Right now. All new on the
S 11 19. Take a look from the sky. 11 drone.
You are looking at the last remaining piece
of farmland in high view of Jefferson County.
Will it be Louisville's next big subdivision? Just the noise
that quietness of this area. It's been
going away
little by little the more they build up this area.
Rio,
a zoning meeting tonight that had residents pushing back on the size of the project.
You'll hear why a development group says the area needs more homes and
the major step the request for zoning took forward tonight right now on the
11 19
and thank you for staying with us after that amazing
Monday night football game on a little late tonight.
Hello everybody. I'm doug profit well from farmland to a subdivision tonight.
Neighbors in the high view area of Jefferson County
are fighting a plan to build many homes.
The proposal is for 14 acres located between Glazer Lane and
Bela Church road from the Sky 11 drone.
You can see the land in question is an island of Green already surrounded by homes.
WHS 11 nineteen's Taylor Woods and funder journalist Emma Gefter.
Tonight covered the zoning meeting where
the developer is promising a quality project
from the sky elevens Rome.
This 14 acre of land in the Farm Gate subdivision is described
as the last remaining farmland in this area of Jefferson County.
The Louisville Company Leisure Development wants it rezoned
to build 43 homes between Glacier Lane and
Bela Church Road. Long time residents aren't happy with this proposal.
We don't want this connection. We don't want
the traffic to risk the safety of our residents in here.
Leisure development says their homes would have a minimum of 6000 square
feet with veneer brick leaving more than 30% of open space.
Lauren Rudell and Stephen Brown say there are no sidewalks in
the surrounding nearby area is already congested during rush hour.
You'll sit through three or four lights because of the
it's just so backed up
and they say this area is already known for flooding and
more housing could cause even more damage during the public hearing,
leisure development,
shared maps and there are reasons why they believe their proposal could fit
and then there would be stop signs coming off the loop lane onto our main road.
Some residents took their concerns to the podium. Do you think that's funny?
We're destroying everything.
We can't breathe like this.
Brown and Riddell fear the quality of the proposed homes.
I want everyone to have a place to live,
but
we want something that blends in more with the community. Right.
And I'm concerned about my property value,
although they both would like to see something different on the land.
They're just satisfied that duplexes aren't coming to the farm. We appreciate.
They took away the duplexes and they are basing it on homes. Yes,
we just were hoping they would, it would be something else that,
like you saw the surroundings that would blend in just a little bit more better.
This zoning proposal is now headed to Louisville Metro Council.
They had the final say on approval in Louisville, Taylor Woods,
11 night team on your side.
Police are searching for drivers who killed two people in
separate hit and runs on Dixie Highway over the weekend,
a man in his early twenties was killed last night near Cros Lane,
late night Friday night,
19 year old Derek Wright Junior died after he was hit near Bernheim lane.
A small memorial is now set up where Wright was killed.
Claire Yates, who is the project manager for vision zero.
Louisville says the timing in these incidents is common.
Most pedestrian fatalities occur in non daylight
hours and so investing in adequate street lighting
along a dangerous roadway has been proven to reduce fatal and serious injury,
pedestrian crashes.
In addition to extra lighting,
Yates says more sidewalks are needed and drivers need to slow down.
A
metro police officer who was shot in the line of
duty last week remains in critical but stable condition.
At U of hospital.
In a brand new update this evening about Officer Brandon Haley LNPD says, quote,
we are cautiously optimistic and LPD continues to ask for the
community's prayers and support for Officer Haley and his family.
Officer Haley was shot while conducting a
traffic stop last Thursday in the Chickasaw neighborhood
so far, no one is charged directly with the shooting.
The shooting came from a nearby home.
The Metro Police Foundation says Officer Haley is married with young Children.
They've also set up a fund to help with his recovery if you'd like to donate.
We do have a link for you on
11 dot com.
And the Bullock County school district is remembering a school bus driver who
was killed in a crash on his way to work last Friday.
Jason Benningfield school bus sits outside
the district's headquarters in Shepherdsville,
draped with a black ribbon and you can see the message rest in peace.
