LOUISVILLE, Ky. — “False” and a “gross mischaracterization.”

The leader of the city-run economic development group, “Louisville Forward,” is pushing back against new claims made by lawyers representing the mother of Breonna Taylor. 

Last weekend the legal team led by Ben Crump, filed an amended lawsuit against the officers involved in the shooting death of Taylor.

In the new court documents, lawyers accuse the city of redlining west end neighborhoods and failing to deliver on some economic development while keeping other plans hidden from the public.

“So the narrative presented in that court filing is just false and it’s a terrible mischaracterization of the work of hundreds of people in city government and in the neighborhood have been doing throughout the Russell neighborhood,” Mary Ellen Wiederwohl tells Spectrum News. Wiederwohl is the Chief of Louisville Forward, the economic and residential development arm of the city. 

The lawsuit accuses the city of redlining and using Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) officers to target residents and claiming an Elliott Avenue development plan has been “mostly obscured from the public.”

The lawsuit claims the city has plans to build modern, futuristic-looking homes and public attractions citing several artist renderings. The lawsuit suggests the city is trying to clear out tenants to make way for high-dollar developments. 

“Part of what makes this amended court filing so false and such a gross mischaracterization is they included renderings of a student project at the University of Kentucky,” Wiederwohl said. 

"It was a student project, that was also involving the neighbors in the area but the renderings they included weren’t even the final project. It’s not something the city paid for. It’s not something we ordered,” Wiederwohl adds.

Weiderwohl says there are thousands of vacant and abandoned homes in the Louisville and specifically in the aforementioned Elliot Avenue. Less than 50 percent of the homes are occupied. 

“There is a real disconnect with what the attorneys are pursuing and what we are pursuing and we are pursuing this in concert with the neighbors of the Russell Neighborhood and we will not be deterred from that.” 

Attorney Sam Aguiar released a statement Tuesday evening to Spectrum News 1.

"We stand behind the allegations in the amended complaint. If the administration is trying to deny the existence of this ongoing, multimillion dollar Elliott project, along with an entire LMPD squad formed to clean house on Elliott, then they’re not being transparent. Our issue is with the out of control policing employed by this PBI squad on Elliott and the ultimate consequences,” Aguiar said.