Final Commissioner Appointed

Finally,the last position on the Planning & Zoning Commission was filled by the Ascension Parish Council at their December 16th meeting in Gonzales. With a packed council chamber, citizens again asked for new representation; someone who would listen to the people and support the community's vision for our parish.  In a letter to Personnel Committee Chairman Todd Lambert, Sherri Sliman withdrew her name prior to the meeting. The Council passed over Beverly Barre, the commissioner up for reappointment who lost her seat in the first round of appointments.  Susana Gradine, one of the four remaining applicants, was appointed.  Without the participation of so many citizens this would never have happened.  Kudos to all those who worked so hard to secure these three new appointments! 


We will continue to monitor the work of the Planning & Zoning Commission and especially the subcommittee that should be forming soon to update our current 39 page Master Plan.  

Residents Asking Developer For Concessions

Residents of Keystone recently met with representatives from the Ascension Parish Planning Department, Quality Engineering and Parish President Tommy Martinez and asked for concessions prior to the final approval of the planned unit development (PUD) in that subdivision.  All concerned citizens are asked to attend the Council Meeting in Gonzales, Thursday, December 16th at 6:00 p.m.    The final approval is on the agenda and citizens will have an opportunity to address the Council once again.


PLEASE WEAR RED TO SHOW OPPOSITION TO THE PUD AS PROPOSED!


Keystone Residents

Amendments Fail

A move by some commissioners to amend the motion of September 20th which scrapped the Master Plan in its entirety with its accompanying maps and language was postponed indefinitely at the Commission meeting on December 8th.

An amendment to the motion to create a subcommittee of the Commission including citizens and stakeholders to review and amend the current 39 page Master Plan failed for lack of a second and will not come back.

It is our hope that a subcommittee will be formed soon and work will begin on updating the current Master Plan.

Dec. 16th Parish Council Making 3rd P & Z Appointment

Thursday, December 9th the Parish Council Personnel Commmittee  met to rank the remaining applicants. Two of the commissioners who were not originally reappointed were included in the ranking: Sherri Sliman and Beverly Barre.  These two commissioners strongly supported the proposed Master Plan which failed and was rejected by the people. It is insulting to the public for the Parish Council to continue to push commissioners who do not share the vision of residents for our community.  


Deliberations were made privately and Chairman Todd Lambert announced after the meeting that three applicants of the six remaining will be presented at the Regular Council meeting of December 16th at 6 p.m. at the Gonzales Courthouse:  1.Sherri Sliman 2. Beverly Barre' 3. Susana Gradine. Members present and voting included Chairman Todd Lambert, Councilmen Dennis Cullen, Benny Johnson, and Adrian Thompson. 


We encourage all concerned citizens to attend the meeting on the 16th to ask for the third time that new commissioners be appointed to these four year positions.

Master Plan Motion Questioned /New Appointees Sworn In

The two new appointees, J.B. Esnard and Daniel Satterlee, will be sworn in on Wednesday,December 8th at the monthly Planning & Zoning Commission meeting which starts at 6:00 p.m. at the Gonzales Courthouse.   Items 11 & 12 on this agenda are for consideration to amend/rescind two motions.  The first motion scrapped the proposed Master Plan in its entirety with its accompanying maps and language.  The second motion called for a subcommittee to be formed including citizens and other stakeholders to revise the current Master Plan. At the November 10th meeting Commissioner Howard Dalton expressed his desire to rescind his vote to scrap the Master Plan. Some on the Commission hope to resurrect the proposed Master Plan which called for high density development throughout Ascension.  


We encourage citizens to attend the December 8th meeting and continue to support those on the Commission who are listening to the people.  Citizens attendance will communicate to the Commission that we are ready to work with them to update the existing Master Plan.  

Preliminary Plat for Mossy Oak Subdivision

Item 9 on the Planning & Zoning Commission's agenda for December 8th is a public hearing for the preliminary plat for Mossy Oak Subdivision, formerly Mossy Oak Planned Unit Development (PUD).  In the plat one Hundred thirty-nine homes are being proposed and every tree on the property will be bulldozed. We  encourage Ascension Parish residents to attend the meeting. The following link on the Ascension Parish website gives more details:  
http://www.ascensionparish.net/downloads/planning/120810planmeetpacket.pdf

The Politics of Appointments

Three commissioners on the Planning & Zoning Commission were up for reappointment on October 15th.  All three supported the proposed Master Plan which was overwhelmingly rejected by the people of Ascension Parish.  Two new commissioners were approved by the Parish Council on November 18th; J.B. Esnard and Daniel Satterlee. The third and final position is yet to be filled.  


