConnect, or just Xcel’s rapidly greening grid.
Community Decarbonization Planning at City Council
As I reported in a previous blog post, Louisville recently undertook another round of community decarbonization planning. In collaboration with City staff and Xcel’s Partners in Energy, a Community Decarbonization Stakeholder Group, consisting of nine people living and/or working in Louisville, developed a Community Decarbonization Plan. The Community Decarbonization Plan addresses methods for elimination of most of Louisville’s anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gas emissions as well as the implementation of such methods and a timeline for such implementation. City staff will present the Community Decarbonization Plan to City Council at its meeting on Tuesday 2 April. You can view the Community Decarbonization Plan as well as City staff’s report in the meeting packet. Instead of adopting the Community Decarbonization Plan in all of its detail, City Council will consider a resolution updating Louisville’s decarbonization goals. I further discuss this resolution below, but I first discuss certain aspects of the Community Decarbonization Plan.
The Community Decarbonization Plan provides the following vision for decarbonizing Louisville.
Louisville will take a measured, equitable approach to reducing carbon emissions from the building, energy supply, and transportation sectors.
I wish to critique this vision from end to beginning. First, the scope of the City’s collaboration with Xcel’s Partners in Energy only covers decarbonization of Louisville’s building, energy supply, and transportation sections. While these sectors are Louisville’s three largest aggregated sources of greenhouse gas emissions, they are not its only sources. Second, while carbon dioxide is the primary component of Louisville’s greenhouse gas emissions, these emissions also contain such gases as methane and nitrous oxide. Third, while I wholeheartedly agree that decarbonization should be effected equitably, I unequivocally disagree that decarbonization should proceed measuredly: the urgency of preventing further global warming warrants an equally urgent approach. I would revise the Community Decarbonization Plan’s vision as follows.
Louisville will take a commensurate and resolute, equitable and just approach to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from its building, energy supply, and transportation sectors.
The strategy for decarbonizing a city like Louisville is well-established: replace all sources of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions—principally, all appliances and machinery that burn fossil fuels—with electric equivalents and power these electric equivalents with renewably generated electricity. For the majority of such appliances and machinery in a city like Louisville—for example, furnaces, stoves, lawn mowers, and cars—electric equivalents that function equally or superiorly already exist. The challenge in decarbonizing a city like Louisville is this strategy’s implementation: how do we replace all of these appliances and machinery used by residents of, businesses in, and visitors to Louisville in face of such issues as replacement costs, market availability, and resistant attitudes? The Community Decarbonization Plan offers some interesting ideas for meeting this challenge; I hope to write about these ideas in future blog posts.
The Community Decarbonization Plan recommends that Louisville reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2030 and eliminate its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (relative to the City’s 2016 greenhouse gas emissions). The Community Decarbonization Plan characterizes these goals as ‘ambitious’ (in contrast with the State’s ‘conservative’ goal of a 50% reduction by 2030 relative to its 2005 greenhouse gas emissions and Boulder’s ‘aspirational’ goal of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 2035). I hope that these goals are not ambitious but realistic: these goals are essentially necessary for Louisville to deliver on the Paris Climate Accords’ commitments. As I explained in a previous blog post, achieving the Paris Climate Accords’ goal of holding global warming to well below two degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures requires that worldwide greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025, halve by 2030, and cease by midcentury. According to the City’s own data, Louisville’s greenhouse gas emissions have already peaked, and we can prevent Louisville’s further development from imperiling this accomplishment through net-zero building and sustainable land-use codes. Achieving the Community Decarbonization Plan’s goals would seal the remaining two requirements.
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, Louisville first set decarbonization goals in 2019 when City Council approved a resolution establishing the following objectives.
Meet all of Louisville’s municipal electric needs with 100% carbon-free sources by 2025.
Reduce core municipal greenhouse gas emissions annually below the 2016 baseline through 2025.
Generate 75% of Louisville’s residential and commercial/industrial electric needs from carbon-free sources by 2030.
Reduce core community greenhouse gas emissions annually below the 2016 baseline through 2030.
The City has met the first goal for the past few years by generating some renewable energy and purchasing renewably-generated electricity from Xcel, and Louisville will likely meet the third goal as Xcel’s proportion of renewably-generated electricity increases over the next several years. The City has more-or-less met the second goal, and Louisville has met the fourth goal in all but one year, primarily owing to Xcel’s increasing renewable generation of electricity. Although Louisville has largely achieved its objectives, these initial decarbonization goals were rather limited in intent and extent. Given that the Paris Climate Accords came into force towards the end of 2016, the City could have set much more commensurate goals five years ago.
