Suburban Walmart Design on West Broadway

Big Box Retailer Wants Suburban Big Box in Traditional Workplace Form District

After months of speculation, intrigue, rumors and political controversy, Walmart is now preparing to build a super store in West

Washington DC Area Urban Walmart (Photo: Courtesy of Ed McMahon, Senior Fellow, Urban Land Institute. )

Louisville. The Walmart property located at the corner of 18th (Dixie Highway) and Broadway falls within a Traditional Workplace Form District, a designation defined by Louisville’s Land Development Code.  According to the LOJIC Online Map, this Traditional Workplace is adjacent to the Broadway Traditional Marketplace Corridor and in close proximity to the Town Center Form District centered at 28th and Broadway and Traditional Neighborhood Form Districts both north and south of the Traditional Workplace.  The Traditional Workplace Form District is described as follows: 

“The Traditional Workplace Form District applies to older established industrial and employment areas that contain primarily small-to-medium scale industrial and employment uses. These uses are often historically integrated with or adjacent to residential neighborhoods, especially traditional neighborhoods. District standards are designed to encourage adaptive reuse and investment in these areas while ensuring compatibility with adjacent uses and form districts, to ensure adequate access and transit service, and to retain distinctive land uses and patterns such as connected street grids.” (LDC 5.2.5)

The proposed Walmart building design does not meet the standards of the Traditional Neighborhood Form District and Walmart has requested a variance to build a suburban style Walmart in an urban setting that is not appropriate in form or context to the major West Louisville corridor and is a contradiction to the spirit of the Traditional Workplace form. 

CART supports West End organizations and residents in opposition to the suburban style Walmart at 18th and Broadway.  Please show your support for Concerned Association of Russell Residents, African American Think Tank, and other residents and organizations in West Louisville in their opposition to variances that Walmart has applied for that would be inconsistent with the urban form desired by the residents and required by Metro Louisville’s Cornerstone 2020 and the Metro Louisville Land Development Code. 

Please attend Friday’s town meeting and show your support for West Louisville residents that want Walmart to build a store with an appropriate urban form that would enhance the streetscape and signal and end to the degradation of one of Louisville’s most important urban corridors.

Community meeting to discuss Walmart plans:
What: Community forum about the West End Walmart
When: 6 p.m., Friday, June 13th, 2014
Where: West Chestnut Street Baptist Church gymnasium, 1725 West Chestnut Street
Who: The event is sponsored by the African American Think Tank, a West End nonprofit, Concerned Assoc. of Russell Residents, among other groups.