More great news for my parish: Most Holy Trinity moving forward

St. Tammany Parish Council approves zoning change for archdiocese retirement community

By Times-Picayune StaffThe Times-Picayune
on October 04, 2012 at 10:08 PM

 

By Robert Rhoden and Kim Chatelain, staff writers

 

When the Archdiocese of New Orleans sought a zoning change last month to build a retirement community on a 111-acre site north of Mandeville where it already had approval to construct a new church, cemetery and funeral home, the St. Tammany Parish Zoning Commission approved it by unanimous vote, and not a soul appeared before the panel to oppose the idea. On Thursday night, when the matter came before the Parish Council, a contentious group of residents from the nearby Dove Park Road area showed up, voicing opposition to the retirement community aspect of the project, talking over council members and suggesting that a back-room deal had been cut.

After some tense moments and a sheriff's deputy's warning that he would throw one man out of the council chambers, the council voted unanimously in favor of the rezoning, prompting one opponent to yell "No representation!" Opponents said they don't have a problem with the new church, but rather the scale and density of the retirement community.
On the other side of the chamber, the vote brought a round of applause from a group of about 40 parishioners from Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church.
The council last year approved the archdiocese's initial plan, which included a 25,000-square-foot church, along with the cemetery and funeral home, on property it has owned since 1907 at the end of Judge Tanner Boulevard, east of Westwood Drive. The project also includes building a bypass road, to be called Most Holy Trinity Drive, connecting Dove Park Road and Judge Tanner Boulevard, and extending Judge Tanner.
Since its inception in 2006, Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church has been operating in the former Mr. Fish pet store on the nearby U.S. 190 service road.
The archdiocese eventually decided that it wanted to add a retirement community to the project, and sought to rezone about 50 acres of the land from A-1, or one home per five acres, to MD-1, or medical residential district, to allow it. Plans call for the retirement community to have 363,368 square feet of space in a total of eight buildings, some three stories tall.
While the proposal moved with ease through the Zoning Commission, opposition emerged in the past four days and a feisty group of residents showed up at Thursday night's council meeting, sitting on the opposite side of the chamber from the parishioners, many holding or wearing signs that said, "Support our church."
Terri Lewis Stevens, an architect who lives on Dove Park Road, organized the opposition after learning only recently about the proposed retirement community. She claimed that many residents knew nothing about the plan.
She complained about the density of the plan, telling the council, "It's not fair. It's pretty darn scary."
George deBram Jr., also of Dove Park Road, said after the meeting, "Last we heard, it was a church and a graveyard." Just this week neighbors learned of the retirement center. "This deal was back-doored," he said.
Kelly Kreminski, who lives in the nearby Brookstone subdivision and is a neighbor of Council Chairman Marty Gould, said she was disappointed in Gould for not letting people know this development was coming. "My neighbors were stunned," she said.

Councilman Jerry Binder, who admonished several people in the audience for speaking out of turn, said he was "appalled" at the opposition to the plan, which includes several levels of care for the elderly. "My goodness, those of us who don't die suddenly will be facing this ...''
When he initially called for a vote, someone in the audience said loudly, "Ramrod!"
Jeff Schoen, an attorney representing the archdiocese, asked the council to approve the project, noting that the archdiocese had followed the process to the letter and received a "crystal clear" recommendation from the Zoning Commission. He called the project "a model institutional community that should serve the community for years to come."