[StBernard] Council Members to Propose Buyout Areas

[Westley Annis]

Council Members to Propose Buyout Areas
March 7 , 2006
By: Steve Cannizaro


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St. Bernard Council members to propose areas for Hazard Mitigation grant
program land buyouts and long-range recovery plan

 
St. Bernard Parish Council members on Tuesday will discuss several proposals
for recommendations to the state for hazard mitigation program land buyouts
and other long-range recovery plans. 
 
Under the state hazard mitigation grant program, which involves the
voluntary sale of the property by the owner, there is a 75-25 percent match.
Owners would receive 75 percent of their land value from the federal money
that comes through the state and the local government would be responsible
for the rest, but would ask the owner to contribute the 25 percent match
through an in-kind donation. 
 
Properties mitigated would remain green spaces afterward. 
 
The St. Bernard Council must recommend projects it wants the Louisiana
Recovery Authority to consider funding. The state has the final say-so on
disbursement of money. The Council will vote on recommendations at a public
monthly meeting at 11 a.m. Tuesda in the white and brown tent behind the
parish government complex. 
 
A Citizens Recovery Committee has presented numerous ideas and
recommendations for projects, which were discussed in several meetings the
last week of February. Now it's time for the Council to put together its
recommendations to the state. 
 
At a committee meeting of St. Bernard Council members on Monday evening, it
was agreed that hazard mitigation proposals to be discussed at Tuesday's
regular meeting will include possible recommendations for buyouts: 

- Along the east side of the Chalmette Vista Canal to include the Village
Square apartments from Patricia Street to the Chalmette Centre shopping
strip service alley and the corridor from West Judge Perez Drive to the 40
Arpent Canal. 

- Along the east and west banks of the De La Ronde Canal from Judge Perez
Drive to the 40 Arpent Canal; primarily the right-of-way on the east side of
the canal would be used. 

- The Daniel Park area including Daniel Drive and Stacie Drive in Violet, to
the 40 Arpent Canal. 

- Bartolo Drive in Meraux from East Judge Perez Drive to the 40 Arpent
Canal. Also, several homes at the end of Munster Drive, just west of
Bartolo, would also be considered for inclusion. 

- On the West side of Gallo Drive from Wisconsin Street o the 40 Arpent
Canal and the west side of Pecan Drive from Michaigan Street to the 40
Arpent Canal. 

- Also, Council member Mark Madary said he wants to hold a 9 a.m. meeting
this Saturday, March 11, in the Council Trailer Office behind the parish
government building for residents of Benjamin Drive and Cougar Drive in
Arabi to discuss possible buyouts under the hazard mitigation program. 

Council members said there isn't any truth to rumors residents won'tl be
allowed to live north of Judge Perez Drive. 
 
However, at Tuesday's meeting the Council will discuss areas where habitual
flooding over the years makes rebuilding homes impractical without changes. 
 
Council Vice Chairman Joseph DiFatta Jr. said he has spoken to numerous
people whose homes were heavily damaged in Hurricane Katrina and would
welcome having their property expropriated "for the good of the parish'' if
they were to receive proper compensation. Ones he has spoke with "know their
property is destroyed,'' he said. "Most of those folks are agreeable'' to a
buyout. 
 
Council member Craig Taffaro Jr. said he realizes residents are anxious to
be given specific directions on land use. "They want answers.'' 
 
Council chairman Lynn Dean objected to proposals to mitigate the area
containing the Village Square apartment, saying it smacked of racism because
so many of the residents there were blacks and of other races.