[StBernard] St. Bernard finally to receive bulk of Katrina-era vacant lots from state

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard finally to receive bulk of Katrina-era vacant lots from state
Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on July 19, 2013 at 4:55 PM, updated July 19, 2013 at 5:07 PM

Nearly eight years after Hurricane Katrina, St. Bernard Parish by the end of
this month will receive the bulk of its remaining Katrina-ravaged lots from
the state. By July 31, the parish is expected to officially receive
ownership of nearly 1,000 properties.

Originally, the state acquired about 4,600 lots in St. Bernard under the
Road Home program from homeowners and others who decided not to rebuild
after Katrina.

Through various programs such as the Lot Next Door, more than 2,600 of the
properties were sold. Numerous lots were combined, reducing the number
further. And another 750 or so were turned over to the parish, Lake Borgne
Levee Basin Levee District and area nonprofits.

That still leaves about 1,000 lots that the parish will gain ownership of in
the next few weeks. And, generally, those lots are the ones that the parish
has not yet been unable to find interest in.

The parish has three basic options.

It can hold them. It can develop them. Or it can try to find new ways to
sell them.

Last September, parish government embarked on a 12-month process to create
its first-ever parish-wide comprehensive master plan to develop a vision for
the parish's future.

While a draft of that land use and zoning plan is being written - it's
expected to be presented to the public sometime in August - it largely will
just provide a road map for the parish's development over the next 20 to 30
years.

For short-term management of the lots, Alexandria, Va.-based czb LLC drafted
a plan earlier this year suggesting the parish first try to sell
single-family lots on those blocks in the parish that already are more
repopulated.

And it appears that the parish, with Louisiana Land Trust's help, is
expected to do a test run of just that.

The state and the parish currently are in the early stages of talks about a
possible developer deal, whereby about 150 of the remaining lots would be
sold as a "builder bundle."

"The goal of this program will be to stimulate the construction of new
housing stock in areas where we have LLT lots in groups that are contiguous
or close together," said Candace Watkins, director of the parish's
Department of Community Development.

Meanwhile, the parish warns it will struggle financially to cover the upkeep
of the lots. It has projected an annual cost of $830,000 to cut the grass on
the lots, about $500 per lot.

The Louisiana Land Trust has given the parish about $1.3 million - largely
money garnered from the sale of Lot Next Door properties - to help cover
maintenance and other costs. And the state Office of Community of
Development has another $3.5 million in program income that the parish also
is expected to be able to use for the lots' associated costs.

But that money won't last forever.

The czb study also suggested replanting the lots in a manner that would
require less grass cutting. While the study doesn't specify what type of
vegetation should be planted, it contends that through such revegetation,
grass cutting costs could drop to about $230,000 a year.

Also depending on how that initial "builder bundle" goes, there could be
more bundles to come. And, the parish can use money from any future sales of
the lots toward lots' maintenance and other costs.