City of Thibodaux Zoning Review - South Central Planning ...

Thibodaux Zoning Review 2010graveyard, I’m not quite sure if that can be considered residential but I’m pretty sure it is not. Soyou have commercial businesses there, there is another instance that I heard of and I don’t knowhow true that it is going on right now with another location on Canal Boulevard. The business islooking to move and can’t, Canal Boulevard is a major thoroughfare, there aren’t very manyresidences on Canal Boulevard, I have a couple of other pieces of property on Canal Boulevard,they are all commercial. On of them is a gambling establishment, you can’t get much morecommercial than that. There are serious issues, there needs to be a zoning study and it needs tobe dealt with very specifically, zone to zone. I have to disagree with you, Mr. Chairman on it beinga long term study. I moved my business operations out of the City of Thibodaux, other people aregoing to do the same thing. You mentioned in the study about the industrial and donating propertyto the City to make it green space and keep it green space, those industrial businesses, allbusinesses create jobs, they hire the people living in the neighborhoods, you rush them out of townbecause they have to give green space, they’re not going to be hiring people from here, they’regoing to go outside the city limits, I did it, I’m not the only one. There are a lot of issues that haveto be addressed. That is not my only piece of real estate within the City of Thibodaux; that is mybusiness that is what I do. There are a lot of zoning issues, there are a lot of problems, Wal Mart isright across from Rienzi, I’m not sure that it is the biggest residential development within the Citylimits of Thibodaux, it is one of the biggest, there is a major road that separates those two andthere are a lot of other areas in Thibodaux that are separated by major thoroughfares, major roads.There has to be a study, plain and simply there has to be a study. Mr. Breaud stated I agree withmost of what you are saying, I don’t know if we can simplify it as much as you would like becausethe whole purpose once again of zoning is to create a massive of R-1 Zone, or R-2 or R-3 suchthat when somebody builds a house they know that they’re not going to have a commercialestablishment next to them. Now simplifying these things you know we’ve got some nonconforminguses, we’ve got a building in here that is a non-conforming use, one thing that Iwouldn’t want to see in the City is spot zoning, where we take that one lot, that one non-conforminguse and make it a district in itself and next door is another district. Mr. Lafaso replied I agree withyou 100%. Mr. Breaud stated so that is a lot of what the non-conforming uses are, it is not sayingyou’ve got 6 businesses over here that are non-conforming and we can make that a district in itself,I think you’ve got a mixture of residential, commercial, residential and it is mixed all the waythrough and I think that is why the study needs to identify, without the study we don’t know whatthat is. Mr. Lafaso replied and I’ll agree with that but I think it can be done by looking around, jumpin a car and ride around Thibodaux and you mentioned the spot zoning and that is what everybodythrew at me, I was looking to spot zone, I was looking to spot zone. If you take that piece ofproperty I talked about and I’m not the only one, again, but you draw a line over and we’re goingcommercial, commercial, commercial all the way to Canal Boulevard. In fact, if you start wherethey have the pretty Thibodaux sign on East 1 st Street, LA 1, on one side of Thibodaux and youdrive all the way to the other pretty Thibodaux sign, there is one residence and it is unoccupiedalong the entire batture, again, we’ve gone through all of this before, we’ve done it before it hasbeen done. Mr. Breaud stated that wasn’t the request, the request was for what area when it wasmade. Mr. Lafaso replied well you are right, it was one area to be tied in though, to be tied into theR-4 next door which originally that the R-4 next door was willing to come in with us, the R-3, R-4however we worked it, whatever negotiations we came to which never did of course pass, but tie inalso to the R-4 that goes all the way back and I say R-4 or R-3, it encompasses multiple otherzones, all above R-1. There are a lot of spot zones if we call it that and again I don’t have all of mydocumentation in front of me to be able to say the exact definition of a spot zone and the exactdefinition to the theory of a spot zone, I fully understand the differences. Ms. Erwin stated so youwould agree that a study needs to be done. Mr. Lafaso stated I would say a study has to be doneif that is what we have to do to bring the professionals in to do it but I don’t know necessarily… Ms.Caesar stated I just wanted to add some clarity about the study, many cities that have a zoningdepartment studies are routine, they are done all of the time. Mr. Lafaso replied I understand that.Ms. Caesar stated I’m just trying to add some clarity for this discussion, they’re done all of the timeand it is done just like this, those residents will come with an issue or non-conformity, the Councilwill draw up the neighborhood, whatever area this is, the Council gives the bounding streets, evenspecifics as to which side of the street and the planners will go out into that neighborhood,whatever that area is, with a map and do a detailed land use study. Detailed to the point whereeven if it is a residential structure they are identifying if they are single family, multi-family, howmany units are in it and so by the time that map is filled in you can almost count, it is 1, 2, 3, 4 however many uses that are there. Ms. Erwin stated so you really know the percentages and it is notjust the number of structures but the percentage of whole. Mr. Lafaso replied and I understandand that has to be done, I understand. Ms. Caesar replied the zoning can’t be arbitrary, I has to bebased on something but if you are arguing to change the zoning then once this is done and you’relooking at the map and you say, wow, ok yes this is more of commercial as opposed to residential,then yes, there is a need then to change the zoning to fit the uses that are there and typically thatis how cities that have planning or zoning departments and planners on staff, that is donecustomary, all the time. Mr. Lafaso replied and I agree 100%, maybe I misspoke earlier, I guessmy point was we’ve all been here for a long time, we can take our cars around, we can ride aroundand we can look, we can see where there are issues, if we know the zone, if we take our zoningmap with us, and we look around, we can tell there is a problem. There are certain buildings thatshouldn’t be in R-1, shouldn’t be in R-2, we know that and there is more that just one or two. Mr.Breaud stated I think we all agree with that, Tony, we’ve got to identify on a map what percentageyou now, when you go and say just change these one or two that may be the only two in that whole986