Parklands of Floyds Fork is expanding by hundreds of acres, crossing into Bullitt County

The Parklands of Floyds Fork already covers thousands of pristine acres — and now it's growing.

On Monday, the park system announced it will expand by 664 acres, including the largest single property acquisition in Parklands' history.

The acquisitions include three parcels of land: one plot that nearly doubles the size of Broad Run Park; and two others that add more than 150 acres to Turkey Run Park. In all, it will bring the total acreage of the Parklands to more than 4,000.

The system will add 508 acres directly east of Broad Run Park. The system also gained 46 acres to the east of Turkey Run Park and another 110 acres north of the park, including most of the watershed for Turkey Run, the stream for which the park is named.

Dan Jones, the founder and chairman of the Parklands, said the long-term goal for the 508 acres is to make it the quiet heart of Broad Run Park, leaving it mostly natural. The section will include some hiking trails and possibly a park pavilion.

Jones said planning for the new land will begin in 2024.

"The dust is just settling from the acquisition," he told The Courier Journal on Monday.

A portion of the new land in Broad Run also stretches into Bullitt County. Jones said there's potential in the future to connect the system into Bullitt County with a small parking lot and a trailhead, but that project will be part of a planning process that will require funding.

"We haven't made any firm decisions," Jones said, "but the intent is for the addition to remain quiet."

That intent is inspiring its proposed name: The Parklands Preserve at Broad Run Park.

The 110 acres will help expand Turkey Run to the north, where the Parklands already owned parts of the land surrounding the acquired acreage.

The 46 acres will help the Parklands reach one of the system's other long-term goals: to acquire most of the watershed for Turkey Run in hopes of gaining a reference reach, or in stream ecology, a natural segment that develops a stable channel.

"It's pretty vital," Jones said. "It doesn't complete it 100%, but it bumps us up a lot. ... It allows us to protect the watershed."

Jones said that 46 acres will also remain quiet, likely without even a trail built on it.

The announcement came one day before a meeting of the city's Planning and Design Services Committee, which will discuss proposed rules for development around Floyds Fork, one of Jefferson County's last pockets of preserved nature.

The Courier Journal previously reported that those draft rules, in many key places, would turn "should" into "shall," prohibiting developers from building in the Floyds Fork floodplain, channelizing the stream, and other environmental restrictions.

Planning and Design Services will hold an open house about the development rules at Lake Forest Lodge, 511 Woodlake Drive, on Tuesday from 6-8 p.m.

Broad Run Park is located in the southernmost part of the Parklands, at Bardstown Road, south of Interstate 265. Turkey Run is located in the northernmost part of the Parklands in Seatonville.

That acreage is home to the Kentucky glade cress, an endangered wildflower species found nowhere else on Earth.

Amid the city's steady suburban sprawl, though, developers are approaching more than 2,000 acres designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as critical habitat for the rare species, as previously reported by The Courier Journal.

The Parklands has focused on preserving diverse habitats in its parks, including the rare wildflower.

"The Kentucky glade cress is another way to enhance people's experience of biodiversity and give them a broader sense of what the natural beauty and diversity of Central Kentucky has to offer," Jones said.

The Parklands takes a yearly census of the plants, and Jones believes they will double the number of glade cress plants with the acquisition next to Broad Run.

"This is a highly significant purchase," said Steve Henry, former lieutenant governor of Kentucky and founder of the Future Fund Land Trust, which protects land around Floyds Fork from development. "This is a very valuable purchase that will be greatly appreciated 50 years from now."

More: Floyds Fork is seeing a development blitz on its banks. How much more can the stream take?

Broad Run Park became the fourth and final park of The Parklands of Floyds Fork in March 2016, five years after the initial phase of the park began. The other three parks of the system include Beckley Creek Park, Pope Lick Park and Turkey Run Park.

Staff writer Connor Giffin contributed to this report.

Stephanie Kuzydym is an enterprise and investigative reporter. She can be reached at skuzydym@courier-journal.com. Follow her for updates at @stephkuzy.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: The Parklands of Floyds Fork will expand Broad Run Park