[StBernard] ST. BERNARD PARISH PRESIDENT CRAIG TAFFARO ISSUED STATEMENT ON STATUS OF APARTMENT COMPLEXES BEING CONSTRUCTED BY PROVIDENT REALTY

[Westley Annis]

ST. BERNARD PARISH PRESIDENT CRAIG TAFFARO ISSUED THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT ON
STATUS 

OF CONSTRUCTION OF APARTMENT COMPLEXES BEING CONSTRUCTED BY PROVIDENT REALTY

 

Since 2008, the discussion of the impacts of Provident Realty Advisors
proposed development has been an ongoing source of great concern and growing
contention.  On numerous occasions over the past almost three years, the
legal teams from Provident and the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action
Center have convinced the federal court to disregard the actual facts of the
housing needs and market analyses in St. Bernard Parish and the surrounding
areas and to base court ruling after court ruling on a broad and sweeping
interpretation of the Fair Housing Act applied to a recovering community.

 

The result of this pattern of what we consider to be a misuse of the current
statutory purpose has continued to undermine a basic constitutional right of
a local government to be established and to govern itself within the
framework of a government for the people, of the people, and by the people.

 

The developers have misused race as a screen to shield their own singular
motive of profit at the expense of a recovering community.

 

Our diversity is increasing in St. Bernard and that has been a positive
aspect of our growth as the color of our neighbors' skin is less important
in today's St. Bernard than the willingness of one's heart to rekindle our
family to family, neighbor to neighbor foundation, on which we have lead the
Gulf Coast area in recovering from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

 

What we have been forced to accept is a systematic stripping of local
governing authority which has resulted in deep rooted concerns for the
ability to maintain the appropriate structure of our community's
redevelopment.

 

St. Bernard has received its latest ruling from Judge Berrigan , who has
granted the Provident team's request to order the parish to release Entergy
and water service to construction sites, which in our local opinion, are not
properly permitted.

 

Because of this pattern of disregard for local requirements and what we
believe to be a failure on the Provident team to comply with CDBG, LHFA, and
the Office of Community Development at the state level, we are requesting
that:

 

	*	Provident voluntarily suspend construction until these
matters can be reviewed and resolved appropriately; or

 

	*	Judge Berrigan issue a Cease and Desist Order to the General
Contractor and to Provident Realty until these matters can be reviewed and
appropriately resolved; or

 

	*	The LHFA freeze funding for the Provident developments until
these matters can be reviewed and resolved appropriately or to pull the
relative funding for non-compliance if found; or

 

	*	The Office of the Governor instruct the Office of Community
Development to conduct a full and immediate review of all compliance
complaints relative to financial reporting, construction practices, or CDBG
requirements and that until such review is completed, all construction
activity should cease.

 

 

Specific concerns that have gone unresolved but are believed to be
significant to this project are as follows:

 

	*	The adverse impact of property values on neighbors who sank
most of everything they had to return to St. Bernard Parish;

 

	*	Improper drainage plans and calculations that will not
adequately retain and move rain and storm water without causing neighborhood
flooding;

 

	*	The continued building of four major complexes without valid
building permits after the initial permits of October 2009 expired;

 

	*	The improper installation of utility poles and equipment;

 

	*	The default of a 40 million dollar loan on a similar project
by Provident in Texas in 2009;

 

	*	The purchase of land to build these developments at
potentially higher than market value prices;

 

	*	The questionable and possibly inappropriate type and method
of piles used and foundation work for the buildings;

 

	*	And the belief that several buildings have been built at
elevations that do not meet the Advisory Base Flood Elevations, a
requirement that St. Bernard Parish was required to adopt by the state and
federal governments because St. Bernard was seeking to use public
infrastructure funds from HUD. Therefore these buildings are non-compliant
with Floodplain requirements.

 

What we are asking for is simple.  It is what we have been seeking since
opposition to these projects was voiced in 2008.  We ask that the developers
be reasonable in their impact to the parish of St. Bernard.  In the absence
of this we have asked the LHFA to mitigate the adverse impact to the parish
of St. Bernard by pulling or limiting funding based on hard and independent
surveys and analyses of the housing needs of St. Bernard and the surrounding
community.  In the absence of this we ask that HUD recognize their departure
from the national trend in housing developments and reverse the adverse
impact that such departure is having on St. Bernard Parish.  In the absence
of this, we are asking the federal district court to reconsider its position
or to at least free this case to be heard on appeal.  In the absence of
this, we are asking for an immediate stoppage of all construction until a
full and independent review of these and other matters can be completed by
the parish and all appropriate entities.

 

Make no mistake that St. Bernard will survive this challenge and we will
prosper despite the unfortunate situations that these developments will and
have created.  But we as an American community shouldn't have to endure this
challenge imposed on us for all the wrong reasons.

 

AFTER THE PREPARED STATEMENT ABOVE WAS READ, President Taffaro said that he
had spoken with state Representatives Nita Hutter and Reed Henderson and he
was in correspondence with Sen. A.G. Crowe about the matter. With the
assistance of Reps. Hutter and Henderson, President Taffaro was able to
discuss his concerns about the compliance issues with the Governor's
Commissioner of the Division of Administration, Paul Rainwater, and Steve
Waguespack, legal counsel to Gov. Jindal. All the state officials promised
to review his concerns immediately. Councilmen Frank Auderer and Kenny
Henderson attended the press conference and supported President Taffaro's
concerns.

 

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