Stylized line drawing of mark playing the flute

How to find out whos building stuff in Louisville

Yesterday, I wrote about the new Costco coming to Bardstown Rd.

I’ve always wondered how much information was available about local properties and building projects. Finding out about Costco seemed like a good excuse to try and figure it out.

It turns out the city government has a ton of nice websites with all kinds of information.

Who owns a property?

The Jefferson County PVA (Property Valuation Administrator) website is your one-stop to find out who owns a piece of property. You can also search by owner if you upgrade to a paid account.

(As an aside, my peeps at Via Studio designed that site and did a bangin’ job)

For example, there is an abandoned house at 630 East Breckinridge St. that I bike past every day.

A quick search on the PVA website reveals Richards Investment Company LLC as the owner.

Need details of an LLC?

Hit the Secretary of State website to find out information about LLCs registered in Kentucky.

Here are the details for Richards Investment Company LLC. ](https://app.sos.ky.gov/ftShOW/(S(sfa415qxrz243thcmmeoemu2))/ioffsearch.aspx?search=NANCY%20HERNANDEZ)Its neat because we see that Nancy Hernandez is the Organizer/Incorporator for a number of other LLCs as well.

Construction permits, Planning/Zoning Applications, etc

The city portal for Codes & Regulations has a great search form where you can see all kinds of activity at a specific address.

You can also see lists of all Planning Reports and Building Reports (filterable by date/status/type)

There is a mapping website which lets you map open permits of different types. This site only shows active building projects. Properties still in the planning phase wont show up here.

ALL THE DATA

Do you need more data? Well the Louisville Open Data Portal has got you covered!

There is an amazing wealth of information here.

Crime Data

Bike Route Data

Animal Tag Data

Restaurant Inspection Scores

The list goes on and on. And most datasets are downloadable as tab-separated or CSV for easy processing.

I didn’t have high hopes when I started researching Costco. I expected to have to make phone calls or visit government offices.

Kudos to the city for putting so much great data online.