Amid mounting tension over Livingston Parish zoning regulations, the parish council suspended “any activity” by the planning and zoning commission and launched an investigation into whether the panel’s members followed the law after they recently approved a controversial 2,000-lot subdivision plan.
In a special session Thursday evening, Livingston Parish council members questioned whether the commission followed parish ordinances during a recent meeting when it approved a second preliminary site plan for the Deer Run subdivision.
Deer Run, slated for 4-H Club Road across from Hillon Hood Road, has been at the epicenter of the parish’s loaded, ongoing development brawl for the past year.
“The subdivision Deer Run was passed, and it was recommended by the attorney present and the parish engineer that it not pass, because it did not meet the ordinances,” said District 5 Councilwoman Erin Sandefur during Thursday’s meeting. “I would like to discuss this and propose a resolution to reverse that decision and call for an investigation into the planning commission and decisions that were made.”
However, the final resolution version fell shy of singling out Deer Run after the parish attorney suggested the wording of the document violated public meeting law, because the agenda had not explicitly mentioned the subdivision. The meeting, which drew a near-capacity crowd, at one point devolved into shouting between council members and the audience, leading the chairman to brandish his gavel at his colleagues.
While other subdivision plans have drawn some measure of concern, Deer Run has been at the forefront of resident ire the longest. Area homeowners have consistently tried and failed to resist the proposal for months, begging the council to halt the project rather than overwhelm an area already facing infrastructure challenges with a massive influx of houses, potentially worsening flooding and traffic problems.
After the devastation of the 2016 flood, during which the Amite River jumped its banks and swept through much of Livingston Parish, the calls to fight new construction have grown louder.
The planning and zoning vote to approve the plan, which some residents had viewed as a chance to reject the subdivision once and for all, has ignited outrage for some council members and residents who have reached their breaking point after weeks of the Deer Run developer’s legal threats over zoning.
Legal woes
Against the onslaught of criticism, Deer Run survived the parish’s temporary development moratorium last year, which produced a battery of new zoning laws designed to heavily restrict new construction.
But when parish council members at last began to enact their zoning maps district by district, Ascension Properties Inc., the Deer Run developer, contacted a lawyer.
In recent weeks, Ascension Properties has threatened — and then followed through with — a federal lawsuit, contending the parish council violated state and parish laws when approving its zoning maps. The lawsuit also alleges the zoning map for District 5, which is where Deer Run would be built, categorized the subdivision’s anticipated property in a way inconsistent with prior approvals, potentially jeopardizing the project.
The lawsuit was filed when the parish council failed to revoke the District 5 zoning map that Ascension Properties suggested is both illegally enacted and apparently targets Deer Run’s future.
Next steps
The original language in the Livingston Parish council resolution regarding the planning commission requested the body cease and desist any activity in connection with Deer Run — but Moody, the parish attorney, disagreed with its legality.
Since the public meeting notice did not explicitly announce anything about halting activity in relation to the subdivision, he advised the council to not go forward with a resolution that singled out Deer Run, as it would likely violate public meeting law.
“I have great concerns if you move forward with this,” he said.
Moody added that, while he had advised the planning and zoning commission to the contrary, the board had the standing to approve the subdivision based on its own interpretation of the law and its previous precedent for such approvals.
“The fact of it is, they had discretion. They approved it,” he said. “I think that’s where it is. I’m not sure any attempt now would be perceived as anything other than an arbitrary attempt to deprive this developer of their constitutional rights.”
Based on his concerns, the resolution was changed to match, word for word, the public notice advertisement for the meeting. Council members voted to hold a special session next week to address modifying the resolution to specifically reference Deer Run.
One member of the parish planning and zoning commission did address the council during public comment. Derek Babcock, who sits on the commission, said it was “very disheartening” to hear rumors about backroom deals and corruption.
“I have to take a non-biased view of the laws that I’m given that I have to make my decision by,” he said. “That’s what I did.”
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