Expropriation bill advances, assessor to reappraise Gibson property

Senate Bill 33 flew the Transportation, Highways and Public Works committee last Thursday on its way to the state senate this week.

Sen. Butch Gautreaux, D-Morgan City described the surprisingly short meeting as having “no excitement.” No one spoke in favor for or against the bill. No questions were asked and no amendments to it were proposed.

Senate Bill 33 would redefine which properties the Terrebonne Parish Port Commission could expropriate, expanding the port’s expropriation powers, allowing it to seize property that hasn’t had an operating facility on it for two or more years before the filing of an expropriation petition and only if the facility doesn’t fall into the categories of shipbuilding, fabrication and seafood handling.

The catalyst for the bill and the change to existing law is the 1,700 or so acres of land in Gibson along Bayou Black, which is owned by the South Carolina-based L-M Limited Partnership and its president Porter Baron.

The Port Commission and the Terrebonne Economic Development Authority would like to see the neglected land developed to bring jobs to the community, but they have to get it out of Baron’s hands someway for this to happen.

Baron has said he has wanted to sell the land for years and has gone through TEDA for help in finding interested parties.

But, negotiations through TEDA and the companies TEDA has brought to the table for Baron came to a crashing halt. Baron has asked for over $100 million for his land in its more than 1,700-acre glory.

And $100 million or more is a lot to ask for land Terrebonne Parish assessor Gene P. Bonvillain said is scheduled to be reassessed to having about a $30 million market value for taxation purposes.

“It’s like anything else. If somebody wants to give him $100 million I think he’d take it,” the assessor said. “I wouldn’t put it on the tax roll for a $100 million. I don’t even know if I would put it on the tax roll for a $100 million if somebody paid a $100 million for it.”

Bonvillain said Baron’s land had been previously assessed to be about $7million. The change in its value to $30 million is scheduled to be filed this fall.

Bonvillain broke up the land into categories. He defined only 330 acres of it as actually being “usable” with about 270 acres comprising woodlands. The rest of the sum is marshland.

The assessor said both the woodlands and the marshlands would require mitigation to be developed. And the marshlands aren’t even considered to be feasible for development, as they would require not only mitigation, but filling-in.

“It can be done, but it would be an astronomical amount of dollars,” said Bonvillain.

He doesn’t think Baron’s asking price is that outrageous, however.

“He’s not that out the ball park. He’s just got negotiating power. He’s got a hot commodity,” said Bonvillain. “I don’t think he’s out to skin anybody. He’s like everybody else. He wants to get the best bang for his buck.”

The land, which is near the Assumption-Lafourche border, offers railway, highway and waterway access. It is also near two power substations owned by different power companies, SLECA and Entergy.

Bonvillain explained the land might be worth it to the right company at such a high price if the company were caught in a situation where it needed to move in a hurry.

“It’s not a bad move. If it’s worth $30 million and everybody knows it’s worth $30 million. And he’s demanding a $100 million. Then hell if he winds up with $35 million or $40 million,” said Bonvillain. “Like everything else, you want to sell your house or your car you’re going to ask for a higher value and somebody going to come in and lowball you, then you’re going to be somewhere in between.”

Even if Senate Bill 33 passes, Baron’s land may not instantly become the target for expropriation by the Port Commission.

Terrebonne Parish Port Commission director David Rabalais said the expropriation option has been all been ruled out by his commission. It just wouldn’t have the necessary support.

“That option’s really been ruled out by my commission,” said Rabalais.

Rabalais said the Port Commission hasn’t ever expropriated any property in the past, as far as he was aware.

“If, that’s a big ‘if,’ we did do expropriation, we could only do it on land we had someone interested in. And I don’t think anybody’s been interested in the whole piece,” said Rabalais.

Rabalais is, of course, speaking of the nearly 330 acres of “usable” land.

The wetlands would more than likely just be a drawback for anyone interested in the land. Rabalais said the wetland acreage could be used as a mitigation credit for a mitigation back, but that would be about all it could be used for, as creating wetlands elsewhere would be costly.

“All we wanted to use that [Senate Bill 33] for, really, was to use it as leverage to bring him [Porter Baron] to the table to deal more reasonably,” said Rabalais. “You have to put yourself in the perspective of the government. He came to the government and said I want ya’ll to help me sell my land. Help me market it. And so the government did that for him. TEDA did that, expended money to do it. And he keeps on pulling the rug out from under you when you bring somebody to the table.”

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