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.

© 2008 The St. Tammany Farmer. All rights reserved. Used with permission.