[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish commission determined to fill empty Hurricane Katrina lots

[Westley Annis]

Full article: http://bit.ly/ZiiMzS

St. Bernard Parish commission determined to fill empty Hurricane Katrina
lots By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune Posted on
April 10, 2013 at 7:03 PM, updated April 11, 2013 at 9:45 AM

The St. Bernard Parish Housing, Redevelopment and Quality of Life Commission
is determined to get rid of Hurricane Katrina's reminders to help attract
more businesses and residents to the parish. For one, the commission on
Wednesday held a long hearing to get several parish businesses into
compliance with new signage requirements as many area businesses still had
not repaired their signs since Katrina rolled through nearly seven years
ago.

The commission also discussed a possible program wherein property owners
could swap their lots for others on the market of equal value. That idea
might allow some residents to get out of flood zones while also potentially
free up other large tracts of land for future development.

And commission members on Wednesday began planning for a "parade of homes,"
where developers might be given abandoned, empty Katrina lots through a
request for proposals process. As a requirement of receiving the free lots,
the developers would build "model homes" that could showcase development
possibilities for the thousands of empty plots that still dot the parish. 

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