East End residents battle plan to build apartments on GlenOaks Country Club golf course

Residents in an East End subdivision are teeing up for a fight over plans to build apartments on part of the community's golf course.

Kennedy International, a development company based in New Jersey, has requested a zoning change to allow a 198-unit complex on 5 acres of the GlenOaks Country Club property, located off Brownsboro Road across from Norton Commons.

Attorney John Talbott, who represents both the developer and club owner, said the golf course would be minimally affected by the development and would even receive improvements as part of the proposal.

But members of the GlenOaks Homeowners Association say covenants that govern the subdivision limit development of the golf course. And they're willing to take legal action if the rezoning is approved.

"People bought these homes in a development that was intended to be a golf course," said Amanda Henson, a vice president of the association. "... Even if you said we were going to build more homes there, everyone would be throwing a fit."

More than 600 people living around the subdivision have signed a petition requesting a night hearing with Louisville's Planning Commission — the first of several entities responsible for considering the rezoning.

That hearing has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 4, at Kentucky Country Day School, 4100 Springdale Road.

Talbott said at a previous commission meeting, Louisville Metro planning and design employees affirmed the golf course is "residual property" that's not bound by the subdivision's covenants.

However, if GlenOaks residents let the apartments move forward, club owner James Miller said he's agreed to place a conservation easement on the rest of the golf course, ensuring it would remain green space in perpetuity.

Miller said he has also offered to sell the country club to the homeowners association for $1.5 million, as long as the HOA supports the proposed development.

The club has "not been something that has produced what the partners of the LLC expected out of it," he said, adding money from the apartment deal would go toward paying down debt. And at this point, he said he'd prefer selling the club to the HOA and letting its members make needed improvements.

"It's a good faith gesture to say, look, let me do what we need to do on the commercial side ... then you can have the course for what I paid for it," said Miller, who bought the club in 2016.

Henson, however, said either option is a nonstarter. She maintains restrictive covenants render a conservation easement unnecessary. And while the HOA would like to buy the club, she said the association wants no part of the property to be developed.

"I just feel like there should be other plots of land that could be available for an apartment complex, rather than in the middle of a golf course on the land that was intended to be a golf course," she said.

Kennedy International first filed plans for the apartment complex in mid-2023. In its proposal, the company says it wants to construct a three-story building surrounded by parking spaces, next to the Interstate 71 overpass.

The property is less than a mile from two sites where a Publix and Kroger are being built. And Talbott said more apartments are needed to diversify housing in the highly sought-after area.

Henson and other residents who've submitted comments to the city's planning department say all the new construction in recent years is already causing traffic headaches, and another multi-family complex would only add to the issues.

Miller said he understands why residents around the course are upset. But he hopes to come to a resolution that would benefit the club's investors and the subdivision.

"Let's negotiate this where both parties come out not in court and fighting for 20 years," he said. "Let's work it out together."

Reach reporter Bailey Loosemore at bloosemore@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4646 or on Twitter @bloosemore.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville residents fight plan for apartments on GlenOaks golf course