The Planning Commission staff is recommending that the commission rezone a 60-acre tract on River Road that is the site of a proposed barge-cleaning facility. The staff recommends rezoning the property from M2, or heavy industrial, to HC1, or heavy commercial—a change that, if adopted by the commission at its meeting tonight and approved later this week by the Metro Council, will effectively kill plans for the controversial facility.
Last month, Metro Council members John Delgado and Chandler Loupe proposed rezoning the property amidst mounting opposition to the barge-cleaning facility, which would be developed by Port Arthur, Texas-based Tubal Cain Marine Services. Along with the zoning change, the city’s FuturEBR land use plan will also have to be amended to change the designated land use from open space to commercial. The Planning Commission staff also supports that change.
In its report, the staff notes that the proposed barge-cleaning site, which is owned by the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, is in an area that is a “mix of low and medium density, single family and apartment uses, parks and recreation and agriculture.” The report goes on to say that, “Open space land use includes areas that are considered non-developable … (and) should be reserved for properties that are publicly owned and will not be used for private industry.”
The Planning Commission does not have to follow the recommendation of its staff but it typically does, just as the Metro Council often—though not always—signs off on zoning changes approved by the Planning Commission.
In the case of this River Road property, Delgado, for one, is confident the rezoning will be approved. Opposition to the proposed facility from residents in the nearby Riverbend subdivision has been fierce, and Planning Commission staffers have received dozens of correspondences from those who plan to speak out against the facility tonight. High profile community leaders have also voiced concern, including LSU President F. King Alexander and Mayor Kip Holden.
“There has been an outcry of support in favor of this,” Delgado says. “Anyone who votes against this change will have a lot of people in Baton Rouge to answer to.”
While the Planning Commission takes up the rezoning issue tonight and the Metro Council hears it on Wednesday, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality will hold a public hearing on the matter Tuesday. But DEQ will not decide whether to issue environmental permits to Tubal Cain until the end of the month. By then, any zoning changes approved this week would be in effect, making development of the barge-cleaning facility illegal.
Tubal Cain has declined to comment until Tuesday’s hearing, when it is expected to present its case to regulators and the public.
—Stephanie Riegel
