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Wednesday, February 27, 2008
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By
Bill Pike bpike@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal |
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A
proposal for
mini-warehouses on
Preston Highway opposite
Audubon Park has moved
forward, with a public
hearing on it scheduled
in the spring. However,
the owner of the site no
longer wants to develop
carry-out restaurants on
an adjoining lot. Don Schwartz wants a zoning change on 2.7 acres at 3132-3140 Preston so he can construct six mini-warehouses with a total of 32,836 square feet of space. Schwartz owns the Southern Storage & Rentals mini-warehouse just north of the property he wants rezoned. Formerly the site of silos used for coal storage, the property proposed for mini-warehouses is zoned industrial and commercial. Schwartz wants it rezoned to another commercial classification with a conditional-use permit. Schwartz also owns a little less than an acre between the existing warehouses and the site of those he wants to build. He originally had preliminary long-range plans for several carry-out restaurants there, but Schwartz changed his mind and wants to sell that lot, said Paul Whitty, his lawyer. "That plan is off the table," Whitty said. "That tract will remain vacant and undeveloped until somebody buys it. Whoever the buyer is can submit a plan for what he wants." Whitty said he advised Schwartz to drop his notion for restaurants because the idea was too uncertain. He said Schwartz decided to sell that lot because Schwartz "is a storage guy, not a commercial developer." Liz Martin, president of the Belmar Neighborhood Association, praised Schwartz. "He's trying to do the right thing," Martin said. Area residents objected to the carry-out restaurants, saying they wanted a single sit-down restaurant instead. The area has plenty of restaurants with carry-out service, including White Castle, McDonalds, KFC, Penn Station and Subway, said Mary Rose Evans, a Parkway Village commissioner who is active with a group working to improve the Preston corridor in the area. Evans also said residents did not object to the mini-warehouses because Schwartz agreed to screen them with landscaping and plant trees and install a sidewalk along Preston. In addition, only one mini-warehouse building would be visible from Preston. The largest of the buildings, it would roughly have a U-shape, with the smaller buildings inside the "U" and generally out of site. The view from Preston would include only the back of the large building, which would be brick, and shrubs and trees. Also, the building would be set back from Preston, with the vacant lot between it and the street. Whitty noted that Southern Railroad tracks border the mini-warehouse site on the southwest, meaning it would be suitable for little other than warehouses. A committee of the Louisville Metro Planning Commission recently reviewed the rezoning proposal and scheduled a hearing on it in April before the full commission. After the hearing, the commission will make a recommendation to the Louisville Metro Council, which will have final say. Reporter Bill Pike can be reached at (502) 582-4243. |
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