[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish fair-housing case back in court

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish fair-housing case back in court
by Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
Monday August 03, 2009, 10:55 PM
St. Bernard Parish was back in court Monday in the latest chapter of a
federal fair housing court case that has been simmering on and off in the
suburban parish since 2006.


In Monday's hearing, a local fair housing group and the developer of four
proposed mixed-income apartment developments in Chalmette alleged that St.
Bernard Parish government is in contempt of a judge's previous order against
the parish. The case mirrored a similar complaint lodged by the Greater New
Orleans Fair Housing Action Center and developers Provident Realty Advisors
of Dallas late last year regarding the parish's attempts to block
construction of the apartment buildings.

U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan in March ordered the parish to lift a
ban on construction of new apartment buildings, ruling that the moratorium
was "racially discriminatory." A month after her ruling, the parish's
Planning Commission refused to resubdivide the sites for Provident's
apartment complexes, effectively blocking the developments.

In June, the developers again sought Planning Commission approval, but were
told they would have to produce a detailed traffic study.

Matt Harris of Provident testified Monday morning that the decisions of the
parish have jeopardized financing for the project, part of which comes from
federal tax credits.

"Until you can get building permits, you can't do much for investors, "
Harris said.

He said parish officials did not respond to numerous inquiries about studies
and documentation needed to apply for a resubdivision.

Francis Mulhall, an attorney for St. Bernard Parish, asked Harris during
cross-examination whether the construction delays were because of the
resubdivision process or because of a lack of willing investors to buy the
low-income housing tax credits needed to finance the project.

Harris testified that finding investors has been more difficult in the
recession.

Much of the testimony and questioning Monday homed in on parish officials'
intentions in denying Provident's requests for resubdivision of the four
properties, a procedural step needed to move forward with getting a building
permit.

Jerry Graves, the parish's director of community development, testified that
the Planning Commission's decisions to deny the resubdivision had to do with
unanswered concerns about traffic, drainage and wetlands impacts at each of
the four sites. Planning Commission Chairman Earl Dauterive later testified
that community concerns about crime and a decline in property values brought
up at the commission's standing-room-only meetings figured into his decision
to vote against the resubdivision.

"Would we find that interspersed throughout the voting there are concerns
about crime?" Plaintiffs attorney Dennis Roossien asked Dauterive.

"Yeah, that'd be fair to say, " Dauterive replied.

Provident approached parish officials with its plans last summer, and in
September the St. Bernard Parish Council passed the moratorium. In December,
the Fair Housing Action Center, along with Provident, argued in federal
court that the parish's actions violated the federal Fair Housing Act, as
well as a consent decree in a previous case.

In that case, initially brought in 2006, the Fair Housing Action Center
successfully challenged a council-approved ordinance that sought to restrict
parish home rentals by requiring landlords to receive council approval to
rent to anyone except blood relatives.

St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro testified that his opposition to
the four mixed-income developments is out of concern for the long-term
health of the parish's real estate market. In a testy exchange with
plaintiffs' attorney John Relman, Taffaro admitted that he believed "profit
margin is a higher priority than community regard or development" in the
case of the four 72-unit Provident developments.

"Our major concern obviously is the number of units and the long-term
investment of the project, as far as having very few guidelines and very few
safeguards that would protect our parish in the long run, " Taffaro said.

Plaintiffs attorneys presented a wide array of evidence Monday, from local
newspaper columns written by Taffaro to racially charged anonymous posts
about the developments on nola.com stories and forums. At one point Relman
showed the MySpace page of someone who supposedly authored an e-mail -- also
shown in court -- sent to the fair housing action center's general counsel,
Morgan Williams, saying that St. Bernard doesn't want black people.

Mulhall and attorneys for St. Bernard repeatedly objected to such evidence
being used to ask witnesses questions.

"This is a back way of getting things into evidence that should not be
evidence, " Mulhall said.

Councilman Wayne Landry testified about the Parish Council's involvement in
the resubdivision delays. Provident appealed the April Planning Commission
decision to the council at its May 19 meeting, but Landry testified that the
studies and documentation originally requested by the Planning Commission
was sent to the council the day before the meeting. The council chose not to
take up the issue and redirected the developers to the Planning Commission.
"My recommendation was to go back and clear up your deficiencies with them.
I don't see that as a hindrance, " Landry testified. "If you all were that
deficient on an appeal with us that had been explained, you all really need
to go back to the Planning Commission to get your ducks lined up."

Testimony concluded Monday evening, but attorneys will meet this morning to
iron out which evidence will be admitted into the record. Berrigan will then
rule on whether to hold St. Bernard in contempt of court.