[StBernard] First batch of empty St. Bernard lots to be sold by end of year

[Westley Annis]

First batch of empty St. Bernard lots to be sold by end of year 

10:27 PM CDT on Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Bigad Shaban / Eyewitness News 



St. Bernard Parish is gearing up for what it hopes will be a major
transformation-turning empty lots into parks, gardens, backyards and even
available space for residents to add onto their existing homes. 

It's all part of the community's Lot Next Door Program, which allows
homeowners to buy up empty lots sold to the state through the Road Home
Program.  About 5,000 lots are slated for the program, and so far 1,300
residents have notified the parish of being interested in buying up the
properties. 

"We could take the fence down and make this a beautiful yard," said Carol
Mirici, a Chalmette Resident who lives in between two empty lots owned by
the state. 

Right now Morici's boat is the only thing occupying the abandoned lot to the
left of her home, but she says if she had her way, it would be her garden
covering up the area, and not the crumbling slab. 

"We'd have more things planted, we'd have more kinds of vegetables." 

St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro says now that the Louisiana
Recovery Authority has given its official okay to the program, the first
batch of empty lots will likely be sold to homeowners before the end of the
year. 

"In about 4 weeks, we could probably see some trial closings," said Taffaro.


The amount of properties that will be made available then by the state is
still uncertain, but Taffaro has told the LRA to first handover the 1,300
properties that residents have shown interest in. 

Longtime real estate agent Michael O'Brien says already cheap property
prices in the area, paired with a soon to be influx of lots, means a serious
potential for relatively low prices. 

"Those lots will probably have to sell between five and eight thousand
dollars."' 

But at the foundation of nearly all the parish's empty lots is the base of a
potential hold up.  The slabs still need to be removed on thousands of the
properties, even those where the homes have already been demolished. 

FEMA said it could only tear down potential health hazards, and the slabs
didn't make the cut. 

"And so we ran into a policy issue and it wouldn't let us go forward," said
Paul Rainwater, executive director of the LRA. 

But according to Rainwater, the state is now committed to footing the
multi-million dollar bill. 

"So that at the end of the day or what a municipality will get is a piece of
property with no slab on it," said Rainwater. 

Which is all Morici could hope for. 

"It would give us so much more room," she said. 

And Morici adds, the only thing better than getting to buy up the empty lot
to her left, would be if she also gets the chance to also purchase the
abandoned property to her right. 

"It would mean a lot, to have this lot!" 

Carol's neighbor, who lives just on the other side of one of the empty lots
also wants the property, so according to the parish, they would each be
allowed to  buy up half the land.  

Residents living next to an empty lot in St. Bernard, can expect to receive
a letter in the mail next month explaining the program.  Those homeowners
would then have 30 days to reply.