Drawing on the Community Decarbonization Plan’s recommendations, City Council will consider a resolution updating Louisville’s decarbonization goals. Specifically, this resolution will amend the second and fourth goals as follows.
Reduce energy-related municipal greenhouse gas emissions 60% below the 2016 baseline by 2030 and achieve carbon-neutrality by 2050.
Reduce energy-related residential and commercial/industrial greenhouse gas emissions 60% below the 2016 baseline by 2030 and achieve carbon-neutrality by 2050.
If Louisville can achieve these updated decarbonization goals, then our community will align with the Paris Climate Accords. I urge you to express your support for updating Louisville’s decarbonization goals. You can send a supporting email to City Council at council@louisvilleco.gov by noon on Tuesday, or you can make supporting public comments at Tuesday’s City Council meeting shortly after 6:00 pm. I hope that City Council adopts the updated decarbonization goals, and I hope that you join our community’s efforts to achieve these most necessary goals.
Sustainability Advisory Board at City Council
Over this year’s first few months the Louisville City Council is holding a series of special meetings with the City’s advisory boards. As far as I understand, City Council intends for these meetings to improve communication and build alignment with the advisory boards. This Tuesday (12 March) City Council will meet with the Louisville Recreation Advisory Board and the Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board. The meeting starts at 6:00 pm in the Louisville Public Library’s Meeting Room. Access the meeting agenda and packet here. Feel free to attend—in person or virtually—to learn about the Boards’ past accomplishments and current activities and offer your comments to City Countil concerning the Boards.
Joint Sustainability Advisory Board Meeting
This Thursday (7 December) from 6:00 pm until 7:30 pm, the Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board will meet jointly with the Lafayette Energy Sustainability Advisory Committee and the Superior Advisory Committee for Environmental Sustainability at City Hall. Access the meeting agenda and packet here. Feel free to attend—in person or virtually—to learn about the Boards’ activities, offer your comments to the Boards, or just enjoy the Boards’ company.
This Week in Sustainability at the City of Louisville
This Tuesday (15 August) starting at 6:00 pm, the Louisville City Council will meet in City Hall’s council chambers. Access the meeting agenda and packet here. City Council will receive the final presentation of its commissioned municipal decarbonization plan. This plan details how the City can eliminate the carbon footprint of municipal buildings and operations. At this presentation’s conclusion, after taking public comments, City Council will deliberate and eventually vote to adopt or not to adopt this plan. I will fully support adoption, and I will urge City Council to implement the plan’s recommendations for achieving municipal decarbonization. The Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board’s letter to City Council clearly elucidates my reasoning; I quote from pages 64 and 65 of the packet.
The Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board writes you today regarding McKinstry Engineering’s plans for decarbonizing the City’s buildings and operations. First of all, the Board wishes to commend City Council for recognizing the necessity of and prioritizing the planning for this municipal decarbonization. The Board also appreciates being involved in the planning process. Moreover, the Board applauds City Council’s goal of complete municipal decarbonization by 2030. The Board considers municipal decarbonization to be the City’s singlemost important sustainability initiative and one of the City’s most important initiatives: decarbonization is absolutely crucial to mitigating climate change. The Board also wishes to emphasize the urgency of municipal decarbonization: considerable decarbonization within the next decade is absolutely essential to keeping global warming within livable bounds.
At the Board’s June meeting McKinstry presented its latest plans for municipal decarbonization. The Board was impressed with McKinstry’s work, and the Board endorses McKinstry’s plans, both McKinstry’s recommendations for how to achieve municipal decarbonization and McKinstry’s timeline for implementation of these recommendations. The Board recognizes that this timeline does not achieve complete municipal decarbonization by 2030, but the Board understands the reasons for and supports extending the timeline. The Board suggests that the City investigate the capacity for City-owned lands to sequester carbon, potentially offsetting the extra carbon emitted over this extended timeline. More specifically, the Board supports McKinstry’s plans for increasing the City’s own solar energy generation rather than relying on Xcel Energy’s efforts to transition to carbon-free energy sources.
The Board thus recommends that City Council adopt McKinstry’s plans for municipal decarbonization and swiftly pivot to these plans’ implementation. The Board further recommends that City Council establish means to hold the City accountable for achieving its decarbonization goals, for instance, by appropriately forecasting staffing and budgetary needs. The Board recognizes that the City will most likely require supplemental funding to meet these goals; accordingly, the Board strongly encourages the City to explore all possible avenues of funding, ensuring that City staff has the capacity to pursue this funding.
