With its rolling hills, antebellum plantation homes and historic St. Francisville, West Feliciana Parish is a popular weekend gateway, tourist destination and retirement community.
But the parish has long grappled with a shortage of housing that has made it difficult for young couples, first-time homebuyers and middle class professionals to settle there, Business Report details in a new feature.
Historically, the problem has been hard to solve. Much of the undeveloped land in West Feliciana is closely held by a few families—who’ve resisted development, partly out of fear of altering the beloved community’s culture.
But there are signs of change.
In the past several months, parish officials have approved plans for two new upscale residential developments—the 158-acre subdivision Sage Hill Trace and the 52-acre subdivision Long Leaf—and a third is up for approval in August.
More significantly, the West Feliciana School Board is working with the St. Francisville Area Foundation on a master plan for a 21-acre tract it owns that could be redeveloped into a medium or high density residential community of affordable or “workforce” housing for the young families the parish so desperately needs to attract.
It’s a small step, says Parish President Kevin Couhig, who has been an advocate for growing the parish since taking office in late 2013, but a significant one that West Feliciana needs if it is to survive.
“It’s the perfect infill development,” Couhig says. “We’re hoping it will be done in a way that will build smaller houses for first-time homebuyers and for young families, which is our most important need.”
