Council unanimously nixes 20-acre rezoning proposal

The St. Mary Parish Council voted against rezoning a 20-acre plot of land in Franklin from agriculture use to a heavy industrial site.

The parish’s Planning and Zoning Commission and many residents in the community opposed the proposed change.

Commissioners recommended the council nix the proposal, which was requested by Ursin “Sonny” Boudreaux of Chauvin Lane in Franklin, who wanted his property near the Baldwin Bridge rezoned.

The council was presented with more than 60 signatures opposing the measure. Opponents raised health, property value, safety and noise concerns.

Boudreaux, who did not speak during the St. Mary Parish Council meeting last Wednesday, wrote in a letter to his neighbors, “I was contacted by a company to lease approximately five acres in the southwest corner of the 20 acres. Their plans are to purchase drilling barges, move them to the property, then with 10 to 12 workers, remove any fluids and accessories, dismantle them, cut the barges up, load the metal onto trucks and transport the metal to a scrap yard.”

He continued, “Their plans are to transport the scrap yard, six trucks per day, Monday through Friday, with the last truck leaving around 4 p.m.”

Boudreaux said the remaining portion of the property – approximately 14 acres – would serve as a buffer zone between his neighbors’ properties and the industrial site.

Camelia Soprano was one of the opponents who addressed the parish council last Wednesday. “We are not opposed to new businesses and industries coming to our parish,” she said. “St. Mary needs to grow. We just ask that thought be put into where these companies locate.”

Soprano voiced concerns about barges being located on the property, citing an incident in Lydia where the bridge broke in the wake of flooding from Hurricane Ike. “We’re sure you are familiar with the amount of flooding the area received due to Hurricane Rita and again for Ike,” she said.

“You also must be familiar of the destruction of the bridge between Lydia and Weeks Island due to the barge that broke loose and struck the bridge during the flooding from Ike. The barges in the area they are wishing to rezone would also be subject to breaking free during flooding and striking the Katy Bridge, the old Baldwin Bridge and the railroad bridge,” Soprano continued.

She also commented about children who live and play on Chauvin Lane, “…a very narrow road that will be used by this company to truck the scrap metals out. That street runs through a strictly residential area and is the only way for these trucks to come in or out.”

The measure was unanimously defeated.

In other business, Bruce Conque of the Lafayette Chamber spoke before the council, asking for their support in the form of a resolution as he seeks funding for the completion of I-49 from Lafayette southward through Des Allemands.

Conque said the chamber is planning meetings in Baton Rouge and Washington, D.C., to discuss completing the project, positioning it more as the link to “the energy corridor” than as a vital interstate highway.

He said the cost is nearing $4 billion, considerably up from earlier projections in millions, during the mid-1990s when it first surfaced.

Conque resigned his job as a member of the Lafayette City Parish Council this summer, in order to become vice president of the Lafayette chamber, to handle marketing and governmental affairs.

“We’re trying to reinvigorate the issue in light of the recent hurricanes and the evacuation issues we’re facing,” he said.

Conque added that completion of the Lafayette section is currently at $1 billion.

“The longer we wait the more it’s going to cost,” he said. “We are going to work with the eight parishes (of the Acadiana area) including St. Mary to identify issues of common concern so we can go to Baton Rouge as a cohesive group and ask for the revenue resources we need. … We want to be the driving force.”

State Rep. Sam Jones (D-Franklin), who was in the audience during the council meeting, joined Conque at the microphone, as he spoke to the council.

Jones serves on the state legislative Transportation, Highways and Public Works Committee.

“If we could get three interchanges constructed from Youngsville to Ricohoc and the balance of the frontage roads with a price tag of about $50 million, we could open up (that section) as a fully controlled access highway,” he said. “The higher costs are going to be coming from Ricohoc through Morgan City, about $300 million, due to the multitude of intersections and the railroad.”

In fiscal matters, the council passed a resolution to raise the tipping fee at the Parish Landfill in Berwick, by $1 per ton, to maintain operational costs associated with the facility in Berwick.

After the meeting, Chief Administrative Officer Bo LaGrange said the cost would be passed on to the five municipalities in the parish – Morgan City, Berwick, Patterson, Franklin and Baldwin, who have a solid waste disposal agreement with the parish, to dump residential garbage at the facility.

“What we did here tonight will probably cost each of those municipalities an extra 10 cents per household. Now, whether or not their leaders pass this cost onto them, that’s up for them to decide,” LaGrange said.