Residents fill chamber to discuss zoning issues

About 300 people, some letting out moans of disgust and others swinging paper petitions in their hands, debated for more than four hours Tuesday night on a comprehensive rezoning plan for southwest St. Tammany.

Well into the evening, until about 10 p.m., zoning commissioners fielded concerns from at least 34 petitions requesting specific zoning changes for and against everything from big box retailers, a new Archdiocese complex, strip malls, office building and home plots.

With a packed, standing-room crowd filling the Parish Council chambers on Koop Drive in Mandeville, residents voiced a wide range of concerns over the new zoning codes, everything from the emotionally charged to the mundane, and they inevitably brought up traffic, drainage, infrastructure and quality of life issues.

“We’re here to discuss the proposed zoning changes only,” commission Chairman Emile Lombard said, moments after pounding a gavel to hush an audience who booed a speaker.

The public on Tuesday was invited to speak on the comprehensive rezoning plan, years in the works.

It’s part of the parish’s master plan to harness and foster growth in a parish with booming popularity. The new codes up for adoption were approved last year, consistent with the parish’s New Directions 2025 master plan approved nine years ago. Now they range from tighter to more spacious densities, large-scale community developments with town squares and business, and a new public facility zoning for such things as golf courses and a funeral home.

Five areas – the northwest, southwest, northeast, southcentral, and southeast – will adopt these new zoning codes.

Residents spoke out for the parish’s southwest quadrant bordered by the Tangipahoa Parish line on the west, Lake Pontchartrain on the south and Louisiana Highway 59 on the west from Mandeville to Louisiana Highway 36 in Abita Springs. The northern boundary is La. 36 from La. 59 to U.S. 190; U.S. 190 from La. 36 to the Tchefuncte River; and the Tchefuncte River from U.S. 190 to the Tangipahoa Parish line.

The area includes Goodbee, areas around Madisonville, and land between Mandeville and Covington.

Many residents voiced one common concern: Commissioners, they thought, are going to grant zoning changes years in advance of proper roads and other infrastructure being in place.

“This is land use designation speculated on anticipation of access (roads.) This is the egg before the chicken dilemma,” said Robert Racine, part of the www.sharproad.org coalition.

Racine and others are fighting a proposal to rezone land along the Fairway Drive corridor from A-1, A-2 and SA suburban residential and agricultural districts to higher density districts such as A-4 and TND, otherwise known as a traditional neighborhood district. The difference is three to five acres per unit compared to five units or 20 apartments per acre for a mixture of business and homes, a density at least 100 times tighter.

Bonnie Romano, who lives off Sharp Road, called the matter grave.

“It’s going to be a matter of life and death,” she said referring to the area’s lack of firefighting capabilities with the influx of more people. “To increase this would be an injustice.”

To the north, commissioners also heard retiring Greater New Orleans Causeway Commission chairman Kyle France warn that rezoning a 70-acre quadrant at the intersection of Interstate 12 and Louisiana Highway 1077 to Heavy Commercial/Industrial would spark outrage.

The area has long been considered a site where Wal-Mart wants to build a superstore.

“We’re dealing with a white elephant in the room,” France said, referring to the fact nobody mentioned the retail giant. “That elephant was proposed for (Louisiana Highway) 21, and we ran it out of here. Now the elephant is moving down the highway. Let’s stay vigil.”

In the Estates of Northpark, off U.S. 190, residents questioned the wisdom of changing its present zoning from C-2 Highway Commercial and M-2 Immediate Industrial to Highway Commercial District or HC-1.

The area, already near construction of oil and gas company LOOP Inc.’s headquarters, among other businesses, currently allows businesses to build 45 and 60 feet high. Residents like Dan Weidlein are calling for NC-1, known as professional office district with maximum heights of 35 feet.

“It’s simple symmetry. People in office buildings can see into our private lives. We need 20-foot of fence if these buildings get 60 feet high,” he said.

Neighbor Connie Bentivenga called the high buildings “devastating.”

“It’s painful,” she said, adding more zoning that attracts more businesses will add to drainage problems.

In November, residents of the subdivision voted to tax themselves more than $1 million to build a retention pond and other drainage improvements.

“Is all that money for nothing?” Bentivegna said.