[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish's post-Hurricane Katrina housing market discussed

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish's post-Hurricane Katrina housing market discussed

By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on February 13, 2013 at 6:24 PM, updated February 13, 2013 at 10:16 PM Print
LATEST ST. BERNARD PARISH POLITICS STORIES
In terms of St. Bernard Parish's still struggling post-Hurricane Katrina
housing market and general growth, condemning property to prevent future
development is not a viable solution, parish councilmen and administrative
staff agreed on Wednesday afternoon. As a part of a parish Housing,
Redevelopment and Quality of Life Authority Commission meeting, they and
other commission members discussed a suggested short-term management plan
for the about 1,400 vacant, Katrina-ravaged Louisiana Land Trust lots that
the state is expected to transfer to the parish in May.

Alexandria, Va.-based czb LLC, who is aiding in the parish's
recently-launched comprehensive master land use and zoning plan process,
compiled a study on how to handle the lots -- representing about 195 acres
-- once the parish gains control of them on May 10. The parish then can sit
on them, it can develop them, or it can sell them.

The czb plan recommends a method that might improve the local housing market
while cutting down on parish maintenance costs, such as cutting grass on the
vacant land. It basically suggests first attempting to sell single-family
lots on parish blocks that already are more repopulated.

The HRQL commission is forming a subcommittee to further examine the czb
proposal. And at 7 p.m. Feb. 26, the parish Planning Commission is scheduled
to hold a meeting where the public can voice its opinion.

Prior to Katrina, homes, businesses, apartment buildings and small parks
were on the now-vacant parcels. Then, after the storm, the lots were
acquired under the Road Home program from homeowners who decided not to
rebuild.

But soon, the parish's focus shifted from storm recovery to resettlement, a
goal still at the forefront of parish efforts today -- now more than seven
years after Katrina.

St. Bernard, where nearly 80 percent of housing units had severe damage from
Katrina's storm surge and levee breaches, has since experienced the most
dramatic population decline of any parish in the state, according to the
2010 census. Its population fell by 47 percent from its 2000 figure of
67,229.

And, the czb study points out that, "just as recovery was hitting its
stride, the national housing market collapsed and with it, access to credit
markets, making borrowing that much more difficult.

St. Bernard Parish Louisiana Land Trust czb strategies
http://www.scribd.com/doc/125359358/St-Bernard-Parish-Louisiana-Land-Trust-S
trategies-czb-Suggestions

"Along with a shrinking national economy from March 2008 until August 2010,
the labor market tightened severely, making jobs scarcer," the study
continues. "In April 2010, BP's Deepwater Horizon exploded, with serious
implications for the stability of a then (and still today) very fragile St
Bernard economy."

The HRQL commission is expected to recommend certain portion of the czb
proposal to the Planning Commission, which in turn will make recommendations
to the Parish Council for its final approval.

Aspects of the czb proposal will modify the existing LLT disposition plan
adopted by the Parish Council in July. That plan was more of a procedural
blueprint, in part suggesting a three-year strategy wherein the parish would
attempt to sell a little more than half the remaining lots and rest into
types of green space. The czb plan proposes more of a strategy, a path to
follow.

Following Katrina, the Louisiana Land Trust started with 4,464 vacant lots.
Residents have signed about 2,400 purchase agreements for Lot Next Door
properties, with about 400 of those still awaiting final sale. But through
the Lot Next Door program, while adjacent property owners could buy the lots
at a reduced price, they could not build homes on them.

In terms of the remaining unsold parcels, many of them were combined to
increase the size of lots, thus bringing the total number of remaining
properties down to the about 1,400 mark.

St. Bernard Parish current LLT disposition plan by
http://www.scribd.com/doc/125398073/St-Bernard-Parish-current-LLT-dispositio
n-plan

The czb disposition study recommends the parish initially look to selling
only about 215 of the 1,400 lots -- thus in more repopulate parish areas.
And while parish ownership of the lots will come with "carrying costs," such
has mowing grass, czb states that selling the lots as a means of reducing
such costs "would perpetuate the reasons that St Bernard is and has been a
weak market."

The study notes "a profound weak market condition exemplified by excess
supply of land as well as housing units."

It states that by reducing the supply of developable land, especially within
flood-prone areas, and heightening home development regulations, it would
increase construction standards and lead to more marketable homes.

"At the heart of the dilemma of persistent market weakness in St Bernard is
the nagging issue of surplus. Surplus single family homes. Surplus
commercial space. Surplus land. Surplus apartment units," the study states.
"When there is an excess of anything, its value is, at best, unstable, and
more typically, falling."

The study also suggests requiring that all buyers occupy homes on the lots
within two years of purchase.