The Personnel Committee met on November 29th to discuss the remaining appointment to the Planning & Zoning Commission.  Citizens were told at the November 18th meeting that the committee would choose the third commissioner from the four existing applicants. However, Personnel Committee members Benny Johnson, Chris Loar, and Adrian Thompson decided they would not choose any of the four existing applicants, but would readvertise for the position.  This decision was contrary to past actions in making appointments.  (Readvertising in the past occurred when no applications were received for an advertised position.)  Because of this scheming decision, phone calls were made to targeted councilmen who might be open to representing the vision of the people by appointing one more new person to the Commission.  While contacting councilmen, some of them told citizens the plan to readvertise would allow Alan Krouse to reapply so that they could reappoint him to the Commission.  


Readvertising for the remaining position to the Planning & Zoning Commission was on the Council's agenda for the December 2nd meeting. Alarmed by this information, citizens filled the Donaldsonville Council chambers to once again demand that the Council follow their own established procedures and choose a new member from the existing applicants who had filled out applications, submitted resumes within the deadline and had been interviewed by the Personnel Committee. 


A motion was made by George Valentine and seconded by Todd Lambert not to readvertise and to nominate Cindy Quick to the open position. Some councilmen tried to throw a curve ball in the process by having legal counsel give solicited advice suggesting that readvertising was necessary because the Personnel Committee had not ranked the candidates according to their established bylaws.  This requirement has not been followed in the past. After further questioning from Councilmen Valentine and Joseph, it was apparent that this was all part of a political ploy by certain councilmen and Tommy Martinez's administration to readvertise and bring back the reappointment of Alan Krouse who had been rejected in a 4 to 3 vote on November 18th. In the end, the Council unanimously approved a motion to have the Personnel Committee rank the existing applicants and come back to the Full Council with a recommendation. This may be as early as the Council's December 16th meeting in Gonzales.  We will keep you posted.

Mossy Oak PUD Gone, Another Development Pending

At the Ascension Parish Council meeting of November 4th about 100 citizens wore red in opposition to the proposed Mossy Oak and all PUDS. Citizens left feeling victorious because the Council voted unanimously against the proposed Mossy Oak development on Babin Road. Three councilmen were absent (Clouatre, Joseph and Loar) As chair, Councilmen Bell chose not to vote and Councilman Schexnaydre recused himself because of his connections with the project. The next day, Friday, there was some confusion about the legality of the vote. On Saturday a written legal opinion from parish attorney, Toni Falterman, was released. She stated that according to the Charter Section 6-02 C(8)  "An ordinance shall be enacted at a public meeting, when voted upon favorably by at least a majority of the members of the governing authority..." The opinion further stated there is no reason to reconsider the matter, however, the Council may wish to reconsider the vote "out of an abundance of caution."


Because the Mossy Oak PUD was not on the November 18th agenda, we can be confident this proposed PUD is gone. However, another development is being proposed for this property by the same developer; details are unknown.  Citizens must continue to follow this proposal and attend the Planning & Zoning meeting when this item is put on their agenda.    

PUD Concept to be Discussed at Strategic Planning

Monday, November 22nd, the Strategic Planning Committee will discuss the Planned Unit Development (PUD) ordinance at their meeting in the Gonzales Courthouse at 6:00 p.m.  There will be an opportunity for the public to comment on this agenda item during the meeting.  This is the first in many steps to review the PUD concept and the high density it has brought to Ascension. The PUD overlay must also be addressed. Citizens are encouraged to attend. 

Two Commissioners Appointed, One to Go

Citizens attended  the November 18th meeting of the Ascension Parish Council to ask that three new members be placed on the Planning & Zoning Commission. Numerous citizens addressed the Council. The Gonzales Courthouse was packed with an overflow into the hall as the Council appointed two new members recommended by the Personnel Committee; J.B Esnard and Daniel Satterlee. Although recommended by the Personnel Committee, Chairman Alan Krouse was not reappointed because of opposition from the public due to his continued support for the proposed Master Plan which was rejected by the people and the Planning and Zoning Commission on September 20th.  The Personnel Committee will meet in the near future to recommend one of four remaining applicants to the Full Council for the vacant position to be filled. It appears this appointment will be made at the Council Meeting on December 2nd in Donaldsonville.  While Esnard and Satterlee were unanimously approved, the vote for Alan Krouse was controversial. Councilmen Adrian Thompson, Chris Loar and Dennis Cullen supported the reappointment of Mr. Krouse while Councilmen Dempsey Lambert, Todd Lambert, and George Valentine opposed the reappointment.  Councilman Randy Clouatre broke the tie vote by opposing the appointment of Mr. Krouse. Citizens will not rest until all three appointments of the  Commission are filled with new members. 

