By mid-May, the work at 1901 Rear Payne Street had moved from demolition to finish work. Contractors were spreading seed and laying straw mats, fencing had been installed, and the main gate was being replaced. Demolition passed its final inspection on May 19, 2026, and the site has been empty since.
Three weeks later, Louisville Metro Council approved ordinance O-137-26, which changed the property's zoning from M-2 to C-M. The rezoning made more uses legal on the property. The cleanup and the design review will decide which of those uses a buyer can afford to pursue. In Kentucky, the cost of cleanup depends on what you plan to build, and in Clifton the design of new construction must pass a review committee before work starts.
The cleanup bill follows the use, and the buyer pays it
The Clifton Community Council's page on the rezoning states the friction directly. When the current owner sells, "the new owner will be responsible for any additional environmental clean-up based on the use they select for the site."
That sentence matters because of how Kentucky sets its cleanup standards. Under the state regulation 401 KAR 100:030, "residential" covers homes and other uses where people face similar exposure. Concentrations above the residential screening values but below the industrial ones can be acceptable only if a deed instrument recorded in the county land records restricts the property to industrial use. Even then, the state Cabinet may require more work.
The Energy and Environment Cabinet's Kentucky Risk Assessment Guidance, revised in 2025, makes residential screening the starting point. Lead shows the size of the gap. The guidance uses 200 mg/kg for residential soil and 800 mg/kg for commercial and industrial soil. A site that meets the commercial and industrial criteria but not the residential ones has to stay in commercial or industrial use. That limit is enforced through controls such as soil cover, restrictive covenants and dig restrictions.
Kentucky's environmental covenant statute adds one more layer. A covenant can restrict uses that zoning would otherwise allow. Under 401 KAR 100:030, a deed restriction used to manage contamination in place must be transferable and enforceable, and it is recorded with the county clerk. That means the zoning map gives the upper limit of what can go on a parcel. A recorded covenant can set a lower one.
These rules do not tell anyone what is in the Payne Street soil today. Metro's Givaudan FAQ describes a cleanup order issued at the time of the incident and says cleanup of "contaminated material (brown syrup)" would continue as demolition progressed. That page describes the demolition period. It does not report post-demolition soil conditions. What the rules establish is that a buyer cannot know the cleanup cost until they decide what to build.
What C-M actually put on the table
The Community Council summarizes the new zoning this way. C-M permits commercial uses at the C2 level, the lighter M1 industrial uses, and a mix of office and residential under OR. The old M2 zoning allowed only industrial uses. Here is how each of those families fits the state cleanup framework.
| Use allowed under C-M | Kentucky cleanup starting point | What a buyer takes on |
|---|---|---|
| Residential, under OR | Residential screening values, the strictest baseline | The full residential standard before anyone lives on the site |
| Office, under OR | Depends on how the Cabinet classifies exposure for the planned use | A use-specific risk assessment |
| Commercial, C2 | Commercial and industrial values may apply | Recorded use restrictions and possible physical controls |
| Light industrial, M1 | Industrial values with a recorded deed restriction | A permanent limit on future residential use |
Read from top to bottom, the table shows a buyer's choice. The uses with the most housing are the ones with the strictest cleanup baseline. The uses with the least housing can rely on recorded restrictions, which stay with the parcel after the sale. The rezoning made housing legal on the site. The cleanup rules are what make it costly.
Clifton's other gate is a design hearing
Suppose a buyer gets past the environmental questions. The project still faces a second review that most Louisville industrial sites never see. Clifton is one of Metro's local preservation districts. It was designated in 2003 and covers about 423 acres between Brownsboro Road, I-64, Ewing Avenue and Mellwood Avenue. Under Metro's rules, district architectural review committees decide on new primary structures, demolitions of contributing buildings, and any project too large for staff-level approval. Anything new on three acres will almost certainly fall in the committee's category.
The Community Council describes the order of steps for a future owner:
- Submit a development plan to the Planning Commission. Louisville Fire, MSD, LG&E, Louisville Water, Public Works, the Health Department, Air Pollution Control, the Kentucky Division of Water, TARC and other agencies review it.
- File any waivers or variances, which go to the appropriate body, such as BOZA or the Development Review Committee.
- Submit a Certificate of Appropriateness application to the Landmarks Commission. Staff writes a report for the Clifton Architectural Review Committee, which holds a public hearing on a Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in the first-floor conference room at 444 S. 5th St.