Finally, the Board recommends that the City revisit and revise its municipal decarbonization plans in the next few years. The City may be able to advance more rapidly towards its decarbonization goals by taking advantage of new technologies and methodologies. In particular, if City Council decides not to achieve complete municipal decarbonization by 2030, then the Board recommends that the City make definite plans for achieving complete decarbonization at an appropriate time after 2030.
The City’s decarbonization efforts will set an example for not only the Louisville community, which is about to begin its own decarbonization planning, but also neighboring municipalities and communities. Given the necessity and urgency of decarbonization, the Board hopes that Louisville will become a shining example through its actions.
This Wednesday (16 August) from 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm, the Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board will meet at the Louisville Public Library. Access the meeting agenda and packet here. The Board’s chair will present on how to fully electrify one’s home, and the Board will continue to discuss avenues for improving its community outreach and engagement. Feel free to attend—in person or virtually—to learn about the Board’s activities, offer your comments to the Board, or just enjoy the Board’s company.
An Opportunity for Community Decarbonization Planning
To hold global warming to well below two degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures, as agreed upon in the Paris Climate Accords, greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025, halve by 2030, and cease by midcentury. Every person, family, neighborhood, community, town, city, state, and nation must work towards this imperative goal. Louisville is about to embark on a new phase of planning to achieve this goal: over the next half year the community will develop a decarbonization roadmap in collaboration with Xcel’s Partners in Energy. You have the opportunity to participate in this process: the City is currently seeking volunteers for the community stakeholder group that will guide development of this roadmap. If you are interested in joining this group, then please complete the application by Friday 23 June at 5:00 pm.
What will this decarbonization roadmap address? Let me explain in some detail. The greenhouse effect is the primary driver of global warming. Greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere, principally carbon dioxide, absorb sunlight, transform the sunlight’s energy into heat, and radiate this heat to Earth’s atmosphere, land masses, oceans, and partially back to space. The presence of excess greenhouse gases results in Earth retaining excess energy from the sun. The excess heat warms the globe, and global warming results in climate change, the myriad detrimental effects of which we are experiencing ever more severely. To slow global warming, we must reduce the concentrations of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere, firstly, by preventing more greenhouse gases from entering Earth’s atmosphere and, secondly, by removing excess greenhouse gases from Earth’s atmosphere. Since carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas, the process of preventing more greenhouse gases from entering Earth’s atmosphere is often called decarbonization. (Some other greenhouse gases like methane also contain carbon, but other greenhouse gases like water vapor do not contain carbon.) The amount of carbon dioxide emitted by some source (over some time period)—or the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide if other greenhouse gases are emitted—is that source’s carbon footprint. Decarbonization entails reducing a source’s future carbon footprint to zero.
Decarbonization applies in many contexts at many levels. For instance, decarbonizing your home entails altering how your home functions so that your home does not emit any more greenhouse gases into Earth’s atmosphere. Your home’s carbon footprint most likely stems from burning natural gas in appliances like your furnace, water heater, stove, and fireplace. There are further greenhouse gas emissions associated with your home: from the generation of electricity used in your home, from burning gasoline to power your vehicles and landscaping equipment, from burning natural gas to fire your grill, from the manufacture and transport of products that you use, et cetera. Some of these further greenhouse gas emissions occur at your home or nearby your home while some of these greenhouse gas emissions occur far from your home. Decarbonizing Louisville entails the elimination of all anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the City.
Louisville has engaged in some decarbonization planning over the past several years. Most recently, the City is planning decarbonization of all municipal buildings and operations in collaboration with the consulting firm McKinstry Engineering. The City aims to complete this decarbonization by 2030. Of course, the carbon footprint of Louisville’s municipal buildings and operations pales in comparison to the carbon footprint of the whole Louisville community. To do our part in mitigating climate change, planning to decarbonize Louisville in its entirety is thus essential. I hope that you will join our community’s efforts, if not as a member of the stakeholder group, then as a concerned resident.
For further information you can consult the packets from the Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board’s April meeting or the Louisville City Council’s May 16 meeting.
Sustainability Advisory Board Meeting
This Wednesday (21 June) from 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm, the Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board will meet at the Louisville Public Library. Access the meeting agenda and packet here. The Board will entertain a presentation on the City’s decarbonization planning efforts, complete its consideration of the City’s draft dark night sky lighting ordinance, and review the remainder of its 2023 work plan. Feel free to attend—in person or virtually—to learn about the Board’s activities, offer your comments to the Board, or just enjoy the Board’s company.