Appointments to Planning & Zoning Commission

Tuesday, November 2nd the Personnel Committee made up of Councilmen Cullen, Lambert, Johnson, and Thompson (Loar was absent) met and interviewed nine applicants for the Planning and Zoning Commission. There are three positions open for appointment.  The three up for reappointment reapplied; Chairman Krause, Commissioners Sliman and Barre'. All three support the proposed Master Plan that failed and was rejected by the people. Deliberations were made in private and afterwards Chairman Todd Lambert announced that the committee will recommend the following three for appointment;J.B. Esnard, Alan Krause, and Daniel Satterlee. The Full Council will vote on these recommendations on November 18th at their regular meeting which begins at 6:00 p.m. at the Gonzales Courthouse. 

District 8 News (Dutchtown, Duplessis)

PUBLIC HEARING ON MOSSY OAK PUD

What is a PUD?  The acronym stands for Planned Unit Development and permits more density than present zoning allows.  Opposition to this type of development continues to swell.  It is part of the “smart growth” movement that allows more homes on less land. Citizens are working with elected officials to abolish the ordinances that allow this type of growth.  

Join others on November 4th at the Parish Council meeting at the Donaldsonville Courthouse on the 2nd floor, @6:00 p.m. Citizens are required to fill out a public comment card prior to speaking.  Speakers will be allowed three minutes to make comments during the public hearing.  

Please wear red to show opposition to all PUDS.

Mossy Oak will consist of 175 homes situated on 35.63 acres between Babin Road and Hwy. 74.  Eighty percent of these lots will be 50' lots with zero lot lines.  Mostly due to pipelines and wetlands on this property, 20.21 acres will be green space.  It also seeks to have 2.18 acres on Hwy 74 rezoned from RM (Medium residential which allows 3 units per acre) to MU-2 (Mixed Use-2 which allows 4 units per acre with commercial).  This area will be adjacent to a day care center.  The plan does not clearly specify what businesses would locate here.

For more information contact:  Greg Duplessis at 241-8315, Ranell Farrar at 673-8201, 

or  Denise Theriot at 647-6794.  If you would like to sign a petition, contact Michelle Harris at 677-8666 or Gregg Duplessis.

ATTENTION SENIOR CITIZENS!

You may qualify to freeze the value of your property and keep your taxes from being raised through assessment. 

Every year property owners have an opportunity to review the information on the assessed value of their property.  This is a 15 day period when assessment lists are open for public inspection, usually in September.  The last reassessment of property by the Assessor’s office as required by the State of Louisiana was in 2008.  Reassessments are made every four years.  The next reassessment of property will be in 2012.

If you are 65 years of age or older, have a service connected disability rating of 50% or greater, or are permanently and totally disabled as determined by a final non-appealable judgment of a court or as certified by a state or federal administrative agency you may also qualify for a special assessment.   In 2009 your adjusted gross income must be $64,410 or less.   A “special assessment” freezes the value or assessment of your property.  This means that the value of your property shall not be increased above the total assessment shown on the tax roll in the year that you qualify for the special assessment level.   Property owners will still pay taxes, but the value of their property will not be increased as long as they are residing on this same property.  This will apply only to property receiving homestead exemption. 

The one page application can be obtained at the Assessor’s office in Donaldsonville or Gonzales. Applicants must provide name, address, birth date, social security number, and adjusted gross income reported on Federal Income Tax Returns for the year prior to applying.  Incomes must be combined if you and your spouse file separately.   Contact the Assessor’s office at 647-8182 for more information.

What is happening with the Master Plan?

After hearing the possibility that the Planning Commission intended to reverse their previous vote on September 20 to kill the proposed Master Plan, members of Concerned Citizens of Ascension Parish (CCAP) attended the meeting last night, October 13.  Some commissioners were planning to add the issue for reconsideration to the agenda with a 2/3 vote.   However, they were not able to accomplish this because a unanimous vote was required by law and Commissioners Clouatre, Marchand and Nance continue to stand with the people. 

Meanwhile, we continue to wait for the Planning Commission to schedule meetings to go back and update the current thirty-nine page Master Plan as decided in their original September 20^th motion. When discussions of the Master Plan are scheduled, we will post it here.

New Deadline for Applications

Today we have learned that the deadline for applications to serve on the Planning & Zoning Commission is now October 8, 2010 at 11:30 a.m. council secretary's office first floor of the Gonzales Courthouse.  All three commissioners whose terms are expiring have reapplied.  Three others have joined in for a total of six applications thus far.  Take this opportunity to serve the community at a critical time when the Master Plan is being updated.

Three Positions Expire on P & Z Commission

"But let them consider that though good laws do well, good men do better; for good laws may lack good men...but good men will never lack good laws, nor allow bad ones." William Penn

Three appointments on the Planning and Zoning Commission, Chairman Alan Krouse, Commissioners Sherry Sliman and Beverly Barre', will expire on October 15, 2010. Terms are four years.  Minimum commitment of one meeting a month on the second Wednesday and extensive reading of documents is expected. Applications are due by October 1st at 11:30 a.m. in the Council Secretary's office bottom floor of the Gonzales Courthouse on Irma Blvd..  Contact Suzanne Patterson at 621-8577 for an application form. Concerned Citizens can also provide this application if you contact us at eyeonascension@eatel.net. A resume is requested along with the one page application. After applications are received applicants will be called for an interview by the Personnel Committee made up of four Council members: Chairman Todd Lambert, Councilmen Chris Loar, Benny Johnson, and Dennis Cullen. Recommendations for these openings will be made by the committee to the full Council and voted on.

