[StBernard] St. Bernard Council approves plan to sell off vacant lots acquired after Hurricane Katrina

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Council approves plan to sell off vacant lots acquired after
Hurricane Katrina

Published: Tuesday, July 03, 2012, 9:44 PM     Updated: Tuesday, July 03,
2012, 9:50 PM

 By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, The Times-Picayune 

The St. Bernard Parish Council tonight approved the parish's Louisiana Land
Trust disposition plan and adopted a resolution asking Parish President Dave
Peralta to sign the cooperative endeavor agreement with that Land Trust and
the state Office of Community Development.

The council also approved a parish liquor license for one of its members.

The Louisiana Land Trust disposition plan and the cooperative endeavor
agreement lays the groundwork for an end to some of the wrangling between
the parish and the state over the financial burden that comes with
controlling the 2,400 Hurricane Katrina-ravaged vacant lots that still dot
St. Bernard. The lots were acquired under the Road Home program from
homeowners who decided not to rebuild.

The state currently holds the deeds to the properties and is paying about
$400,000 a month to maintain them. It recently threatened to auction off
some of the properties in August, and the parish is attempting to fight that
because the council and parish administration would prefer to sell the
properties at fair market price and according to their own timeline that
would allow officilas to better control development in the parish.

While the disposition plan and the cooperative endeavor agreement place some
mutual concessions and timetables on the table, the state agencies must
still put their stamp of approval on the plans before they become official.

Louisiana Land Trust Executive Director Mike Taylor wrote two weeks ago in
an email to the council, parish executives and staff members that he feared
the disposition plan and the cooperative endeavor agreement likely would not
become official until late summer and that, "By that time, we incur an
additional $1.2 million in maintenance costs."

But Taylor, who attended the Tuesday council meeting along with director
Office of Community Development Pat Forbes, said its likely an auction would
be postponed in favor of the parish's disposition timetable, if the plan and
the cooperative endeavor agreement are approved by his and Forbes' agencies.

According to the parish plan, the lots would begin fair market sales by
October. But, if LLT moves forward with its August auction plan, Councilman
Ray Lauga introduced a provision that would rezone all the LLT properties as
government property.

"This could act as a stop gap measure when working with LLT. I hope it won't
come to that, but just in case," Lauga said.

Also at the meeting, the Parish Council approved various restrictive
covenants for the LLT properties.

All LLT purchases will be required to have a fenced-in rear yard and no
purchased lot can be re-subdivided for future individual use or sale. And
any purchasers of a parcel who accrues a substantial lien on the lot -- one
at least 50 percent of the original purchase price -- because of failure to
properly maintain its grass, the owner will be considered in violation of
the terms of the original sale and the parish or state could demand the
return of that property.

For large-scale redevelopments, individuals who purchase five or more
properties must complete construction on at least one of the sites, 20
percent of the total purchased properties, within two years. Failure to meet
that quota allows the parish or the state to demand the properties' return.

In other business, Councilman George Cavignac and parish public works
employee Craig Smith, an electrician with the water and sewer division,
recently bought The Drunken Monkey bar in Chalmette. On Friday, state
officials shut it down for the weekend saying that it didn't have the proper
state or parish liquor permits.

While the bar still is awaiting its state permit, the council on Tuesday
approved the parish liquor permit.

Cavignac abstained from the vote. All six of the other councilmen voted to
grant the permit.

Benjamin Alexander-Bloch can be reached at bbloch at timespicayune.com or
504.826.3321.

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