District 17 Newsletter

Louisville Metro Government sent this bulletin at 01/02/2026 04:58 PM EST

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January 2, 2026

Friday Thoughts

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great holiday season and were able to relax, recharge, and reconnect with friends and family. Hopefully this will be a quiet weekend for you as you gear up for the year ahead!

As a reminder, Metro Council is currently on winter break (we will have only an organizational meeting between now and the last week or so of January), so things are pretty slow downtown. In my last newsletter, I wrote about some of the successes we saw last year and wanted to follow up on those with some thoughts on public safety.

In 2025, we made significant progress in that area with crime statistics down in every major category. Most notably, homicides were down more than 20%. While the number of homicides (115) was our lowest in more than five years, it also shows we have more progress to make - after all, even one homicide is too many. The year-end numbers do show, however, that investments we've made over the past several years are working. Violence prevention programs (which we expanded in this year's budget and again at mid-year) intervene with people and in situations before crimes are committed. More proactive policing (including an increase in traffic enforcement) offers an opportunity to deter crime and build trust with citizens. 

Having fewer homicides also leads to a virtuous cycle - when fewer people are killed, there are fewer retaliatory killings. That leaves LMPD's Homicide Unit with maybe a little more time to dedicate to cases, improving clearance rates. This, of course, leads to a further reduction as offenders are brought to justice. I am hopeful these trends will carry over into 2026, and we'll continue to see improvement.

Another part of our anti-violence strategy involves things one might not initially think of as 'violence prevention.' These include opening new libraries and community centers, increasing youth programming, building new parks, and expanding young peoples' access to productive activities and support groups. After all, kids who are engaged in the community, busy with activities and school, etc. are much less likely to get into trouble.

Maintaining this momentum won’t be easy, so it’s imperative we don’t declare victory and let up on our approach. We must continue to fund these initiatives locally, work with our state legislators to pass laws that keep our neighborhoods safe, and work with our federal and non-profit partners to ensure additional resources flow into our community that support people in crisis - be it mental health needs, housing needs, food insecurity, or other factors that can destabilize.

Looking ahead to 2026, I have several initiatives I am currently working on. I'll share more about these in the coming weeks, but an important one is updating the Land Development Code where data centers are concerned. We will soon get recommendations from staff with the Office of Planning and expect to follow that up with opportunities for significant conversations across our community to create regulations that balance the needs of this growing industry with those of our residents. We want to ensure taxpayers are not bearing the negative consequences of these centers with only major tech companies recognizing the benefits. I don't know yet what the final regulations will look like, but I expect there to be lots of discussion and input in this quickly-evolving field.

Finally, I am happy to announce that during the holidays we were able to get new playground equipment installed and other improvements made in Hounz Lane Park (more details below). We'll plan on doing an official ribbon cutting once the weather is more likely to cooperate!

As always, if my office can be of any service, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Contact the District 17 Office

Markus Winkler
17th District Councilman
Louisville Metro Council
502.574.1117
Contact Councilman Winkler

Kip Eatherly
Legislative Aide
502.574.3462
Contact Kip

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Important Numbers

Animal Services  473-7387
Charmoli NP  574-5787
Codes & Regulations  574-2508
EACM  426-2824
Health & Wellness  574-6520
Jefferson Co. Clerk  574-5700
KY Science Center  561-6100
LG&E  589-1444
LMPD (8th Division)  574-2258
Louisville Water  583-6610
Louisville Zoo  459-2181
Mayor's Office  574-2003
Middletown Library  245-7332
MSD  540-6000
NE Regional Library  394-0379
Parks & Recreation  574-7275
Planning & Design  574-6230
Public Works  574-5810
TARC  585-1234

Hounz Lane Park Improvements

Hounz Lane Park

The new playground equipment at Hounz Lane Park includes an explorer dome, swings, and structures geared towards children between the ages of two and five.


The improvements at Hounz Lane Park that I've mentioned in previous newsletters are now in place! The playground area has all new equipment - an explorer dome, new swings, and a rope bridge and slide structure for younger kids. There is a redesigned seating area near the playground with brand new benches. Even the water fountains in the park have been replaced! Metro Parks still has a finishing touch or two to take care of (they'll be putting down some additional mulch next week), but we are almost there.

When you consider some of the other amenities at the park - three pickleball courts, a climbing boulder unlike anything else in our metro park system, a multi-purpose field, etc. - I think it's difficult to think of a much better place to spend time outdoors with friends or family in our area. If you haven't been before, I hope you'll check it out soon!
   

Office of Planning Weekly Activity Report

Each week, the Metro Office of Planning creates a report listing all new land use applications in Jefferson County. These typically include requests for changes in zoning, waivers, conditional use permits, and more. There are two cases in the latest report related to property in District 17. One is a change in zoning for properties located at 13112, 13118, 13200, and 13206 Old Henry Road (6.97 acres in all) to permit outdoor truck storage. The other involves the installation of a monument sign at 11900 Westport Road. Please let me know if you have any questions about either case. 
 

Cafe LOUIE - Saturday, January 10

Cafe LOUIE

Listed above are the elected officials scheduled to attend the January 10 Cafe LOUIE in Middletown.


The first two Cafe LOUIEs of 2026 will be held Saturday, January 10 at 9 a.m. One of the locations (they are held at libraries all across town until mid-March) will be the Middletown Library just outside District 17. If you're unfamiliar with how these work, Library Foundation staff welcomes everyone and then gives elected officials the opportunity to share brief remarks. Following that, facilitators ask pre-selected questions submitted by attendees the morning of the event. I plan to be there on the 10th and hope you will, too! Please visit the Cafe LOUIE website here for more information.  
 

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