Judge Janice Clark today ordered both the city-parish and Steve Myers back to her court in one week to file post trial briefs in lieu of closing arguments in a dispute over the definition of “family” in the city-parish’s Unified Development Code.
Attorney Grant Guillot, who is representing Myers, says he expects the judge to take at least 30 days to issue her ruling after receiving the briefs.
At issue is the definition of “family” as it relates to residences in the city-parish zoned A1 single family. Section 2.8 of the UDC defines “family” as “two or more persons who are related by blood, marriage or legal adoption.” There’s additional language in the definition, but that’s the part that primarily concerns the Myers case, which dates to a complaint a neighbor filed against him regarding one of his rental homes on Cherrydale Avenue in September 2011. The city responded by demanding that Myers comply with regulations, which would have meant kicking out four tenants whom the city deemed unrelated.
At the trial today, an expert witness for Myers’ defense says there are many families whose modern demographics would not meet the definition of “family” in the UDC use.
Dana Berkowitz, a professor in the sociology department at LSU, says there are many same-sex couples who have foster children in their homes, for example, as well as unmarried couples who cohabitate a home with children from other relationships. In these scenarios and others, the tenants would not meet the definition of “family” in the code.
“These are not off-the-wall examples,” says Berkowitz.
Patrick Finneman, one of the four tenants of the home owned by Myers at 1977 Cherrydale Ave., says he shares the home with three roommates to save money and will renew the one-year lease if Myers’ challenge in the court is successful.
“I would consider all three of them family,” Finneman says.
The city-parish today brought forth witnesses to testify that Finneman and his roommates—whom they claim are unrelated and thus illegally occupying the home—park their vehicles in the yard and sometimes party, but the judge has dismissed much of that testimony as irrelevant.
