Updates from the Jefferson Parish Council meeting
These are updates from the Jefferson Parish Council meeting Wednesday to discuss plans to reform Fat City.
Jason Jaume speaks in oposition to a massive zoning ordinance aimed at Fat City at the Jefferson Parish Council meeting Wednesday. 12:34 p.m.
The Jefferson Parish Council today unanimously passed the massive ordinance overhauling Fat City, including the much-debated earlier closing times for bars, introducing the popular national movement of New Urbanism for the first time in the parish.
The plan envisions a gradual transformation of Fat City from a languishing former nightlife district into a pedestrian-friendly destination for shoppers, diners, families and condominium residents, modeled on classic, Main Street city designs.
12:29 p.m.
The opponents are finished, Sheriff Normand gave an impassioned rebuttal on behalf of the proponents, and the members of the Jefferson Parish Council now are speaking on the plan to revamp Fat City, starting with Cynthia Lee-Sheng, whose district includes the blocks in question.
She said Jefferson Parish is trying to apply similar strategies that New York City used to successfully reform Times Square, although on a much smaller scale.
12:17 p.m.
Speakers against the earlier closing times for bars are arguing it will kill their businesses, unfairly discriminating against them by geography.
Several of them have argued the council should defer the ordinance to work out a compromise with bar owners.
Anthony Marullo, whose City Bar on Hessmer Avenue was recently raided for underage drinking - charges that he disputes - said the law hurts families that rely on these businesses.
Brian Brothers, who was recently rejected by the council for a proposed nightclub on Causeway Boulevard outside Fat City, sparred with Councilwoman Cynthia Lee-Sheng, pushing her to defer the vote and reach a compromise.
Lee-Sheng stated adamantly that the issues have been fully discussed and debated, that she has met and spoken openly with anyone who called her about Fat City, and that she is ready to vote for the plan.
Other civic activists questioned the legality of the plan, suggesting it advances improper discrimination. Parish officials have said lawyers vetted the rules and found no legal deficiencies.
11:50 a.m.
The opponents of the Fat City plan began with Jason Jaume, owner of The Bar, a heavy metal venue on Edenborn Avenue. Jaume has emerged as a spokesperson for bar owners who oppose proposed bar closing times of midnight most nights and 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Jaume said police calls for service drop off after midnight, suggesting bars that stay open late cannot be the source of problems
He reiterated an argument that rundown apartments generate crime, being careful to state that he was not referring to the property of earlier speaker Melvin Smith, who took umbrage at such claims. Jaume's observation is that undocumented immigrants living in apartments cause many of the problems.
Jaume said Fat City Bar owners support most of the plan to revitalize the district and find it frustrating that one provision forces them to stand up against it.
11:20 a.m.
The series of proponents to the Fat City plan have included representatives of the East Jefferson Business Association, the owner of Lakeside Camera and Photoworks, the past president of the Jefferson Chamber, incoming president of the Apartment Association of Greater New Orleans, the Jefferson Business Council, a Fat City resident, apartment complex owners, a Civic Leauge of East Jefferson spokeswoman and most right now, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand.
They echo a theme that this is the opportunity to raise Fat City to its potential, creating a much needed centerpiece for Jefferson Parish.
One speaker, Fat City resident Melvin Smith, drew rumbles from the audience when he said he was tired of bar owners blaming problems on residents. He said many of the residents are retired professionals exasperated by crime and litter stemming from businesses.
Council Chairman John Young warned the audience to keep quiet during Smith's remarks, after he earlier warned that anyone crossing the line by making personal attacks will be escorted out of the council chamber.
10:58 a.m.
As the public discussion portion of the Fat City debate begins, things already turn tense. An audience member, civic activist Richard Brown, stands up to object to the council plans to limit debate on both sides to a total of 30 minutes each.
Jim Hudson of Omni Bank, who represented businesses on the committee to redevelop Fat City is the first to speak.
"I wonder if anyone would want their children wandering around Fat City at 2 or 3 in the morning," he said. "I doubt it."
He talks of businesses, other than bars, that are threatening to pull up stakes. He pushes the council to approve the new regulations.
"If we do not stand firm today, then when?" Hudson said.
10:44 a.m.
Jefferson Parish Planning Director Ed Durabb takes over the presentation from consultant Michael Lauer and outlines statistics the parish has gathered for police calls for service in Fat City, one of the major sticking points between parish officials and bar owners.
From January of 2008 through this July, the parish counted 3,145 police calls in Fat City, excluding some, such as vehicle accidents and burglar alarms, that might not be attributable to problems at bars. Of those, 1,515 of the calls came from Fat City's 18th Street core.
Parish officials argue this level of police activity supports the idea that bars need more regulation. Critics argue the statistics fail to directly tie crime to bars and that some crime emanates from rundown apartment complexes.
10:36 a.m.
Lauer hit on what he expects to be the most controversial aspects of the plans: changing bar regulations and amortizing "adult uses" out of Fat City.
The ordinance would cut bar closing times to 12 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 1 a.m. on weekends.
The amortization period, Lauer says, would last two years.
A low rumble of conversation passed through the audience.
10:22 a.m. - Planning consultant Michael Lauer, hired by Jefferson Parish to help draft the latest redevelopment plan for Fat City, laid out the bullet points of today's proposed changes to the zoning codes.
He told the council the goal is to create a mixed-use area that promotes more "family friendly" businesses and caters to a stable core of residents.
He pointed out that this is the eighth attempt to revamp the entertainment district since 1985, when Fat City showed marked wear from its glory days in the 1970s.
Meanwhile, police officers line the walls of the crowded chamber.
10 a.m. - Joseph S. Yenni Building in Elmwood
It's 10 a.m. and the Jefferson Parish Council chamber is bustling. Rarely does the council host a capacity crowd, but today is different - as the large contingent wearing red stickers with the slogan "Stop Sheng Now" can attest.
The silent protest, aimed at Councilwoman Cynthia Lee-Sheng, will likely grow vocal in a few minutes when the council opens up its plan to change regulations governing Fat City for public discussion.
Lee-Sheng is leading the charge to reinvent Fat City along the town center model of urban planning by regulating the store fronts, signs and sidewalks, as well as putting restrictions on what officials consider the less savory businesses -- bars and the area's lone strip club.