Perhaps the most significant change in decades to Harahan's landscape comes before the Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday: the potential resubdivision and rezoning of the former Colonial Golf and Country Club. It's one of the largest green spaces on the east bank of Jefferson Parish. "It's going to be possibly one of the biggest things to happen in...
Perhaps the most significant change in decades to Harahan's landscape comes before the Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday: the potential resubdivision and rezoning of the former Colonial Golf and Country Club. It's one of the largest green spaces on the east bank of Jefferson Parish.
"It's going to be possibly one of the biggest things to happen in Harahan," said Dwayne Mara, the chairman of the seven-member panel.
The commission, which is appointed by the City Council, could vote to approve, reject or defer a vote on the Aug. 7 application from developer Stirling Properties. Its recommendation would go before the council for a binding vote as early as October.
The application seeks to set off 15 acres at the north end of the former golf course, along Jefferson Highway, and rezone that swath from residential to commercial. The developers propose a retail strip housing a bank, a pharmacy and a "high-end" grocery.
But commercial development on what is now used by residents as an unofficial public park has been a source of controversy. "Harahan likes the community to stay the way it is," Councilwoman Cindy Murray said.
At the same time, City Hall has faced increasing financial pressures, and Mayor Vinny Mosca says increased tax revenue from commercial development would greatly help to dig Harahan out of a deficit.
In the decade or more since the country club began sinking into financial quicksand, the future of its 88 acres has clouded virtually every political debate in Harahan. Proposals have ranged from building condos and to preserving the property as green space. The mayor has sought a way to turn the land into a permanent park. But an application to divide the huge parcel of land into manageable slices, or to rezone a parcel away from residential, has never before reached the Planning and Zoning Commission.
"All the other projects over the last 12 years have been discussions or ideas," said Stephen Villavaso, a land use expert who drafted Harahan's current zoning ordinance and who trains the members of the commission. "Lots of people have talked about this. But this is the first time that someone has actually put in an official request."
Ahead of Wednesday's meeting, businessman John Georges, who bought the course with a partner, sent council members a letter describing his intentions for the rest of the property. "I'm doing whatever they ask me for," Georges said. "The council people wanted some green space; I gave them green space."
He wrote that he will give 18 acres of the course to Harahan to use as green space and will use the back strip, about 250 yards wide near the Mississippi River levee, for the personal use for him and co-owner Wayne Ducote. He wrote that he will seek to find a financial backer to keep an additional 40 acres open as a park, to be kept up by Harahan.
"I don't know what's going on," Georges said. "Everyone says they're for commercial. The confusion is what to do with the rest of the land."
Councilman Eric Chatelain said he was pleased to have a plan for the rest of the land in writing. Murray, however, warned that Georges' plan was described only in a letter and was not legally binding.
"It didn't give me no warm and fuzzies," Murray said. "There is no promise, no consent decree."
The Planning and Zoning Commission will consider two separate issues: subdividing the property and potentially rezoning the front strip for commercial use.
To review a potential subdivision, members evaluate all issues created by setting a parcel of land off from its neighbor, Villavaso said. Those include drainage, sewerage, police protection, fire protection and landscaping. "Can you hook up sewer lines to the two properties?" he said, by way of an example.
Villavaso said subdivision issues are relatively easy to approve or disapprove, as they are based on measurable standards such as engineering studies, drainage studies and distances to the street curb.
He plans to be present to advise the commission, along with Richard Meyer, the engineer whose firm completed a recent drainage study of Harahan and its former golf course.
The commission must also make a separate recommendation for rezoning the land from R1 residential to C1 neighborhood commercial. That's a more complex and emotional issue to consider, Villavaso said.
"Now you are giving this piece of property the ability to change the character of the property, of the neighborhood," he said.
He suggests commission members look at how a re-zoning application fits the long-range vision of the community and meshes with the city's master plan, a guiding document that should be interpreted -- not followed by rote.
Also at play in the deliberation: public opinion. "I anticipate a packed house of people," Mosca said.
"Let me put it this way," Villavaso added. "I have been to a lot of late-night meetings in Harahan. And tomorrow night might be one of them."
Villavaso said commission members are appointed not to represent a pocket of the city or a certain group of homeowners but rather the city as a whole. "It should listen to citizen input. That's the purpose of the public hearing," Villavaso said. "And it should conclude whether it is in the best interest of the city of Harahan."
However, Villavaso said residents who do speak at such meetings typically represent a subset of the community at large.
"The national standard is a lot of people concerned or confused or scared or afraid of a project are the ones who will normally show up," Villavaso said. But commission members, he said, must weigh those comments appropriately. "They have a responsibility to find out if there are two sides of the story."
Mara, the commission chairman, said he considers public opinions in a rezoning but that it can be difficult effectively to weigh the emotional concerns of nearby homeowners. "The hardest thing is hearing from somebody who lives across the street," Mara said. "If I was in their shoes, obviously I wouldn't want to have any commercial development."
Councilwoman Murray, who lives immediately upriver from the proposed retail strip, said most homeowners who have spoken to her are against it. "I want to hear what the people have to say," she said. "This is an enormous task for us."
Mosca urged the commission to consider the broader financial woes of Harahan. "If I can send one message to the members of the planning and zoning board, it is to please concentrate on what's in the best interest for the city's future, as opposed to the temporary opinions of those in closest proximity to the property."
Murray said one of her concerns is how the development affected others' property values.
That's not appropriate, Villavaso said. "Property values are not an aspect of a planning and zoning decision," he said. "Planning is about the betterment of the whole community. This goes back to the roots of zoning and land use regulation ... which is based on protecting the health, safety and welfare of the entire community."
If the commission chooses to make a recommendation either way, and not to defer, it will be introduced to the City Council in late September. Generally, the council votes in accordance with the commission's recommendation.
But they are separate bodies, and in rare instances in the past the council have gone against the recommendations.
"We take it seriously," said Murray, who previously served as a chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission. "That's our first line of defense, our first line of response. ... It's my duty to listen to it."
Councilman Tim Baudier said he's ready to proceed.
"I don't want to delay this decision," said Baudier, who feared a deferral could scare off developers and businesses from operating at all in Harahan. "If I was a businessman and wanted to open my business in Harahan, I would say, 'Don't string me along.'"
"At some point, the process needs to start," Georges said. He said that the project would be put at risk if zoning is not approved, as the businesses who would be interested in developing in the strip might move on.
Still, Georges said he is not interested in forcing a quick decision.
"I'm not rushing them," he said. "If I wanted to rush them I'd put a fence around the whole thing tomorrow."
The Planning & Zoning Committee meets in the council chambers of Harahan City Hall at 7:30 p.m., 6437 Jefferson Highway, Harahan, LA.