The number of permits for commercial construction is expected to remain steady
St. Tammany Parish tax revenues are up but permits for new construction are down, Parish President Kevin Davis said Friday in his final "state of the parish" report.
View full sizeThe Louisiana 21 corridor between Brewster Road and Bootlegger Road, just north and south of Interstate 12, has experienced an explosion of growth in commercial and residential development. The area was photographed in May. Davis tallied the parish's recent accomplishments Friday at a breakfast for local business leaders, touting infrastructure improvements and a projected increase in sales tax revenues but noting it is still haggling with the federal government over desired flood protection projects.
Term limits will prevent Davis from seeking a fourth term in this fall's elections.
The parish estimates that it will collect roughly 4 percent more in sales taxes this year than it did in 2010, after taking in $10.9 million in the first three months of 2011 Davis said. The parish collected about $33 million in total sales taxes in 2010, down from $39.9 million in 2007, he said.
On the flip side, the number of permits for new residential construction remain down from a high of more than 2,900 in 2004, Davis said. The parish issued just 549 permits in 2010, and just 40 in January 2011, he said.
Davis said he thinks the number of permits for commercial construction will remain on par with last year, as the parish issued 407 permits in 2010 and 118 during the first five months of 2011.
During his talk at Pinewood Country Club in Slidell, sponsored by the East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce, Davis also touched on the parish's infrastructure improvements. Current projects include a new frontage road along Interstate 10 in Slidell that will link Old Spanish Trail and Fremaux Avenue and a new connector road between Airport Road and U.S. 11 north of Slidell.
Further, the parish is set to build a roundabout at Robert Boulevard and Brown's Switch Road, make intersection improvements at Brown's Switch and Military roads, widen Haas Road, and make various improvements to the intersection at Fremaux, McKinney Road and Lindberg Drive, all in and around Slidell, he said.
Davis said he has been working to convince the federal government that it needs to build a weir to protect the eastern end of the parish from future storms, but despite two or three visits to Washington, D.C., he doesn't think the $8 billion project is going to happen. He noted that the government has given the communities on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain $14 billion for flood protection, while providing no money at all for the north shore.
Instead, the parish is working section by section to make small improvements as money becomes available. He specifically noted the work to raise the earthen berm to 15 feet along Slidell's southern edge between U.S. 11 and the railroad tracks.
Next, the parish will work to create a levee on high ground that meets I-10 near the Oak Harbor exit to tie into the levee system in Lakeshore Estates, Davis said. It also will work toward raising the road that leads to the Schneider Canal pumping station, also along the southern edge of Slidell, he said.
Various drainage projects also are in the works, with $20 million to $30 million going toward improvements along the French Branch Channel, Bayou Castine and Bayou Chinchuba, Davis said.
Lastly, he briefly mentioned the ongoing work to create a fishing pier out of the old Twin Spans bridge, improvements to Camp Salmen Nature Park and efforts to bring the Tammany Trace into Heritage Park in Slidell. Davis said the trace now runs through Camp Salmen, and riders can get to nearby West Hall Avenue.