In the wake of the August 2016 flood, the Metro Council suspended the local zoning ordinance to allow flood victims to park trailers, mobile homes and other forms of temporary housing on their property while they fixed their homes.
More than 15 months later, some Metro Council members say it’s time to get back to normal. Councilman Buddy Amoroso plans to introduce a measure at Wednesday’s council meeting that would end the waiver allowing temporary housing on lots in residential neighborhoods—except for those participating in FEMA’s Mobile Housing Unit, or MHU, program.
The council will not have a public hearing and vote on the issue until its Jan. 10 meeting.
“In times of emergency it’s reasonable to allow exemptions on temporary housing,” Amoroso says. “But there comes a time that you have to get back to what is normal and we’ve said that from the very beginning.”
It’s unclear how many trailers and mobile homes are parked on residential lots around the parish, but as of mid-November there were some 1,300 FEMA MHUs still sitting in yards and driveways. The waiver, originally set to expire last February, was extended by the council because so many parish residents were still experiencing hardship.
The council is still open to working with residents, and if council members get a lot of negative feedback from their constituents between now and Jan. 10, Amoroso says he will consider tweaking his proposed measure.
“If we get inundated with calls before the January meeting we will look at it again,” he says. “But the most important thing is to realize this is temporary housing and it was meant to take care of people who were caught in a terrible situation. But, at some point in time, we’re going to have to go back to the status quo of protecting our subdivisions and not allow trailers in peoples’ yards.”
—Stephanie Riegel
