[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish's post-Hurricane Katrina vacant lots to be discussed on Tuesday

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish's post-Hurricane Katrina vacant lots to be discussed on
Tuesday

By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on February 25, 2013 at 5:00 PM, updated February 25, 2013 at 5:15 PM Print

Ideas for St. Bernard Parish's post-Hurricane Katrina vacant lots will be
discussed during a parish planning commission public hearing on Tuesday
evening. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Parish Council
Chambers, 8201 W. Judge Perez Drive.

As a part of a parish Housing, Redevelopment and Quality of Life Authority
Commission meeting earlier this month, commission members discussed a
suggested short-term management plan for the approximately 1,400 vacant
Louisiana Land Trust lots that the state is expected to transfer to the
parish in May. But while Alexandria, Va.-based czb LLC, which is aiding in
the parish's recently-launched comprehensive master land use process, has
compiled a study with various suggestions, the parish government and Parish
Council are expected to eventually only take some of the czb suggestions.

The 1,400 parcels represent about 195 acres, and the parish will gain
control of them on May 10. The parish then can sit on them, develop them, or
sell them.

The czb study suggests ways to 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.

Since Katrina, St. Bernard, where nearly 80 percent of housing units had
severe damage from Katrina's storm surge and levee breaches, has 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.

The czb study said the parish has also been hit hard by other factors since
Katrina, including the shrinking national economy and the BP oil spill.

For a more detailed description on the czb study and the parish's process
moving forward, read a more comprehensive NOLA.com | Times-Picayune story by
clicking here.
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/02/st_bernard_parishs_post-hurri
c.html