Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include information from Mayor Pro Tem Chandler Loupe.
The controversial 90-day building moratorium on parts of Highland Road was deleted from the Metro Council agenda Wednesday to clear up some of the language in the proposed ordinance.
Mayor Pro Tem Chandler Loupe made a motion to delete the item so the definition of “new development” in the ordinance can be tweaked.
Loupe proposed the development moratorium on Highland Road between Siegen Lane and Perkins Road because he felt the area has become overdeveloped and the existing infrastructure could not keep up with development.
Loupe says he plans to bring the item back up before the council in about 30 days. Because the item was deleted, it needs to be introduced again before a public hearing and vote. He says he Parish Attorney’s Office is already working to fix the ambiguous language.
Assistant Planning Director Ryan Holcomb says from what he understands, some on the council felt the definition for “new development” in the Unified Development Code was too broad and needed to be narrowed down and made more specific.
Holcomb says he has yet to see any new language from Loupe or the Parish Attorney’s Office.
The proposed moratorium is the latest step in the ongoing debate about development along parts of Highland Road. Several residents of Highland and Pecue Lane asked the council last year to change the zoning of hundreds of properties in a three-mile radius from rural to REA1. Rural zoning allows for about seven lots per acre, while REA1 allows only one lot per acre.
The Baton Rouge Growth Coalition opposed the moratorium and sent a letter to each council member last week urging them to oppose the ordinance.
Larry Bankston, executive director of the Baton Rouge Growth Coalition, says one of the group’s original issues with the moratorium—beside opposing it outright—was that there were no definitions for some of the terms in it, so they had no idea what was included or excluded. In a letter sent to the city-parish, Bankston says East Baton Rouge could face legal challenges because of the ordinance’s ambiguity in language.
He adds that his group, along with the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors, still opposes the moratorium.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the council also kept another controversial item from being introduced—residency requirements for new Baton Rouge Police Department hires—which drew some opposition.
The council introduced all items except a proposal that would have required all Baton Rouge police hires after Jan. 1 to live within the Baton Rouge city limits. An attempt to separately introduce the proposal later in the meeting failed.
Metro Councilwoman Chauna Banks, who introduced the proposal, says she is currently mulling over whether to revisit the item in its original language or make changes to the wording that have been proposed by some members of the community.
“For sure it will be revisited,” she says.
—Ryan Broussard
