[StBernard] Group hopes to get St. Bernard vacant lots back on the market

[Westley Annis]

Group hopes to get St. Bernard vacant lots back on the market

wwltv.com
Posted on June 19, 2012 at 10:32 PM
Updated yesterday at 10:41 PM

Tania Dall / Eyewitness News
Email: tdall at wwltv.com | Twitter: @taniadall
ARABI, La. - Pete Krutchfield lives in Arabi. He and his dog Huey P. Long
both enjoy the green space that surrounds their home.

But if St. Bernard Parish has its way, that could soon change. The goal is
to start selling many of the vacant lots in July.

"Other neighbors behind us, there are a lot more clusters together," he
said. "Will they be allowed to put in multi-family housing? Is that going to
happen? We don't know those answers and that's troubling."

Census reports show that St. Bernard is the second-fastest growing parish or
county in the country.

There are roughly 2,000 Road Home properties that the Louisiana Land Trust
is responsible for through the Road Home Program.

"We've been doing all the property maintenance with Community Development
Block Grants for nearly five years on these properties," said Michael
Taylor, the executive director of the Louisiana Land Trust. "Nobody thought
it would take this long and we're running out of money to do that with."

Taylor said the non-profit is working with the parish to find new funding
sources to pay for upkeep on the vacant lots.

"It's a huge burden on the Land Trust," said Taylor. "It's going to be a
huge burden on the parishes. That's why we push to sell them back into
commerce, get them on the rolls, let the individual owners be responsible
for maintenance, and generate tax revenue for the parish that way."

Tuesday the parish council said it supports signing a cooperative endeavor
agreement with the state and Land Trust. The parish may soon be responsible
for maintaining some of those vacant properties and it wants the state to
help foot the bill.

The St. Bernard Council also tabled an ordinance that would set guidelines
for future property owners to follow, like having to build on the property
within a certain period of time.

The Land Trust said that it hopes to unload all the properties in its
inventory by the end of the year.