The ongoing saga of our largest Catholic Parish in Archdiocese of New Orleans

Mandeville church asks judge to review zoning board's vote

Published: Friday, November 04, 2011, 10:30 PM

By Claire Galofaro, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune A month after the city Zoning Board shot down its plans to build a 16,715-square-foot church in Old Mandeville -- a project that has long divided the community and the congregation -- Our Lady of the Lake Roman Catholic Church asked a state judge Friday to review the board's rejection. The church filed an appeal in the 22nd Judicial District Court in Covington, arguing that the Zoning Board was "arbitrary and capricious" in its reasoning.

View full sizeOur Lady of the Lake ChurchFinal rendering of the planned Our Lady of the Lake Roman Catholic Church in Mandeville.

For months, the church and city went back and forth over permitting the proposed $13 million, 1,028-seat Gothic Revival church across Lafitte Street from the current church.
Our Lady of the Lake, with 3,000 families in its congregation, has outgrown its current location, with weekend worshipers spilling over into the Chotin Center, a gymnasium next to the church.
But some in Old Mandeville, even some in the church's congregation, opposed the new building for being too big and too busy for the neighborhood.
One Old Mandeville resident described it Friday as "like putting a Walmart in the French Quarter."
On Oct. 5, the church brought its proposal before the city zoning board which, after hours of debate, unanimously rejected the permit application. In a letter explaining its decision, the board cited the proposal's predominate flaws: parking, traffic and uncertainty if the church would continue to expand, outgrow the new church and require more space.
In the appeal filed Friday, the church criticizes the board for relying on anecdotal criticism from the public and its own members' observations of traffic patterns and parking woes, rather than prioritizing the conclusions of engineers and traffic studies.
Though the property was already zoned to allow for churches and the proposal was in full compliance with the zoning ordinance, the appeal states, the zoning board "focused instead on irrelevant and specious matters in order to deny the Our Lady of the Lake application."
The appeal states that the zoning board "engaged in unabashed conjecture" by speculating on the church's future growth.
The zoning board's letter references that the church has not been in compliance with a zoning permit it was granted in 1999 to build the Chotin Center as a gymnasium. At the time, the letter says, the gym was to be used for Mass only on Easter, Christmas and other special occasions. It is now used for Mass every weekend.
Friday's appeal states that the board overreached by rejecting the permit applications "based on purported -- but factually untrue -- instances of noncompliance of Our Lady of the Lake with a 12-year-old zoning permit."
Louisette L. Kidd, director of the Mandeville Department of Planning and Development was out of town Friday and couldn't be reached for comment.
The church's attorney, Joseph Chautin, referred questions to the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Sarah McDonald, director of communications for the archdiocese, said an appeal to the court was the next step in the process as per Mandeville's city ordinances. Any organization would appeal a zoning rejection, she said.
But some long opposed to the church expansion said they were disappointed by the church's decision to appeal -- they were hoping instead that the divisive battle would simply go away.
In the midst of the back-and-forth, as friends often found themselves on opposing sides of the fight, Mandeville lawyer Ernest Burguieres wrote Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond to explain that the proposal was tearing the community apart.
"It is important that we realize that the final decision must be that of the city and we must respect that decision," the archbishop responded.
"I took that to mean they would abide by the city's decision," Burguieres said, adding that he's disappointed the church didn't follow its own advice.
McDonald said the appeal is simply part of the process.
"The church parish is acting within its rights to appeal the decision based on the city's process," she wrote. "In the end, we will have to respect the final decision of the civil authorities."
David Pons, the owner of Maxein's Coffee in old Mandeville, referenced the same letter from the archbishop.
"That's what a lot of people are grumbling about today," he said. "The city made a decision, it was unanimous. And we took him at his word that, in the end, they would respect the decision of the city of Mandeville."