The St. Tammany Farmer

Articles originally published in The St. Tammany Farmer

Comprehensive Rezoning of Parish Is Underway

Comprehensive Rezoning of Parish Is Underway

January 31, 2008

By Polly H. Greene
Editor, St. Tammany Farmer

While most residents have been focused on Christmas celebrations, LSU’s victory in the BCS championship game and Mardi Gras parades, the staff of the parish Planning Department has been working on a land use survey of the first section of the parish to undergo comprehensive rezoning.

Parish Planning Director Sidney Fontenot described the process Monday night when he addressed about 50 people who attended a quarterly meeting of Tammany Together. Formed less than a year ago, Tammany Together is a coalition of over 4,600 individuals, non-profit organizations and homeowner and civic associations.

The St. Tammany Parish Unified Development Code, which sets forth revised zoning standards for the parish, was adopted by the Parish Council in early May, after two years in the works. In September, planning staff began its implementation by dividing the parish into five large sections, which they will consider one by one.

They started with the Lacombe area and have literally been looking at every piece of property in the section, which is bordered on the west by Louisiana 59, on the east by Louisiana 11, to the south by Lake Pontchartrain and on the north by Louisiana 36.

When complete, the land use survey will serve as the foundation for the revised zoning ordinance, which will include new zoning classifications for specific properties based on the Unified Development Code.

“This was supposed to start in September 2005,” Fontenot said. “We all know what happened then. But now we’re ready to go.”

He predicts that most of the discussion during the rezoning process will center on properties that will likely go from suburban agriculture (SA) and rural to a residential classification.

The parish’s former zoning code was last updated in the mid-1980s, when the parish had a lot of undeveloped land, Fontenot said. Most of the northern half was zoned rural, with the southern portion classified as SA. Since that time there has been significant growth in the parish.

In recent months, properties with these designations have been in a holding pattern, pending completion of the revised zoning ordinance and resolution of conflicts and inconsistencies that had developed over the years. Also targeted during the revision process were the commercial classifications, which had large discrepancies. For example, there was C-1 which addressed most businesses and the other option, C-2, which permitted big box stores such as Wal-Mart.

To keep a handle on commercial development and to deal with the wide discrepancy between to the two classifications, the parish instituted the conditional use permit process, which often resulted in appeals and court cases.

When fully implemented according to the Unified Development Code, each zoning district classification will be defined for specific uses.

“We want people to know what they can do with their property and then let them do it. The code is intended to encourage smart growth,” he said. “It will tell the person buying property what he can do with that property.”

The new code has six single-family residential districts, four residential estate districts, four multiple family districts, six neighborhood commercial districts, three medical use districts, one public facility district, four highway commercial districts, four industrial districts, two planned business campuses districts, one animal training/housing district and one gaming district.

To encourage preservation of large rural areas, the least dense residential estate district calls for 20-acre parcels.

The industrial districts, which address businesses ranging from light industries to landfills, are regulated according to building height and parking needs. The medical districts accommodate large institutional residential facilities and small physician clinics to hospitals. Neighborhood commercial takes in professional offices, indoor retail centers, retail services, churches, small schools, neighborhood lodging and public, cultural and recreational venues.

In streamlining subdivision codes, parish planners looked at density versus lot size, with planned urban developments (PUDs) being favored over traditional subdivisions.

Though the parish minimum lot size of 90-by-140 feet is designed to keep density low, its does not promote preservation of green space, Fontenot said. Instead of saving wetlands, they are being filled to meet the lot size requirements.

PUD standards prohibit fill, so drainage and sewerage costs are less. The number of homes remain the same, but the developer is allowed to avoid low areas by clustering homes.

Parish planners have been pushing the PUD concept since 2000, but there has been a lack of procedural guidance, resulting in confusion and conflicts, Fontenot said. The specificity of the new code should greatly reduce variations in interpretation.

“We’ll look a the design of the development rather than how many homes it will accommodate. If the developer has 100 acres and one-third is wetlands and one-third is floodplain then it’s best to go through a PUD review. A good plan encourages good development.”

Another new provision in the revised code is the PUD overlay with automaticreversion.

If a parcel is zoned for four units per acre, the developer can either do a standard subdivision or a PUD overlay, Fontenot explained, which provides for some diversity in lot sizes. If the PUD is not developed within two years, the overlay expires and the property reverts back to four units per acre.

The estate districts, which range from one unit per 20 acres to one unit per seven acres, cannot be developed as PUDs. They require standard lot sizes, Fontenot said.

