St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro today ordered work stopped on the four mixed-income apartment complexes being built by Provident Realty Advisors in Chalmette because they don't have proper parish permits. Craig Taffaro It was the latest salvo in a political and legal tussle that has consumed the parish for more than a year. "I have attempted to work...
St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro today ordered work stopped on the four mixed-income apartment complexes being built by Provident Realty Advisors in Chalmette because they don't have proper parish permits.
Craig TaffaroIt was the latest salvo in a political and legal tussle that has consumed the parish for more than a year.
"I have attempted to work within the judicial parameters, but St. Bernard Parish has continued to find itself without protective due process," Taffaro said. "The permitting process by local and state law is clear, and my decision to issue a cease-and-desist is in line with the enforcement of that process."
"A week ago, we filed for an emergency injunction, which was denied pending a hearing set for today ... in state court. That hearing was cancelled due to a legal maneuver filed by Provident in furtherance of what I believe to be a strategic approach to delaying St. Bernard Parish's right to be heard long enough that the construction of these developments reaches a point of no return."
Taffaro's ordinance came three days after the Parish Council repealed two ordinances that restrict mult-family and rental properties. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development fair housing enforcement officials have said they would block federal money coming into the parish -- and possibly to Louisiana as a whole -- if the parish did not rescind the ordinances. HUD officials said the laws discriminate against African-Americans who are disproportionately in need of such housing in the New Orleans area.
St. Bernard officials and residents adamantly contend there is enough affordable rental housing in the parish and that additional units would change the parish's character.
A federal judge in 2009 ordered the parish to allow the Provident apartments, stating the opposition to them was racially discriminatory. Soon, the parish changed its zoning laws to prohibit multifamily developments in similarly zoned parcels and four other zoning classifications where such developments previously were allowed.
From that time until the repeal of the ordinance on Tuesday, multifamily zoning was only permitted in R-3 zoning areas, and through types of Planned Unit Developments that required special approval. According to a review of parish zoning maps, R-3 zoning areas are specks amid the parish's dominant single-family zoning, likely representing less than 1 percent of landscape.
Provident officials say that due to the drop in the national economy, they were unable to complete the construction within their original one-year construction timetable. So at the end of 2010, Provident requested an extension of its four permits. That extension was denied, as parish officials said the Provident property was no longer zoned for multifamily housing under the new zoning regulations.
After that denial, Provident and the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center once again went to federal court. HUD filed its complaint soon thereafter.
Under that federal pressure, the parish renewed the construction permits but, with the help of resident opposition and parish officials' complimentary testimony, a state judge has since ruled the permit renewals invalid.
As of the ordinance repeal on Tuesday, the Provident site once again complies with zoning law.
Despite a federal restraining order barring the parish from interfering with the Provident developments, the parish recently asked a state judge for a restraining order of its own to stop the 288 apartments' construction. That request is scheduled to be heard today.
Meanwhile, also due to Parish Council concessions to HUD and in a move received with several boos from the audience, the council on Tuesday evening declared April 2011 Fair Housing Month, "to make fair housing not just an idea but an ideal."