Sustainability Advisory Board Meeting
This Wednesday (17 May) from 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm, the Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board will meet at the Louisville Public Library. Access the meeting agenda and packet here. The Board will continue its consideration of the City’s draft dark night sky lighting ordinance, begin to plan for more consistent communication with the Louisville community, and discuss several questions posed by the City manager regarding the Board’s purpose and role. Feel free to attend—in person or virtually—to learn about the Board’s activities, offer your comments to the Board, or just enjoy the Board’s company.
Opportunities for Public Input on Limiting Gasoline Stations
As I reported in a previous blog post, the Louisville City Council adopted a temporary moratorium on new land-use applications for gasoline stations. This moratorium came into effect on 1 November 2022 and expires on 30 September 2023. City Council’s 2023 work plan includes consideration of subsequent actions concerning the number of gasoline stations in Louisville. To initiate these considerations, City staff drafted an ordinance that would limit the number of gasoline stations in Louisville. Principally, this ordinance caps the number of gasoline stations in Louisville at six, a number matching the five existing gasoline stations and sixth gasoline station recently approved for development. This ordinance includes an exception for a seventh gasoline station associated with a new marketplace development (like the King Soopers on South Boulder Road). You can find the ordinance’s full text in the meeting packets linked below. At its meeting on 9 February, the Louisville Planning Commission reviewed the draft ordinance, recommending approval with one addition: that any new gasoline station consistent with the ordinance’s provisions host a certain number of electric vehicle charging stations. At its meeting on 21 February, City Council held its first reading of the draft ordinance. As suggested by Councillor Leh, City Council decided to delay the second reading by two weeks to allow for further public input. In addition to its usual channels for public input, the City will receive public input at the next meetings of the Louisville Economic Vitality Committee and the Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board. The Economic Vitality Committee next meets tomorrow (Friday 10 March) at 1:30 pm in City Hall’s council chambers; the Sustainability Advisory Board next meets on Wednesday 15 March at 6:30 pm in City Hall’s council chambers. I encourage everyone to attend to provide public input.
Public Surveys on Dark Night Sky Lighting
In the summer of 2021, the Louisville City Council began to discuss a dark night sky lighting ordinance. Such ordinances regulate outdoor lighting as a means to mitigate light pollution at night. In a future blog post I will elaborate on the detriments of light pollution and the benefits of dark night sky lighting. Such ordinances typically mitigate light pollution by regulating the following characteristics of outdoor lighting: the structure of light fixtures, the brightness of emitted light, the color of emitted light, the regions illuminated by emitted light, and the timing of illumination. Following the Marshall fire, City Council put consideration of such an ordinance on hold. This year City Council will once again deliberate on a dark night sky lighting ordinance, specifically for single-family residential properties. Dark night sky lighting for multifamily residential and commercial properties will most likely await revision of the City’s Commercial Development Design Standards and Guidelines, which govern outdoor lighting at these properties.
The City is currently soliciting input on such an ordinance through surveys for both Louisville residents and Louisville business owners. I encourage everyone to complete the relevant surveys before the end of the day on 15 April. I took the residents’ survey today; I found this survey rather short and quite painless. You can access the surveys through the Louisville 2023 Outdoor Lighting Ordinance webpage on Engage Louisville. This website also hosts information about the City’s timeline for consideration of the ordinance, including an open house in March, and information about dark night sky lighting.
Sustainability Advisory Board Meeting
This Wednesday (15 February) from 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm, the Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board will meet virtually (owing to the snowfall). Access the meeting agenda and packet here. The Board will appoint a member to serve on the City’s task force for renewal of the parks and open space tax, review its own decision making processes, discuss waste reduction programs funded by the City’s single-use bag tax, and continue to plan the City’s hazardous household waste, electronics, and gasoline-powered landscaping equipment recycling event. Feel free to attend virtually to learn about the Board’s activities, offer your comments to the Board, or just enjoy the Board’s company.
Elegy for Alfalfa’s, Ode on Nude Foods
I have lived in many different places: the Main Line of suburban Philadelphia, the Berkshires of Massachusetts, Cambridge and the Cotswolds in England, the central valley of California, Utrecht in the Netherlands, the Hudson Valley of New York, the Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania, and now Louisville. I have therefore shopped for groceries at many different stores. To date, in my opinion, no other grocery store surpasses the Davis Food Coop in Davis, California, where my wife and I lived for six years as graduate students. What distinguishes the Davis Food Coop? Again, in my opinion, the highlights include its cooperative ownership structure, its well-curated stock of groceries, its extensive bulk selection (including spices), its extensive selection of organic and mostly local produce, its commitment to exclusively selling sustainably harvested or raised meats (insofar as any meat is sustainable), and its oftentimes entertaining newsletter. Shopping at the Davis Food Coop, I learned to use my own set of reusable containers for bulk items, and I have strived to continue this practice ever since (with the same set of reusable containers). Buying bulk items in reusable containers significantly reduces the amount of waste that my family generates.
