What's Taking Shape Around The Maples Park in Crestwood This Fall?
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
"Right next to the park we have seven plus acres that the city owns and we've been … looking at adding some kind of community space," Mayor Jim Kramer told the Crestwood City Commission in January, as reported by The Oldham Era.
If you walk The Maples often, you've probably seen bits of it this year. There's a new City Hall. The ice machine and concrete bollards near Railroad Avenue are gone. Crews are working under the shops along W. Hwy 22. These are all pieces of one plan. Crestwood is building itself a city center at the edge of its favorite park, and the city owns nearly all the land and buildings involved.
The proposed plaza would go mostly on the park's gravel overflow parking lot, at the northeast corner of The Maples near Railroad Avenue. At the Jan. 14 commission meeting, John Stewart, owner and CEO of Encompass Develop, Design & Construct of La Grange, and project manager of design Joshua Gedney showed a massing model. That's a model of size and placement, not a finished building design.
Here's what the January concept showed:
In The Oldham Era's January report, Gedney said the layout makes the buildings "begin to form a corridor and a view into The Maples Park." So the design treats the park as the main attraction and the shops as its frame.
The project also takes in the corner of Highway 22 and Highway 329, where a gas station used to be. That's the corner most drivers pass. The plan doesn't put a building there. The Oldham Era reported that Encompass proposed sculptural pieces for the corner instead: a sloping wall planted with greenery, and a water feature.
The designers gave two reasons. First, Gedney noted deed restrictions on the old gas station site, so the corner is being designed as a multipurpose event space. Second, Stewart said the road near the railroad crossing may be changed someday.
That second reason ties to a state project. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's KY 22 and KY 146 improvements page listed the intersection and railroad-crossing project as in preliminary design as of its July 24, 2026 update. Its estimates suggest final design possibly in 2026, right-of-way and utilities possibly in 2029, and construction possibly in 2030, all depending on funding. Leaving the corner open keeps a city project from getting in the way of a road project that may still be years off.
None of this works unless the city controls the ground, and it has spent the year getting there. Here's the order things happened in 2026:
The money makes the scale clear. In The Oldham Era's July coverage, Kramer said the core design fee of $672,000 is 6% of a forecast $11.2 million budget for the whole project. The rest of the contract covers civil engineering, construction oversight, renderings and a $70,000 allowance for planning and zoning, because one parcel needs a zoning change. Under state law, architecture counts as a professional service and doesn't have to be bid. Construction will be bid out to contractors.
Along W. Highway 22, the city is also renovating Crestwood Manor, the building that houses A Taste of Thai at 6549 W. Highway 22. A Taste of Thai marked ten years in Crestwood in February. In July, the city's consulting architect, Gant Jones, said the Crestwood Manor renovations were nearly done. In September he reported that construction had started in the basement under A Taste of Thai. The sprinkler work and painting there will wait until a tenant is better defined.
There's more basement space on the other side, under Papa Johns. Jones said a proposal was being drawn up to take out the partition walls and clean up that space, either for a future tenant or for an expansion of Crestwood Mercantile. The Mercantile, at 6541 W. Highway 22, sells vintage and antique finds alongside goods from local artists and makers. Its store info page lists hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. It also says the shop is full and isn't taking vendor waitlist applications.
Some of this year's spending is out of sight. In July the commission approved $33,798 to lay conduit between the new City Hall and the park amphitheater. It also approved $39,554 to extend City Hall's card-access doors to the rest of the park buildings, connected to the park gate. In September it added a $17,136.73 contract with GEM Construction Group to run fiber through that conduit. That closes the fiber loop so internet keeps working even if one section is damaged, and it makes park-wide Wi-Fi possible. At that meeting, the card-access installation was reported as 60% complete.
Once the fiber is in, the park can have Wi-Fi from City Hall to the amphitheater, and that sits right beside a planned plaza with a corner designed for events.
The plan is still taking shape. In September, Kramer said the commission hopes one building will house the Oldham County Public Library's South Oldham branch, and the other a family-friendly restaurant and other businesses. Those are uses the city hopes for. Kramer also said a narrowed concept might be shown at the October commission meeting.
The city has said how the design will be reviewed. A subcommittee will report at each monthly commission meeting, and Kramer said he wants every commissioner who votes yes to "like the way this building looks before we build it." Crestwood's commission meets on the second Wednesday of each month, so those monthly meetings are where the design will show up next.
The summer season is over. The last Sounds of Summer concert, with the Allen Lane Band and a car show, was Sept. 18, and the splash pad closed Oct. 5. Here's what's coming up around The Maples and downtown Crestwood:
If you have questions about what the plaza plan could mean for your corner of Crestwood, or you'd just like to compare notes on how the town center is coming along, Gale Cox is glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
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