[StBernard] St. Bernard defers actions following judge's ruling

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard defers actions following judge's ruling 
  Reported by: Shelley Brown, Weekend Anchor 
Email: sbrown at fox8tv.net 
Contributor: Jim Pennison, Photographer 
Last Update: 12:20 pm  

 (FOX 8 News) St. Bernard - After meeting in executive session for more than
two hours, St. Bernard Parish Council members decided Thursday to take no
action to pursue legal options following a federal district court judge's
contempt of court ruling last week.

St. Bernard complied Friday to avoid facing thousands of dollars in fines,
but Parish President Craig Taffaro said the council and administration are
buying time for now. 

Taffaro said, "we still believe that as a municipality, the parish council
and administration has the right to govern our own parish and to make land
use and zoning and planning decisions at a local level and that we deserve
some protection as long as we are in the scope of law and we believe we
are." 

St. Bernard leaders met with parish attorneys to talk about the ongoing
lawsuit that the GNO Fair Housing Action Center has filed against it and the
most recent ruling where a federal district judge held parish officials in
contempt of court for violating the Fair Housing Act. 

"Judge (Ginger) Berrigan is a fine person and a very fine judge, but she's
just wrong on this issue," said Mike Ginart, a St. Bernard Parish
Councilman.

The parish planning commission, in April, shot down a request to sub-divide
tracts of land to make way for four new, mixed-income apartment buildings
for a total of 288 units.

"Nationwide high density rental dwellings have become a thing of the past.
Nationwide, you have higher crime, you have more blight and you have lower
property values, and they've done away with a lot of it in New Orleans.  I
think it was Sen. (Ann) Duplessis who stopped the one in New Orleans East,
but here in St. Bernard we're gonna have four jammed down our throat," said
Ginart.

"The judge ruled and we will comply with that law and we have.  It also
gives us an opportunity to appeal the judgement.  We don't agree with it,
but we will comply.  We've made appeals in the past, let those proceed,"
said Council Chairman Frank Auderer. 



They're holding off on action on this latest ruling for now while they
decide how and if they want to move forward in the future.  In the meantime,
the housing battle in the center of a parish still rebuilding is far from
over.

The GNO Fair Housing Action Center has said all along that St. Bernard
parish continues to try and block the creation of multi-family "affordable"
housing.  They've even gone so far as to call the parish's actions
"discriminatory." 

As of Thursday evening, Taffaro told Fox 8 News that the land in dispute was
ordered sub-divided, and the four mixed-income apartment complexes are
awaiting building permits.