When my family and I were planning our move to Louisville, we investigated the grocery store options. As an obsessive cook with environmental sustainability at the forefront of my actions, I seek out grocery stores from which I can source high quality, sustainable ingredients. Louisville’s Alfalfa’s clearly came across as the best option for my family’s preferences, so we factored Alfalfa’s location into our decision about where to rent a house. We chose a house for rent in Steel Ranch from which I used to walk to Alfalfa’s; more often than not, I walked home overburdened by more groceries than I initially intended to buy. When my family and I were on the market for a house in Louisville, walkability to Alfalfa’s was again a serious consideration. To my extreme dismay, Alfalfa’s closed not long after we moved into our home. Of necessity, I have since become much more familiar with other grocery store options, but I would still prefer Alfalfa’s not only for its proximity, but also for its well-curated stock of groceries, its selection of bulk items (including spices), its selection of organic produce, and its selection of sustainably harvested and raised meats. I lament Alfalfa’s closing every time I get in our family car to go grocery shopping.
Towards the end of 2021, a new grocery store opened in Boulder—Nude Foods Market—on Walnut Street between 32nd and 33rd Streets. Nude Foods is an (almost) zero-waste grocery store. Nude Foods primarily stocks bulk dry goods sold in reusable glass containers (of the same variety as my own set of reusable containers). Customers pay a fee of $1.50 for each container and receive a refund of $1.00 upon returning each container with $0.50 retained for cleaning each container. Nude Foods has expanded its offerings considerably since opening, also stocking home cleaning products, some organic and often local produce, a growing variety of perishable items, a growing variety of locally prepared foods, and more, all still sold in reusable glass containers. Nude Foods now delivers to Louisville (by bicycle or electric vehicle), but I have yet to try their delivery service.
On virtually every visit to Nude Foods with my daughters, the older one questions the logic of its name: she argues that the food is not in fact nude as the food is clothed in glass, albeit clear glass. She has a point. Her quibbling notwithstanding, Nude Food’s system of reusable containers is not entirely to my liking. Since I still have my own set of reusable containers (sufficient for almost every item that I purchase at Nude Foods), I would much prefer to refill these containers from bulk bins. Employing my own reusable containers is an even more sustainable option: an additional set of reusable containers is not required, and a container refilled with the same item need not be cleaned before every refilling. Initially, Nude Foods did not support this mode of bulk shopping, but Nude Foods now also offers some of its most popular bulk items in this manner. (Nude Foods has partially resurrected Alfalfa’s by reusing the latter’s bulk dispensers.) Unfortunately, these most popular items do not align very closely with my family’s preferences. In any case, as much as possible, I buy bulk dry goods (and a few perishable items) from Nude Foods: I want to support a local business with highly commendable practices, and I prefer to buy groceries in reusable containers, my own or otherwise.
Sustainability Advisory Board Meeting
This Wednesday (18 January) from 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm, the Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board will meet virtually (owing to the expected snowfall). Access the meeting agenda and packet here. The Board will welcome its new and returning members (myself included), elect its chairperson for 2023, discuss a partnership between Louisville and US Solar, and begin to plan Louisville’s contribution to the regional Sustainability Film Series. Feel free to attend virtually to learn about the Board’s activities, offer your comments to the Board, or just enjoy the Board’s company.
Progress Beset with Disappointment
The last several weeks have witnessed considerable activity concerning gasoline stations in Louisville.* After the Louisville Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of a Murphy Express gasoline station and convenience store along McCaslin Boulevard, I launched a citizens’ initiative to prohibit the construction of new gasoline stations in Louisville. On morning of 18 October, I submitted this initiative’s petition to the City clerk for approval. Towards the end of that night’s City Council meeting, City Council decided to consider an emergency moratorium on new gasoline station applications at its next meeting. At that meeting on 1 November, City Council enacted an emergency moratorium on new land-use applications for gasoline stations. (Since its developer had already submitted the relevant land-use application, this moratorium exempted the Murphy Express.) Two weeks later, despite letters, comments, and a protest in opposition, City Council approved the Murphy Express in a split vote. Needless to say, City Council’s approval of the Murphy Express disappointed me immensely.
