Public hearing on Rouzan plan will likely come in March

On Wednesday, the Metro Council will consider setting a public hearing on March 21 to discuss a disputed plan for the latest phase of the Rouzan traditional neighborhood development off Perkins Road, between Lee Drive and Kenilworth Parkway.

Developer Tommy Spinosa is asking the Metro Council to overturn a Feb. 13 ruling by the Planning Commission that denies approval of the final development plan for Creekside, which Spinosa says would consist of 26 single-family homes on roughly six of the 120 total acres in the mixed-use development.
"It's totally consistent with the concept plan that was previously approved by the Planning Commission and the Metro Council," Spinosa says of the Creekside final development plan. "We're not asking for anything that hasn't already been approved."

The original concept plan for Rouzan was approved in November 2007. Since then, Spinosa has gotten approval on three final development plans for different phases of the project. Three homes are currently under construction in one phase, while the other two phases have not yet broken ground.

Some Planning Commission members, including Tara Wicker—who also sits on the Metro Council—had reservations about giving approval to the Creekside plan because a servitude dispute exists between Spinosa and two people who own three parcels of land in the middle of the development (you can read a Daily Report article from December about the servitude dispute here).

The Feb. 13 Planning Commission vote on the plan was 4-4, just one vote short of the five needed for approval. At the same meeting, the commission gave approval to an amendment to the concept plan concerning a shift in green space (check out a Daily Report article from earlier this month about that change here).

Although a court has dismissed an injunction filed against Spinosa by the two property owners in the servitude dispute, Wicker says she still has reservations about approving the plan.

"I haven't heard anything else since (the Planning Commission meeting). My main issue is that there's so much litigation going on with the servitude, and my apprehension is that it has not been completely resolved," Wicker says. "As I understand, there's still an opportunity for something to be brought up, and I do not want to get in the middle of something that the courts need to decide on."

Spinosa says the servitude issue should have nothing to do with the approval of the Creekside plan, adding that he or a representative will nonetheless discuss it during a public hearing to show the Metro Council they are legally in the right. He says the servitude issue is being exploited by "a small, but vocal group" of nearby residents who have opposed Rouzan from the start and are trying to use any issue they can to stop the development.

"This is the most highly scrutinized project probably that ever was," Spinosa says. "But look at all the legal rulings on this—and there's been a lot of them—and you'll see that they haven't won a single one. They have created delays, and the delays have cost us a lot of money, but we've been moving forward in slow, measured steps, and we're going to continue to do so."

If you're a bit confused about what's really going on at Rouzan, so is at least one Metro Council member. While R.J. "Smokie" Bourgeois says he doesn't know how he'll vote on the matter, he has serious concerns about the future direction of the project—which is also slated to include a new public library branch on land Spinosa donated to the city-parish.

"It is a can of worms. … Nobody made it a can of worms but the developer himself," Bourgeois says. "The problem is, you don't really understand what the hell the program is. This has been going on for five to six years, and nobody really knows what the plan is. It's been changed, modified, moved around. It's almost like you're dealing with the IRS. … So I don't know (what I'm going to do when it comes back to us)."

Spinosa was also the developer of Perkins Rowe on Bluebonnet Boulevard. In August of last year, Cleveland-based KeyBank won a $170 million suit against Spinosa relating to Perkins Rowe and gained the right to foreclose on the development. Although Spinosa has long stressed financing and other aspects of the Rouzan project have no connection to Perkins Rowe, it's rare to hear a Rouzan conversation that doesn't include at least some mention of Perkins Rowe. It's possible the subject could arise when, and if, a public hearing takes place before the Metro Council—which has not revisited the Rouzan project since Spinosa lost the Perkins Rowe suit after years of litigation. Wednesday's agenda item on Rouzan is purely an introductory measure, meaning the public will not have an opportunity to comment.

The Metro Council meets at 4 p.m. Wednesday on the third floor of the Governmental Building at 222 St. Louis St. You can check out the full agenda here.