The committee measures the design against Clifton's design guidelines, adopted in 2014. They cover new construction, additions, site work, masonry and archaeology. The site had already been through this process. In September 2025, Metro staff reviewed the demolition application under case 25-COA-0213. They found the plant buildings noncontributing, with the oldest being an office building from about 1974, and recommended approval with conditions. Those conditions included documenting the site before demolition and protecting the historic buildings next door. A new building on the site will go through the same review.
How a three-acre parcel got here
The timeline explains why the site is open now and why it has no plan yet. On November 12, 2024, a cooking vessel at the plant exploded and killed two workers, according to AP reporting. According to the Community Council, the owners filed for a wrecking permit in August 2025. Metro approved permit BLD-WRE-25-00339 on January 12, 2026, and demolition started that month.
The rezoning came from the city, not from a developer. Metro Council passed a resolution on December 16, 2025, asking the Planning Commission to consider a lower zoning classification. The Commission filed the application as case 26-ZONE-0030 on March 9, 2026, and approved it on April 23 with one dissenting vote. The Council's Planning and Zoning committee advanced it on June 2. WAVE reported that the goal was to keep industrial businesses off the property. Sources report the final council vote differently. The Community Council gives 20 to 5, and Metro's meeting summary gives 25 to 5 to 1.
Because the city started the rezoning, no buyer came with it. The Community Council's description of what comes next is written entirely around a future owner. Most rezoning cases start with a developer's specific plan. This one gave a clean zoning designation to a parcel whose eventual use is still open.
Clifton has done this before, slowly
Clifton has a record of former industrial land going to other uses, and the Community Council names several examples. The former Ready Electric property at 2008 to 2032 Frankfort Avenue is now the AMP Apartments. The former Louisville Paving and Charlton Company land at 1829 R Payne St. is now Advanced Business Solutions. The former Dr. Pepper plant and D&W Silks site at 2320 Frankfort, at Keats, is already zoned C-M. LEO Weekly covered AMP in 2016 as a new Milhaus apartment project on the Ready Electric site.
Two of these examples went in different directions. One became housing on Frankfort Avenue, and the one on Payne Street became an office use. The site at Keats shows that C-M zoning alone doesn't produce a new building.
Elsewhere in Louisville, the former Rhodia chemical plant shows what housing on cleaned-up industrial land can look like. Metro reports that the site is under an environmental covenant that bars drinking the groundwater and disturbing a cap over the site, and that 233 affordable housing units were planned after part of the property was remediated. Housing on a former industrial site is possible. It comes with conditions recorded against the land.
What this means if you're looking near Payne Street
For a buyer comparing Clifton with Crescent Hill or the Highlands, the empty lot is easy to misread. "Rezoned to C-M" gives no timeline and names no use. Before anything is built, a sale has to happen. Then the buyer has to choose a use, the Cabinet has to accept a cleanup for that use, the development plan has to clear agency review, and the design has to get a Certificate of Appropriateness at a public hearing. Each step depends on the one before it.
Each step is also public. Development plans, COA staff reports and Clifton Architectural Review Committee dockets are posted ahead of hearings. That gives anyone buying nearby an unusually early look at what may be built on the next block. Buyers and current owners can follow it as it moves.
Two state tools may affect what a buyer can afford to do. Kentucky's Brownfield Redevelopment Program offers qualifying prospective purchasers liability protection. The Cabinet says a qualifying buyer must not have caused the contamination, must perform all appropriate inquiry, must comply with land-use restrictions, and must not be affiliated with the responsible party. The underlying statute, KRS 224.01-415, also requires written concurrence from the Cabinet on the property's future use. Louisville Metro also offers below-market brownfield cleanup loans to owners and prospective purchasers. The loans can pay for cleanup, not for site assessments or acquisition.
This is general information, not legal, environmental or financial advice. Anyone weighing a purchase on or near a former industrial parcel should confirm their own situation with an attorney and an environmental professional.
Quick answers
Can homes be built at 1901 Rear Payne Street now? C-M zoning allows office and residential uses under OR. A residential plan would still need to meet Kentucky's residential screening baseline and get a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Clifton Architectural Review Committee.
Who decides what the building looks like? The Clifton Architectural Review Committee, after Landmarks Commission staff write a report on the application. The committee applies the district's 2014 design guidelines.
Does the 2026 rezoning stop heavy industry there? M2 uses are no longer permitted. C-M still allows the lighter M1 industrial uses.
I served on the Landmarks Preservation District Architectural Review Committee, so I've seen this process from the committee's side of the table. If you're considering a home within sight of Payne Street and want help reading the development plan or COA filings when they're posted, Michael Mawood can go through them with you. Let's Connect.