I was disappointed in City Council’s disregard for Louisville’s Comprehensive Plan and McCaslin Boulevard Small Area Plan. (Not every City Council member disregarded these plans.) As I explained in a previous blog post, the Murphy Express application is subject to the Planned Unit Development criteria of Louisville’s municipal code. One PUD criterion states that such a development “shall be in accordance with the adopted elements of the comprehensive development plan of the City”. As I also explained in that previous blog post, there are strong arguments that the Murphy Express does not accord with several elements of the Comprehensive and McCaslin Boulevard Small Area Plans. While City Council gave some consideration to the Murphy Express’ accordance with some of these elements, our City’s development plans did not prevail. I will write further about these deliberations elsewhere.
I was also disappointed in myself for making unusually lackluster comments before City Council. Between preparations for and participation in the protest, I did not set aside sufficient time to draft compelling comments. The fantastic—and fantastically moving—comments from several local high school students buoyed my mood until the direction of City Council’s deliberations became clear. Later that night while mulling over City Council’s decision, I thought of what I might have said.
The night before the City Council meeting, the indigenous climate activist Ava Hamilton spoke at the Louisville Center for the Arts. Without delving into the details, I especially appreciated her emphasis on science guiding our response to climate change, no matter our level of scientific training or expertise. After her presentation Hamilton entertained and answered questions from her audience. One woman—after attesting to her inability to purge her aspirations to protect the environment despite her sense of repeated failures to make a difference—asked Hamilton to suggest substantive actions that we could all take to mitigate climate change. I, of course, share this woman’s aspirations and, at times, her sense of failure. Her question, however, belies a misconception, a misconception, which, I suspect, is widespread precisely owing to this sense of failure: our lack of success in averting climate change and our lack of progress in mitigating climate change do not stem from a lack of understanding of the necessary actions. Quite the contrary, we knew how to avert crisis from climate change, and we know how to avert further crisis from climate change. For decades scientists have proposed, studied, and demonstrated safeguards and solutions, but we have failed to implement these actions, at least on the necessary scales, for a variety of reasons. (I do not mean to imply that we have worked out every last detail of these safeguards and solutions.)
The abandonment of fossil fuels tops the list of safeguards and solutions. We could have started to drawn down our usage of fossil fuels decades ago; instead, we have entrenched and expanded our fossil fuel usage. Since we failed to heed the scientific consensus then, we now cannot instantaneously abandon fossil fuels without major socioeconomic repercussions. As the International Energy Agency has advised, though, we can and must immediately halt new investment in and development of fossil fuels. ‘Business as usual’—like the construction of new gasoline stations—is not merely no longer acceptable, but even no longer compatible with a reasonably safe, future climate. As the United Nations’ report The Closing Window explains, we must implement transformational changes in the next several years to avert catastrophic climate breakdown. If this situation does not impart us with a moral and ethical imperative to act, then what else will?
I was further disappointed that City Council did not employ Louisville’s municipal code as a means to exercise this moral and ethical imperative. (Some council members did so employ Louisville’s municipal code.) As I explained in a previous blog post (and, more fully, in a letter to City Council), another PUD criterion requires that the Murphy Express possess “an appropriate relationship to its surrounding area”. This PUD criterion does not specify the meanings of ‘appropriate’, ‘relationship’, ‘surrounding’, or ‘area’. Lacking in such specificity, this PUD criterion confers tremendous freedom in its interpretation. How might one engage with such freedom? One might ignore such freedom, as did City staff in its analysis of the Murphy Express. One might temper such freedom on the basis of precedent, as Councillor Dickinson seemed to favor. One might adjust the degree of such freedom on basis of changing times, as did Mayor Stolzmann in arguing that the presence of a nearby daycare facility, not contemplated when the area was initially developed, renders inappropriate the Murphy Express’ relationship to its surroundings. One might leverage such freedom to address the community’s concerns, as did Councillor Most in expressing her own concerns about the Murphy Express’ fugitive emissions. One might gauge such freedom on the basis of other relevant statutes, as did Councillor Leh in enquiring whether the Murphy Express would violate any state or federal statutes concerning its fugitive emissions. (I have no reason to suspect that the Murphy Express would violate such statutes, but I still maintain that the Murphy Express fails this PUD criterion on this account.) The freedom of interpretation nevertheless remains. As written this PUD criterion allows Louisville City Council members to go above and beyond state and federal statutes, statutes which are evidently insufficient to safeguard our air quality and our climate.