The new Unified Development Code also addresses traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs), a mixed-use category, intended to promote close proximity between businesses and residential options, much like the development patterns in downtown Covington, Olde Town Slidell and Madisonville. “These are places we want to reproduce,” said Fontenot. “They offer walking elements which encourages pedestrian traffic. Without the new zoning codes, the TNDs would be prohibited.”

As each section of the land use survey is completed, planning staff will review existing uses and zoning classifications; New Directions 2025 planning elements; existing zoning approvals; input from public meetings; and planned capital improvements, including new infrastructure. They will also look at Greenprint recommendations, which is funded by the Trust for Public Lands and traffic and drainage models, before making recommendations for each parcel of land.

The staff will hold Saturday public meetings in each of the five sections, with the one for the Lacombe area scheduled for late February. They will also announce specific dates and times during business hours for the public to offer comments and set up a system where input can be offered via the parish website.

“We’ve had a lot of meetings with people who are really interested in what we do,” Fontenot said, adding that he recognized the majority of faces in the room. “But what we need to hear from are the property owners out there. From the large land owners with 100 acres to the small landowners with one-quarter acre. We want to hear what you want to do with your property.”

Fontenot said he hoped to make recommendations for the first section to the Parish Zoning Commission in early April. After that he and his staff will move on to the next section, which will include areas outside Covington to the Tchefuncte River. Section three will be the Slidell area; zone four will focus on the northwestern portion of the parish, zone five will be the northeastern section of the parish, with Louisiana 1081 (Stafford Road) as the dividing east-west line.

Even though the new zoning ordinance will not be adopted until all sections of the parish have been addressed, most developers are already trying to adapt to the new Unified Development Code, Fontenot said.

Group Seeks Clearer Term Limit Options

Group Seeks Clearer Term Limit Options

June 28, 2007

By Polly Greene
Editor, St. Tammany Farmer

The wording of a proposed amendment on term limits that was introduced at the June 7 Parish Council meeting is seriously flawed and should be modified or withdrawn, said Rick Wilke, interim president of Tammany Together, Inc.

A non-partisan coalition composed of St. Tammany residents, non-profit organizations and homeowner and civic associations, Tammany Together was recently formed to give individuals and small groups a “bigger voice” in parishwide issues. The group adopted a resolution on proposed Ordinance 3571 at its June 11 meeting and was set to present it to the Parish Council during their monthly agenda work session, which was held Wednesday.

If approved, the ordinance will result in a parishwide election on Oct. 20, where voters will be given the option to modify the parish’s Home Rule Charter, which presently calls for a three-term limit for the office of parish president and no limits on the terms of parish council representatives.

The first proposition asks voters if they wish to amend the charter to impose a three consecutive-term limit, beginning in 2008, for “any elected official of parish government.”

If that proposition is approved it would extend term limits to the Parish Council.

The second proposition would eliminate term limits for all elected parish officials, including the position of parish president.

In introducing the ordinance, its author, Councilman Henry Billiot, said its purpose was to allow voters to decide whether the parish president and the Parish Council would serve under equal conditions with respect to term limits.

By voting “no” to both options, voters would be endorsing the status quo, Billiot said.

The Tammany Together resolution calls for simpler wording and a clearer set of choices, Wilke said.

If approved by a majority of the voters, the option supporting term limits for all parish government elected officials would restart the “term limit clock” for Parish President Kevin Davis, giving him the opportunity to serve a total of five consecutive terms, Wilke said.

Several audience members expressed disapproval of this aspect of the amendment at the council’s June 7 meeting.

The Tammany Together’s resolution makes the following points:

Tammany Together agrees that voters should be given the opportunity to decide whether term limits should be equally imposed on both the parish president and the Parish Council.

The present wording of the amendment proposed in Ordinance 3571 is confusing, since it does not state clearly that a vote for term limits would result in Davis, who says he will enter the Oct. 20 race to seek a third term in office, being able to run for two additional four-year terms.

The ordinance should be reworded to provide simpler language and to give voters a clearer set of choices. The choices should be to impose term limits on the Parish Council seats or to remove term limits from the office of parish president.

“If the present wording of the amendment is not modified as suggested, Ordinance No. 3571 should be withdrawn by its author,” the resolution states. “If the ordinance is not withdrawn, it should not be adopted by the Parish Council.”

Wilke said he and other Tammany Together members will also appear at the July 5 meeting of the full council. That meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the Parish Administrative Complex on Koop Drive, north of Mandeville and Interstate 12.

Community Groups Unite to Form Tammany Together

Community Groups Unite to Form Tammany Together

Thursday, May 10, 2007

By Polly H. Greene
St. Tammany Farmer

Small groups that support a specific neighborhood, civic cause or project often lack clout.

