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.