LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A new park is going up where severe flooding damaged several homes in Louisville’s California neighborhood 13 years ago. 

What You Need To Know

  • Louisville leaders are planning a new park in the California neighborhood

  • The park will sit where severe flooding damaged several homes in August 2009

  • Construction is expected to start later this year

Dreema Jackson remembered where she was when flooding hit on Aug. 4, 2009.

“I remember trying to go somewhere and every place I went, water, this high,” she said, holding her hand just below her shoulders. “I couldn’t get out of the neighborhood.”

Soon after the flooding, the Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District bought out property owners in the area and helped them relocate away from the flood risk, using money from FEMA.

Jackson has led efforts to build a park there as a member of the Parks Alliance of Louisville board of directors. “It’s my neighbors and the other residents here in California that really get the credit,” she said. “It’s their vision, their voices, that we put forth.”

Metro Council President David James said a lot went into planning the park over the last 13 years, including public meetings, online surveys and door-to-door campaigns.  

“We couldn’t travel faster than the speed of trust with the community,” he said. “And once the community was on board and trusted that we had honest intentions to make this work for them, it got much better and moved much quicker.”

He said all the work was worth it.

“To see how we’ve come from that horrible moment in time to here — a bright, sunny day with people smiling — and we actually created change? It touches my heart and makes me feel that that’s why I became a councilperson,” James said.

When Louisville MSD transferred ownership of the vacant properties to the city of Louisville last month, it enabled plans to move forward with the park. Construction is expected to start later this year, something Jackson is excited to see.

“I just realized that my granddaughter, whose a little older than a month old, will be able to play here when it’s finished,” she said. “So I’m looking forward to just bringing her out and having her experience the whole thing.”

The Parks Alliance will also issue surveys to people living around the park, seeking their input on what the park should be named in the coming days.

U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Louisville) also secured a $500,000 federal grant to help push the project forward, along with a separate grant worth $480,000 to address the odor coming from sewers in the neighborhood. 

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