That will change, said Rick Wilke, founding member of Tammany Together, at a press conference Monday announcing formation of the new non-partisan group.

Often small organizations don’t have a strong voice in government, Wilke said. That is why these smaller groups have banded to form Tammany Together.

Wilke, president of the Association of Associations, a coalition of homeowner groups, was joined by a panel of other civic leaders to explain the goal of Tammany Together.

Other groups represented on the Tammany Together board include Citizens for Environmental Quality, Tchefuncte Trace Home Owners Association, Penn’s Chapel Board Association, Goodbee Civic Association, Old Military Road Homeowners Association, Flower Estates Civic Association and League of Women Voters of St. Tammany.

Each represents small groups that speak with a small voice, Wilke said. A larger group with a louder voice is more often heard and carries more weight.

"We want to work together to speak out with a more unified voice," he said.

A significant number of St. Tammany residents give freely of their time to make the parish a better place to live by serving on boards of their homeowners’ associations or by participating in community organizations. Many have participated in parishwide projects, such as New Directions 2025, Wilke said.

They often attend a Zoning Commission or Parish Council meeting to voice their opinions on issues impacting their neighborhood. Many of these issues have regional ramifications, such as the landfill in Slidell, which not only impacts its neighbors, but also the image and character of the parish, the huge shopping center planned for Interstate 12 at Louisiana 21, which impacts residents of rural areas by clogging highways leading to the center.

"Tammany Together is about working together for a better St. Tammany," Wilke said.

It will provide a parishwide forum for the citizens to carry a unified message to municipal, parish, state and federal agencies, he said. The group’s mission statement is to identify issues of importance, educate members on the issues, and exert a positive influence by speaking out with a unified voice.

Parish Council members Henry Billiot and Marty Gould have both joined Tammany Together and agreed to pay membership dues for the majority of the remainder of the council.

So many times the Parish Council chamber is filled with small groups of people who care about one issue, Billiot said. This will give council members a better view parishwide as opposed to a single issue.

"As elected officials we often look at our areas. Many times we take care of the business as it relates to ‘my business.’ This group will represent the larger view of what the parish want."

"United together we can have one voice to help the parish grow," said board member Paulette Barras of Slidell. "This gives everyone a voice. We want smart growth, and we want the citizens to appreciate the growth."

Growing membership

With Wilke as the interim president, other board members include Barras; Bill McHugh, from the old Military Road area; Dr. John Martin, a Goodbee veterinarian; Jeannine Meeds from Big Branch; Sandra Slifer, president of the League of Women Voters; Pug Lorren, interim vice president and past president of Tchefuncte Trace Home Owners Association; Elizabeth Manshel, vice-president of Penn’s Chapel Road Association and interim treasurer; and P.J. Stakelum III, also of Flower Estates.

Tammany Together plans to expand its board from nine to 15 members and has opened its membership to individuals, homeowner and civic associations, non-profit groups or organizations that represent a number of other groups and individual supporters.

Once membership grows, Tammany Together will hold quarterly meetings, where permanent officers will be elected from the 15-member board, McHugh said.

A public meeting on Tammany Together will be held Thursday, May 17, to answer questions about the organization and to provide information on its mission, goals and focus. The meeting will be held at the Parish Administrative Complex at Koop Drive, near Mandeville, beginning at 6:30 p.m. For more information, visit the website at www.TammanyTogether.org.

Groups Unite to Form Tammany Together

Groups Unite to Form Tammany Together

April 26, 2007

St. Tammany Farmer

Local nonprofit agencies, civic groups and area homeowners are organizing the creation of Tammany Together.

Tammany Together will act as a united voice to address local issues in the parish, said Rick Wilke, a member of the Association of Associations.

The nonprofit, nonpartisan group will include AOA members, as well as the Goodbee Civic Association and the League of Women Voters of St. Tammany. AOA is a coalition of about 25 homeowner groups in western St. Tammany Parish.

The parish has often been divided between east and west, city and unincorporated areas, suburban and rural areas and newcomers and longtime residents, organizers said. Tammany Together will look at the bigger issues and allow citizens to have a stronger voice, Wilke said.

"Citizens often don’t get as involved as they could or should. We’re trying to fix that," he said.

According to the group’s mission statement, Tammany Together "will identify issues of importance to the citizens of St. Tammany Parish, to educate its members and others on these issues and to exert a positive influence to their outcome by speaking out with a unified voice."

The group’s focus will be unveiled at a news conference on Monday, May 7, Wilke said. It will be held at 10:30 a.m. at the Parish Administrative Complex at Koop Drive.

A public meeting to introduce the organizations members and to recruit new members will be held Thursday, May 17.