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

2010 Thibodaux Zoning ReviewMr. Breaud stated Item 8 is fence height requirements, I’m not sure where exactly this takes placeall of the time, it looks like I wasn’t really aware of this but we are requiring some fencing on 10parking spaces or more and 6’ height and based on the recommendations that we reduce thatheight from 6’ to 4’. Mr. Price stated this happened on 10 th Street and Canal Boulevard., TecheFederal Bank, so the first house you get to they needed a fence, well she can’t see to back out ofher driveway if we enforce the 6’ high. Mr. Breaud stated ok so the recommendation on this thingis to go to a four foot fence and that would allow visibility over the top of it. Ms. Caesar replied thatis just a suggestion based on what was going on in a comparable city and you all would have toget input if this would actually work here. Mr. Price replied my question was can you see over a 4’fence, I know you just maybe picked that number but how, when you’re going to back out if youhave a small car can you see over that 4’ fence. Ms. Caesar replied well like I said in thecomparable cities that was the level that they used and there was a reason there was a 20’setback required and in Ruston I think it was only 5’ and they could go even higher than 4’ height, itwas only a 5’ setback. Again without having gone out and studied it this is a suggestion based onwhat is happening in the comparable cities and reading their ordinances and talking with theirzoning administrator but does it fit you all, that is the input that you need. Mr. Breaud asked canyou take a look at that specific intersection that Errol is talking about and see if it would be reducedto a 4’ height fence if that would resolve that issue. Mr. Price stated I have the same thing on thecorner of Cherry St. and Magnolia St. to the end. Mr. Breaud stated you can check thoseintersections and if the 4’ height doesn’t work you can come up with something different. Mr.Breaud then asked if anybody else had comments on fence height requirements, if not, we’ll moveto Number 9.Mr. Breaud stated Number 9 is parking and storage of certain vehicles in commercial zones, I’msorry abandoned cars. The recommendation is that the City create an abandoned vehicle ornuisance code to effectively tackle the issue of abandoned cars and blight. Ms. Erwin replied thatis typically not covered in the zoning ordinance. Mr. Breaud asked how much of an issue, do wehave this quite a bit, Errol? Mr. Price replied yes it does come up, the question I have is should weleave residential in there or create an ordinance that would cover commercial and residential as faras a City ordinance and take it out of zoning? That is just a question that I have for you all to lookat. Ms. Erwin replied the recommendation is taking it out of zoning. Mr. Breaud stated right nowthere is nothing in zoning to address that right now. Mr. Price replied in residential they do, if youdon’t have a current license plate it has to be stored in a garage. Mr. Breaud stated so thequestion would be take it out of residential also and put it into… Ms. Caesar replied in most cities itis not even handled in the zoning ordinance it is a nuisance. Mr. Breaud asked if there were anyother suggestions that anybody had, Simone do you have enough information on that item to moveforward. Ms. Erwin replied I think the City needs that but I think the recommendation is let the CityCouncil take that under advisement. Mr. Breaud stated I know the public is here maybe for certainitems but you are open to discussion, that is what South Central Planning is trying to get is opendiscussion from anybody that would guide them into a direction. I know Errol is confronted withstuff every day and probably knows more than any of us on all of these problem areas so we’regoing to rely on him a lot to tell us whether these recommendations or these options will solvethese problems or not and if they’re not we need to look for other solutions so I would ask Simoneto get with Errol on some of these things and make sure that we’re resolving the problems. Youknow making laws for the sake of making laws is not accomplishing anything; we need to makesure that we are addressing the issues.Mr. Breaud stated all right if there is nothing else, we’ll go to Number 10 on Variance Requirements– Zoning decisions cannot be arbitrary and capricious and that is what we keep on preaching uphere and we try to base our decisions on. We’ve got a zoning ordinance that everybody knows, wetry not to make our decisions on our own judgment, we’ve got books that we look at which is thezoning ordinance, subdivision regulations, we read these things every time one of these issuescome up and we try to base our decisions on this book. A lot of times we get people up hereasking us to be more lenient on something, well it is our position to follow law, if we don’t like thelaws we need to get the laws changed you know and that is what we are here for today, we aremaking recommendations to the City Council to change the laws. So we’re not sitting up here withour own personal judgment trying to make decisions on what should be done, we try to use thisbook as our guidelines to make these decisions and if people don’t like the laws we need to get thelaws changed and that is part of what we are doing tonight. So with that being said does anybodywants variance requirements. Mr. Ben Harang came forward and stated you’re talking about thevariance committee now. Mr. Breaud replied no, no this is different. Mr. Price replied I am the onethat brought this up, they have four questions that you have to answer to go in front of the Board ofAdjustments and C & D were two of them that every time somebody comes and put an applicationthey have problems with and I asked South Central Planning to go in detail and explain what wewere supposed to be looking for and it really boils down to D, that the burden is on the applicant toprove to the Board of Adjustments why they should be given this variance. Going to these boardmeetings I am trying to reverse it, right now the Board is trying to prove to the applicant why theyshould be approving or denying it, I am trying to go according to what the law says that theapplicant come in and put on their case to prove to the Board, I wanted to understand exactly withquestion D, what they had to answer on that. Mr. Harang replied my question about variances andthe Board of Adjustments is how can they grant a waiver that is not arbitrary and capricious, you’regoing by the book. Mr. Breaud replied we’re not the Board of Adjustments. Mr. Harang replied I1693