In spite of my disappointment, I will continue to fight for progress. I will consider any and all further options to block development of the Murphy Express, and I will redouble my efforts to prohibit new gasoline stations in Louisville.
*A disproportionate number of my blog posts have also concerned gasoline stations. I would much prefer to write about other topics: I have little interest in gasoline stations beyond prohibiting new gasoline stations, and there are many more positive topics about which I plan to write. That said, I also recognize my responsibility to respond to happenings in our community.
Last Two Months’ Sustainability Advisory Board Meetings
I have been negligent in advertising recent Louisville Sustainability Advisory Board meetings, so here I briefly report on the previous two Board meetings.
At the meeting on Wednesday 19 October, the Board conversed with Louisville’s new city manager Jeff Durbin; the Board decided to continue producing the Sustainability Spotlight, featured in Louisville’s Community Update, in collaboration with Louisville’s sustainability coordinator Kayla Betzold; and the Board discussed two recommendations for the Louisville City Council’s 2023 work plan, phasing out the sale and use of gasoline-powered landscaping equipment and benchmarking energy usage of Louisville’s existing commercial buildings.
At the meeting on Wednesday 16 November, the Board reviewed the current draft of an ordinance strengthening Louisville’s commercial building codes, and the Board initiated discussions of its 2023 work plan.
The application period for positions (starting in 2023) on Louisville’s boards and commissions closed on 10 November. There are two open positions on the Sustainability Advisory Board. I applied for one of these positions, having finished out the last two years of a previous Board member’s appointment.
Next month the Board will meet on the second (rather than the third) Wednesday of the month, 14 December, from 6:30 pm until 8:00 pm at the Louisville Public Library. Feel free to attend—in person or virtually—to learn about the Board’s activities, offer your comments to the Board, or just enjoy the Board’s company.
Protest Murphy Express on McCaslin Boulevard
This Tuesday (15 November) the Louisville City Council will consider the development application for a Murphy Express franchise—gasoline station and convenience store—along McCaslin Boulevard in southwest Louisville. I have previously presented arguments against this development. I once again call on my fellow Louisville citizens to join me in opposing this development. Please voice your opposition by writing to City Council (council@louisvilleco.gov) or by speaking in-person or virtually at the City Council meeting. You can further voice your opposition by joining the rally in protest of this development. The rally will take place just prior to the City Council meeting, specifically, from 5:30 pm to 6:00 pm in front of Louisville’s City Hall. Bring your own sign or borrow an extra sign. Together, we can convince City Council to reject this development application.
Citizens’ Initiative to Ban New Gasoline Stations in Louisville
As promised in my public comments at the Louisville Planning Commission meeting on Thursday 13 October, I am organizing a citizens’ initiative that would prohibit the construction of new gasoline stations in Louisville. I have explored the reasons for opposing new gasoline stations in two previous blog posts (Conoco-7-Eleven and Murphy Express).
You can find the initiative’s complete language here. The initiative’s official summary, composed by the City clerk, reads as follows:
This proposed citizen initiated ordinance amends Title 17 of the Louisville Municipal Code to make gasoline service stations and automobile service stations a prohibited use in all zone districts in the City. It also amends Title 15 of the Louisville Municipal Code to prohibit the construction of a new gasoline station or the expansion, reconstruction, or relocation of an existing gasoline service station within 2 1/2 miles of an existing gasoline service station.
The City clerk approved the initiative’s petition this past Monday (24 October). A few fellow Louisville citizens and I have started to gather signatures. We need signatures from approximately one thousand registered voters in Louisville before City Council will consider the initiative. At that point City Council has two options: adopt the initiative as an ordinance or put the initiative to a popular vote.
Please contact me if you would like to sign the initiative’s petition or if you would like to help gather signatures.
Oppose Murphy Express on McCaslin Boulevard
This Thursday (13 October) the Louisville Planning Commission will consider a development application proposing the construction of a gasoline station and convenience store along McCaslin Boulevard in southwest Louisville. The development would entail the demolition of the former RiteAid building and the construction of a Murphy Express franchise. I call on my fellow Louisville citizens to join me in opposing this development. Please voice your opposition by writing to the Planning Commission (planningcommission@louisvilleco.gov) or by speaking in-person or virtually at the Planning Commission meeting.
