Abita Springs rezoning approved
St. Andrew's Village one step closer: story in the Times Picayune.
Benjamin Alexander-Bloch
6/17/2009
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The Abita Springs Board of Aldermen approved a zoning change on Tuesday night for a nonprofit group seeking to build a residential and commercial development that would cater to adults with developmental disabilities.
St. Andrew's Village, the $30 million mixed-use community planned for 100 acres on Louisiana 36, is the first proposed development to receive approval for a planned unit development since the town rules for that zoning designation were amended in December 2007.
Anticipating an onslaught of higher-density developments due to post-Hurricane Katrina migration to the north shore, Mayor Louis Fitzmorris had enacted a moratorium on planned unit developments, or PUDs, in March 2006. He had said the town would not approve any until it could fine-tune its zoning regulations.
The current aldermen also had campaigned, in the buildup to the September 2006 elections, to maintain Abita Spring's character amid the tide of north shore growth.
Along with the mayor, they had said post-Katrina migration had made talk about the nature of growth essential.
In December 2007, the moratorium on PUDs was lifted after the Board of Aldermen amended zoning ordinances so that only mixed-use developments could qualify as PUDs; combinations of commercial and residential uses, as well as residential and industrial uses, fit the new specifications.
PUD rules have always allowed more flexibility than traditional subdivision zoning because there technically are no minimum lot sizes and they do not require builders to follow the traditional grid. They do, though, require green space to be set aside for public use, and encourage preservation of natural vegetation and topography.
The amended PUD ordinance now states that residential-only properties no longer qualify within that zoning designation. And while the former PUD ordinance already specified that a PUD must use at least 30 percent of its acreage as green space, the new amendment defines in greater detail what open space now qualifies, mainly requiring green space to function recreationally instead of simply existing on property as wetlands.
St. Andrews Village, whose site plans were first informally presented to the town's aldermen at its January meeting, fits the new regulations.
The development is scheduled to break ground late this year or early 2010 with four village homes. Its community would also include a clinic, an athletic facility, a chapel, stores, a restaurant and a place to facilitate possible employment and interaction with the residents of Abita Springs, according to the village's site plan and literature.
The residents, referred to as "villagers," would be encouraged to raise and sell plants, work in the facility's restaurant and retail stores, and provide services for local businesses, according to Donna S. Breaux, the corporation's executive director.
Preliminary sketches of the development call for 19 homes for developmentally disabled adults, allowing for 57 disabled adults and 19 live-in support staff members. A larger "neighborhood development" also would eventually be built outside of the main center, creating homes that could be leased by the disabled adults' family members or others.