In a fight over a contentious 2,000-lot subdivision, some residents have filed a lawsuit asking a Livingston Parish judge to force local officials to rescind a planning and zoning approval and deny other permits, which would prevent the developer from proceeding with the project.
Livingston Parish residents have fought for more than a year against the impending reality of a Deer Run subdivision. Slated for 4-H Club Road across from Hillon Hood Road, the expansive project has been at the forefront of the parish’s ongoing tensions over the pace of new construction and population growth.
Now, some residents have taken matters into their own hands in their efforts to resist the development.
On Tuesday, the 5th District Livingston Parish Concerned Citizens Association, LLC, filed a lawsuit in the 21st Judicial District Court, arguing Deer Run’s latest preliminary site plan violates parish ordinances and must be rejected on legal grounds.
The lawsuit names as defendants Livingston Parish President Layton Ricks, Planning Director Sam Digirolamo and Building and Permit Director DeeDee Delatte.
The residents allege Deer Run’s second preliminary plat did not follow certain parish ordinances, such as the zoned property mandating a minimum lot size of 1 acre and any project with more than 600 lots requiring four entrances.
According to the lawsuit, Deer Run’s most recent site plan calls for lots that are 40 feet wide, and it only has three entrances. And, because the planning and zoning commission did not grant the subdivision a waiver or variance, the lawsuit contends Deer Run must follow the parish ordinances.
In their petition for a writ of mandamus, the residents requested the court order Digirolamo to notify the planning and zoning commission of the alleged ordinance violations and instruct them to forfeit Deer Run’s most recent approval, as well as discontinue the approval process for the subdivison and not to issue a site development permit; Ricks to direct the commission to rescind the most recent site approval; and Delatte to not issue any building permit for the proposed Deer Run land.
In a Wednesday court filing, parish attorney Christopher Moody responded to the lawsuit on behalf of Ricks, Digirolamo and Delatte.
“The remedy of mandamus is not available in matters in which discretion and the evaluation of evidence must be exercised, even to the slightest degree,” the filing says. “Under applicable law, the approval of a subdivision plat involves the exercise of discretion.”
The defendants are orderd to appear in court on May 23 at 9 a.m., filings show.
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