Amid mounting public concern over a proposed barge cleaning facility on the Mississippi River near LSU’s intramural fields and BREC’s Farr Park Equestrian Center, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality this morning agreed to delay until Aug. 18 a public hearing on the project that was originally scheduled for next week.
The announcement by DEQ came a day after Daily Report broke news that Mayor Kip Holden and LSU President F. King Alexander requested the delay, joining the chorus of environmental activists and those who live near the site of the proposed facility who are concerned about the health hazards it poses.
The barge cleaning facility is being proposed by Port Arthur, Texas-based Tubal-Cain Marine Service and would include a dockside mooring area, two working deck barges with 10 mounted 15,000-gallon storage tanks, as well as a steam boiler, transfer pumps and piping, a truck loading station and enclosed flare.
Also this week, the fate of a proposed tax increment financing district to help fund construction of the Courtyard Marriott planned for the intersection of Third and Florida streets was thrown into question by an email made public by Daily Report.
The email, which was circulated among Metro Council members, questions the viability of the downtown hotel market and is written by the very developer seeking the TIF for the Courtyard Marriott—Bo Aughtry of Windsor Aughtry Hotel Group.
Aughtry sent the email in March to local developer Mike Wampold, who is developing a competing Marriott Autograph hotel down the street from the planned Courtyard site. At the time, the developers were vying to be the first to get their projects off the ground.
In the correspondence, Aughtry asks Wampold to “re-examine alternatives—or even delay development—as, I believe we will all be damaged with added room supply in a market that already suffers.”
The email goes on to say that “the downtown Baton Rouge market remains quite soft, with the Hilton offering $96-$99 rates to all large accounts—incredible. Nobody in this sub market will finish at 70% (occupancy) this year … It is simply a very difficult lodging environment.”
Metro Councilman John Delgado, who remains undecided on the latest TIF, says the email raises serious concerns among some council members as to “whether or not we need to basically subsidize one hotel to the detriment of the existing hotels.”
Meanwhile, a Baton Rouge judge dealt yet another blow to supporters of the St. George incorporation movement this week, when he threw out on a technicality a lawsuit filed by leaders of the incorporation movement against parish Registrar of Voters Steve Raborn.
