Buffer zone stays as is

Council votes to kill increase



By KEVIN BLANCHARD
Dec 22, 2007


On Kaliste Saloom Road, a four-story hotel looms high over the back yard of homes, just 10 feet from their back fences.  On Johnston Street, a fast-food restaurant’s dumpsters sit just 5 feet from a back yard.

Councilmen have heard complaints from those neighbors, but there’s little that can be done — the developments followed Lafayette’s rules.

Councilman Bruce Conque looks at his district and worries a repeat could be on the way — large tracts of vacant commercial land on Ambassador Caffery Parkway are bounded on each side by established residential neighborhoods.

Conque proposed an ordinance that would have increased the “buffer” zone between residential and commercial areas.

The City-Parish Council on Tuesday, in one of its last acts, killed the ordinance, saying it could result in commercial developers having to scale down their plans.

“Once you start applying these buffers, you start shrinking the amount of property that can be used,” Councilman Lenwood Broussard said during debate Tuesday. “What you’re trying to fix is good, but what you’re gonna do is create a hardship on people who own property.”

Conque said what’s lost in the debate is the hardship the new commercial developments can have on established neighborhoods.

“We need to protect people who already live there and who have invested in their homes,” Conque said.

The buffer zone ordinance failed 6-3.

Councilmen Conque, Marc Mouton and Rob Stevenson voted for the ordinance.

Councilmen Broussard, Randy Menard, Bobby Badeaux, Dale Bourgeois, Chris Williams and Louis Benjamin voted against it.

Broussard pointed out that buffer rules would require a 300 feet by 300 feet development, bordered on three sides by residences, to set aside about 6,000 square feet for setbacks — out of 90,000 total.
 
With the proposed new buffer zones — which take into account the height of the building — a 2 1/2-story building on that same piece of land would have 18,000 feet of property used for setbacks, which could include parking.
Broussard said he agreed with the idea in principle, but that the formula might have a disproportionate effect on smaller parcels than it would on a Wal-Mart size development. “We’re always applying a Wal-Mart acreage versus the people that own small pieces of property,” Broussard said. “It’s not the same application, guys.”

Conque said any applicant would be able to ask for a variance, so that individuals with unique situations would have a chance to plead their case. Conque said the requirements are not “onerous.”  “I look at it from the perspective that we’re trying to protect established residential areas of the City of Lafayette,” Conque said. “They were here first.”

Stevenson said he hopes the new council — which will assume office in January — will take up the issue again. “We have to look after the established neighborhoods in town. I think they’re already under attack on many different fronts,” Stevenson said.  If developers won’t be “good neighbors” on their own, the city’s rules should protect neighborhoods, Stevenson said.  “I can tell where this vote’s going,” Stevenson said. “So I encourage the new council to take this up and do something about it. Maybe you guys won’t have the same police jury mentality that some of us have.”


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