[StBernard] Forced Demolition of houses in Murphy Buy Out Zone

[Westley Annis]

Of all the houses in the four streets Jacob, Despaux, Ventura and Lena
Drives that are not marked condemned some are already owned by St Bernard
Parish by adjudication, others are in appeal with LRA process, repossessed
by the bank, or still in litigation with insurance company or with Murphy
Oil ( there are still quite a few with motion dates of June and July 2008,
with a few on these four streets
 http://www.laed.uscourts.gov/MurphyOil/MurphyOil.htm
<http://www.laed.uscourts.gov/MurphyOil/MurphyOil.htm>   ).  

And yes, there may be a few who are waiting for a better offer from Murphy.
With the value of industrial land higher than residential, they may indeed
receive higher offers since Murphy has revealed renderings of the 15,000
square foot laboratory it wants to construct on  four (4) separate tracts of
land; three being on Jacob Drive South and one being on St Bernard Hwy (the
old Campagna's skiff business).  

The Federal Court and these homeowners and attorney's should be made aware
of Murphy's application for zoning change on Jacob Drive for facilities
expansion in the neighborhood to presumably make room for processing
expansion on the existing refinery campus.  This zoning public hearing is
Tuesday, March 25th 4pm and the introduction of ordinance is expected at the
next parish council meeting Tuesday March 18th 7pm. Council Public Hearing
and Final Vote to follow after 30 day public notice of ordinance. 

The previous Housing, Redevelopment and Quality of Life Commission was
approached by Murphy Oil in early December 2007 for a resolution which would
have given Murphy the preferential treatment to obtain LRA properties on
those four streets without going through the public bid process.  Several
residents sent letters and petitions to the Louisiana Land Trust LLC, the
Road Home Authority, the previous parish council and administration urging
that no LRA properties on those four streets be made available to Murphy by
or for any means: and especially not for facilities expansion in the
neighborhood.  Instead, it was urged that these LRA properties be made
available to the domiciled neighbors next door, redistributed for
residential redevelopment as with any other neighborhood, or designated
greenspace on the land title ( a conservation easement or land trust).  That
same designated greenspace or conservation easement/land trust should be on
the land title for the properties acquired by adjudication or abandoned and
condemned.  Just my opinion. After all, the settlement did call for a buffer
zone, not an economic opportunity for this industry.    SJK