The owner of Covington Country Club will be able to build a handful of new homes along the club's golf course, but not as many as the Zoning Commission had recommended to the St. Tammany Parish Council. The council voted 13-0 last week to reject the commission's suggestion that it rezone 22 parcels, or roughly 30 acres, as A-2...
The owner of Covington Country Club will be able to build a handful of new homes along the club's golf course, but not as many as the Zoning Commission had recommended to the St. Tammany Parish Council.
The council voted 13-0 last week to reject the commission's suggestion that it rezone 22 parcels, or roughly 30 acres, as A-2 residential, with Councilman Reid Falconer substituting his own list of properties to be rezoned: 14 in all, totaling more than 20 acres.
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Richard S. Blossman Sr. is owner of Covington Country Club.Both the attorney representing club owner Richard S. Blossman Sr. and a representative of the club's neighborhood association had appealed the commission's March 2 decision. Attorney Jeff Schoen asked the council to add more parcels to the commission's recommendation, while Barbara Dodds wanted the council to reduce the number of new lots.
Though Dodds won her appeal, she said afterward she would have liked the council to reduce the number of lots even further. She said the homes in her subdivision were sold with certain amenities in place, so she was not happy with the plans to alter various holes in a way that she believed would destroy the course.
The council's decision, at a minimum, allows Blossman to build some new homes along the course, as opposed to an earlier council vote that kept the entire course free from new residential construction.
The council did not know when it voted in September to rezone the course that the parish recently had agreed to subdivide some of the property into residential parcels. Blossman later sued the council and commission, pointing out the discrepancy, a move that prompted the council to send the matter back to the commission for reconsideration.
Ten of the new lots are located north of Country Club Drive, while four are south, and most are 1 to 2 acres in size. More than 120 acres along the course remain zoned as a community-based facilities district, a designation that would allow only churches, religious schools, clubs and lodges, and fraternal and religious institutions, should Blossman one day choose to redevelop the course.
The commission suggested rezoning some of the lots because several already contained homes or had been slated for home sites by the parish through the minor subdivision process.
In addition, several other lots that the commission had recommended to the council were located in spots where building new homes would not have disrupted the course in a significant way, Schoen said at the time. However, Falconer balked at adding these lots to the list, noting that the sewer district serving the neighborhood is near capacity and that adding more homes would overwhelm the system.
He also questioned whether the parish's Planning Department had obtained an environmental services checklist prior to completing the minor subdivision that would have shown whether all of the sanitary provisions had been met. Planning Director Sidney Fontenot said that the checklist isn't governed by an ordinance and that the Environmental Services Department was not required to sign off at that time.
The council initially suggested the CB-1 designation for the entire course as part of the parish's efforts to rezone every parcel in the unincorporated areas. The zoning sought to ensure that the area's older golf courses do not become apartments or housing tracts in the future.
Prior to the zoning change, the course had been zoned as suburban agriculture, which allowed residential uses.
Christine Harvey can be reached at charvey@timespicayune.com or 985.645.2853.