Beauregard Town is sometimes called one of Baton Rouge’s most underappreciated assets. Encompassing about 60 blocks, the city’s second-oldest neighborhood is nearly three times bigger than Spanish Town, its more famous older cousin on the north side of downtown.
Capt. Elias Beauregard, the great-uncle of Civil War Gen. Pierre G.T.?Beauregard, founded Beauregard Town in 1806. The grand, European-style planned community he envisioned, built around a public square at the center of the X where four diagonal streets meet, never came to fruition; Government Street now runs across the middle of the planned square, from St. Charles Street west to St. Joseph Street. But the hilly terrain, vintage houses and mix of homes and businesses make the neighborhood unlike any other in the city.
When Brian Goad, the civic association’s president, first lived there as a student in 2001, he didn’t know his neighbors. When he now goes out for a jog, people who want to chat stop him at practically every corner. But, he says, his house on Penalver Street is one of only three homes on his block, and he’s surrounded by darkness and silence after the business owners have gone home for the day. He says Beau-?regard Town is becoming a haven for young professionals, hipsters and progressive families—groups who often feel out of place in Baton Rouge—but fears the area may never reach its potential if the city continues to cede ground to commercial uses at the expense of residential.
“We’re on the brink of something,” Goad says. “We’re on the cusp.”
Thirty-plus years ago, Beauregard Town was in transition. Vacant and dilapidated houses were common. But the neighborhood’s proximity to government offices and courthouses, combined with a shortage of Class A office space downtown, made what had been a heavily residential area attractive to business owners, particularly lawyers.
“The commercial side is what stabilized and reinvigorated interest in Beauregard Town,” says Greg Eaton, an attorney and former resident who owns several properties in the neighborhood. Most of the lifelong residents now are gone, and some new blood has moved in.
“There has always been people living there,” Eaton says. “A lot of those people in Spanish Town can live wherever they choose; they just like that urban feel, and you’re seeing a little bit more of that in Beauregard Town.”
But new residents aren’t always thrilled with the commercial uses that made the neighborhood attractive in the first place, and what might have been an uncontroversial zoning change 10 years ago has turned into a microcosm of this tension.
The house at 258 St. Joseph St. had fallen into disrepair; some neighbors say it literally was a crack house, but others say that’s an exaggeration. Attorneys with two firms, McCormick & McCormick and Prater Bailey and Associates, bought the house while it was being renovated, and both firms work there now.
Calls placed to the firms were not returned. John Schneider, a consultant to the new owners, says they were well aware of the house’s residential zoning when they bought it last summer, but assumed they’d be able to get it rezoned, since the surrounding properties in that area on the north side of Government Street are mostly zoned for neighborhood offices.
“That’s not excusing them,” Schneider says. “They didn’t anticipate the opposition that developed.”
The first complaint to the city, essentially saying the house was being renovated into an office on the sly, was made in September. After an inspection, the city-parish Department of Public Works issued a complaint letter in October. Goad says a sign went up in January, indicating the new owners were running their offices out of the residential-zoned property.
Some neighbors were happy to see an abandoned house converted to a productive use, but others were annoyed by the circumvention of the zoning rules and the parking issues the law firms created. Things became testy, with accusations and insults exchanged between the lawyers and some association members. Goad, a landscape architect, says documents like Plan Baton Rouge II, which calls for more residential development downtown, should have settled the issue.
“We spend a lot of money to get some of the greatest planners, and I think it’s money well spent,” Goad says. “It’s in black and white; it wasn’t even a controversy [for me]. Follow the plan.”
The matter went before the Planning and Zoning Commission in April. Downtown Development District Executive Director Davis Rhorer backed Goad’s interpretation of Plan Baton Rouge, and the commission denied the attorneys’ rezoning request. The Metro Council overruled the commission in May with two dissenters: Alison Cascio, who has a planning background, and Tara Wicker, who represents the area.
Schneider says some of the rezoning opponents live in houses zoned commercial. He suggests they might not be happy if they were no longer able to sell their properties as such, since residential buildings generally draw lower offers.
“My recommendation is the [neighborhood] association should make a concerted effort to all the property owners in that entire area,” he says, “requesting that they take action to zone the property A4 [residential] should it be sold again.”
At some point, Rhorer says, the city should look at the Beauregard Town map and see if the zoning can be brought more in line with the actual land uses. The ultimate goal, he adds, is better predictability for anyone who wishes to invest in the neighborhood, and says the neighborhood association members will have their say.
Neighborhood residents like their local businesses, but they also want more neighbors. Beauregard Town is in transition once again, and a delicate balance will have to be struck, possibly resulting in a few more spats along the way.
“Those are just growing pains, and we’re working through them with some consternation, but not an inordinate amount,” Eaton says. “It’s a nice place to live and a nice place to work. That’s pretty good.”