Mister Jason
Benningfield was killed in a head on crash on highway
44 while driving his personal car to work that morning.
He was 48 years old and worked with the district for about five years.
Mr Jason was a very popular driver with
his parents, his students
and his co workers.
He stood out here in the office, he just recently became a driver trainer himself.
He was so proud of that.
Uh And we were proud of him.
Benningfield visitation is at noon Friday and his
funeral is scheduled for Saturday at noon.
Both will take place at the Shippen horses,
Underwood and Brooks on North Preston Highway in Shepherdsville.
The district tells us students are invited to come in and to pay their respects.
A Jefferson Town fire station is currently shut down because of mold.
Many of the firefighters there are falling ill after being exposed on the job.
According to an internal memo,
all personnel from fire station number three were relocated to other fire
stations two weeks ago after crews reported headaches sneezing and running noses.
An inspection report from July shared with
11 news details, mold spores in two bathrooms, the hallway, kitchen and the lounge.
The same report recommends demolition and construction barriers to
isolate the mold while work is under way,
photos show the barriers that have been installed right here,
made up of a plastic tarp and painter's tape.
We've attempted to contact the fire chief Sean Dres
back but haven't heard back.
The city acknowledged our request but did not provide any comment.
A handful of Kentucky lawmakers say they want
the state's auditor now to look into jcps.
Kentucky's largest public school district.
Kentucky representative Jason NEMIS of Middletown is one of
the 12 Republican lawmakers to request the audit.
He says recent transportation issues added to the urgency of the request
but they've been planning to ask for one for a while.
Nema says there are ongoing issues within the school district like
student violence and many students struggling to read at grade level.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Kentucky Auditor, Mike
office said their team is looking over the request but
they did not have a timeline on the decision.
Nema believes an inspection will happen sooner rather than later.
We'll be meeting with them in the next couple weeks to start the process
of planning and what it looks like and what questions they'll go into.
But it's a full financial and management audit that we're requesting to be done.
A jcps
spokesperson pushed back on the letter in a statement to us.
They told us, quote,
we cannot ignore the concerns that this audit may be
politically motivated rather than an impartial review of our operations.
Instead of forcing jcps
to spend money on this audit,
they go on to say the legislature should prioritize investing in
our schools directly to ensure quality education for all students.
Schools across Kentucky are settling in for another year with student safety.
Top of mind,
school resource officers not only offer an armed layer of protection,
they are now required by law.
However many school districts across the state
of Kentucky still struggle with staffing sros.
So our focus investigator John Charlton is here with a look at
which districts are in compliance and which ones need significant improvement.
It's been four years since it became Kentucky law requiring a
dedicated school resource officer at every public school or shared campus.
But the state also knew this would be a challenge,
a police presence to protect kids at school no longer
an elective but a prerequisite for districts since 2019.
Since then, progress has been made.
The state recently reported that the total number of full time
sros in Kentucky are up 66% since legislators passed the law.
And that since the beginning of the last school year,
33% more schools have at least one SRO on campus.
Still considerable work needs to be done since
many districts continue to struggle with staffing.
Sr Os, about 51% of campuses have Sr Os, 51% would be failing in the classroom.
Are we failing in Kentucky? I don't think we're failing in Kentucky.
Uh because we've seen a lot of local communities scrape
to be able to get a position that's there.
Senator Max Wise authored the original bill on required SROS.
He says he's fully aware that districts struggle
because they either don't have the money to
hire more SROS or the pay often doesn't
attract quality applicants such as retired police officers.
We want to make sure though when we go
into this budget session in this 2024 legislative session,
we look at where can funding be pulled from.
And I do hope that we cannot just say it's an unfunded mandate
in our viewing area.
Focus found most school districts are still not there
yet with fully staffed S Rs Tuesday at six,
find out how your district is doing
and how JCP s's plan on a patrolling presence of armed security in cars
appears to be going in reverse. John Charlton WHS 11 on your side.
Again, the focus investigation tomorrow at six on
11 news.