I have previously presented arguments against the development of new gasoline stations. Most but not all of these arguments pertain to the current proposal. Specifically, the development of a new gasoline station is still wholly incompatible with the critically urgent need to mitigate climate change; there is still no need for a new gasoline station (and convenience store), most especially, since there is already a gasoline station (and convenience store) directly across McCaslin Boulevard from the proposed development site; a new gasoline station would further compromise our air quality through its fugitive emissions; and the convenience store's offerings would be incongruous with the City’s commitments to and goals for local agriculture and food. Furthermore, this gasoline station would have little to no long-term economic viability: as I noted previously, a study from Boston Consulting Group predicts that eighty percent of gasoline stations are likely to be unprofitable by 2035. When the Murphy Express goes out of business, shall we just demolish it too?
Unfortunately, these arguments do not have direct legal bearing on the development application. As the proposal is technically a Planned Unit Development amendment, the development application is legally required to meet the Planned Unit Development criteria of Louisville’s municipal code. Fortunately, these criteria impart the above arguments with some legal bearing and make way for several additional arguments.
One PUD criterion (number 1 from section 17.28.120 (A) of Louisville’s municipal code) states that the development must have “an appropriate relationship to the surrounding area”. The existence of a gasoline station and convenience store directly across McCaslin Boulevard from the proposed development site renders this relationship inappropriate.
Another PUD criterion (number 1 from section 17.28.120 (B) of Louisville’s municipal code) states that the “development shall be in accordance with the adopted elements of the comprehensive development plan of the City”. The Planning Commission approved and City Council adopted the City’s (most recent) Comprehensive Plan in 2013 and the City’s McCaslin Boulevard Small Area Plan in 2017. The development application fails to conform to both plans in several respects.
First, the proposal conflicts with aspects of the Comprehensive Plan’s vision statement. The development of a gasoline station is most certainly not “forward-thinking”. The gasoline station would worsen climate change and degrade air quality, failing to “preserve and enhance [Louisville’s] high quality of life”. The gasoline station and convenience store would not contribute to a “livable, innovative, and economically diverse community”.
Second, the proposal conflicts with at least three of the Comprehensive Plan’s core community values (indicated with quotation marks in the following sentence). As I argued above, the gasoline station would not contribute to “A Healthy, Vibrant, and Sustainable Economy”, the gasoline station does not present “Sustainable Practices for the Economy, Community, and the Environment”, and the gasoline station would further jeopardize the “Ecological Diversity” of our City, region, and world.
Third, the proposal conflicts with the Comprehensive Plan’s vision to “transform [the McCaslin Boulevard Urban Center] from an auto-oriented suburban retail center to a walkable mixed-use transit-supportive urban center” and the McCaslin Boulevard Small Area Plan’s vision to “enhanc[e] the small-town character of the corridor and transform[] it into a place in which residents enjoy spending time”. The gasoline station would reinforce the area’s auto-oriented character, an 8-pump gasoline station would diminish the area’s already limited small-town character, and no one enjoys spending time at a gasoline station.
Fourth, the proposal conflicts with the Comprehensive Plan’s aim to “enable the development of more urban block patterns, building stock, and community-supported land uses” as such “patterns . . . have high resiliency and flexibility in accommodating development and redevelopment over time”. The gasoline station and convenience store would entrench the proposed development site’s suburban block pattern, an 8-pump gasoline station and convenience store has little resiliency and flexibility as building stock, and the community does not support this land use.
More pointedly, the proposal conflicts with at least four of the McCaslin Boulevard Small Area Plan’s development principles. Principle 2 calls for “creat[ing] public and private gathering spaces to meet the needs of residents, employees, and visitors”. The proposal utterly fails in this regard. Principle 4 calls for “utiliz[ing] policy and design to encourage desired uses to locate in the corridor and to facilitate the reuse or redevelopment of vacant buildings”. The gasoline station is not a desired use, as evidenced by public comments submitted to the Planning Commission, and the development would result in the demolition, not the reuse or the redevelopment, of the vacant RiteAid building. Principle 5 calls for “establish[ing] design regulations to ensure development closely reflects the community’s vision for the corridor while accommodating creativity in design”. The proposal does not reflect the community’s vision, as evidenced by its conflicts with the Comprehensive Plan’s vision statement and core community values. Principle 6 calls for “establish[ing] development regulations to meet the fiscal and economic goals of the City”. While the gasoline station might provide a positive fiscal benefit in the short-term, the gasoline station would present environmental obstacles to redevelopment upon its obsolescence in the near future.
For all of the above reasons (and a few more), I strenuously oppose the development of a new gasoline station and convenience store along McCaslin Boulevard. Tomorrow evening I will urge the Planning Commission to reject the Murphy Express development application.
All that said, I do not oppose redevelopment of the former RiteAid site; quite the contrary, I would be the first to welcome and support a sensible and sustainable redevelopment proposal.