These are political appointments. Reappointments are common. It is time to make some changes in this commission after Monday night's meeting.  These three commissioners were still opposed to killing the proposed Master Plan after overwhelming support from citizens was voiced to kill the plan.  Advertisements have not been posted in the newspaper of record, The Gonzales Weekly Citizen, in the past two weeks.  By law these positions are to be advertised.

Current infrastructure problems in the parish are directly related to growth.  The nine members of this Commission are responsible to make recommendations to the Parish Council for any rezoning or development.  The Planning & Zoning Commission is responsible to adopt, update and amend the Master Plan.

If you are concerned with the direction our government is taking us, please consider applying and encourage others who feel the same to step up and join other concerned citizens.  Apply now!

Advocate Article

By David Mitchell

GONZALES — A divided Ascension Parish Joint Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday killed a proposed comprehensive growth plan that has been in development for more than a year but has sparked strong public opposition at recent input hearings.

The commission also voted unanimously to create a new subcommittee to study a new master plan using an existing but ignored master plan dating from 1998 as a starting point.

The votes are setbacks for the parish administration and Planning Director Ricky Compton, who has worked on the plan and had asked commissioners Monday for direction on how to proceed with a plan that he said was not ready and needed some refinement.

“After 11 meetings, it was clear to us we have a lot more work to do,” Compton said as the meeting began Monday.

Compton has said that the old master plan was designed for changes to the parish’s zoning map “and was not a plan to address future growth, which is what we are trying to create.”

But faced with more than 100 residents, most, at times, raising yellow loose-leaf paper-sized signs that read “Ascension ‘Not 4 Sale’ Kill the Plan!”, the commissioners voted 4-3 to scrap the proposed new comprehensive plan.

The document and planning efforts have been funded with hundreds of thousands of dollars in parish money and federal grant funding, including money from the Baton Rouge based Center for Planning Excellence or CPEX.

However, opponents of the plan charged Monday that its “smart growth” concepts would allow too much density, destroy the parish’s quality of life and sell out the parish with low-income housing for a federal largesse of grant dollars.

“I don’t know what y’all got against Ascension Parish, but y’all ain’t helping the people that’s from Ascension Parish,” said Edward Gautreau of St. Amant.

Critics also argued for the plan to die Monday night after so much opposition during 11 input meetings between Aug. 24 and Wednesday. “The people have spoken as far as I can see,” said Ascension Parish resident Joe Nassar.

But before and after the public weighed in, the commissioners debated whether to give parish planning staff time to review and incorporate the public comments or kill the plan and start over.

Commissioner Robert Nance said he was bypassed in the early development of the plan and that the plan was not his document so he could not support it.

Commission Chairman Alan Krouse pointed out that Nance had been at several meetings, but Nance countered that he was left off a support committee that helped develop the plan and that Parish Council Chairman Pat Bell had appointed.

Commissioner Sherri Sliman, however, said she wanted to give the planning staff time to rework the plan in light of the comments from the input meetings since Aug. 24.

“I am in favor of the plan. I don’t mind saying this is a tool as a commissioner I need. I am in favor of this plan,” she said.

Voting for to kill the plan were Commissioners Milton Clouatre, Howard Dalton, Michael Marchand and Nance.

Voting against the motion to kill the plan were Sliman, Julio Dumas and Beverly Barre.

Krouse said he supported the plan but, as chairman, could not vote unless to break a tie.

The plan failed.

Commissioner Stephen Barrow, the ninth member of the commission, was absent.

When asked about the commission vote after the meeting, Sliman said it was “grandstanding, you can quote me on that.”

Marchand, who moved to kill the plan, said after the meeting he was pleased with the meeting and how the public represented itself. He said the commission has an opportunity to make true progress on a great document.

Asked about Sliman’s comment, Marchand said, “If I would have been grandstanding, I would have stood up.”

Commission Kills Proposed Master Plan

We want to thank the people of Ascension who joined with us by attending public meetings, sharing their concerns, and standing together with citizens from all over our parish to protect our community from the proposed Master Plan that was pushed by officials. That plan is gone, but the work is not. A special thanks to those Planning and Zoning Commissioners who listened to the people and voted to kill the plan! This and other issues must be equally addressed by the citizens. If you want to work with others in the community to keep government accountable please contact us at eyeonascension@eatel.net.