Brusly readopts zoning system

• By GREG GARLAND
• Advocate Westside bureau
• Published: Mar 10, 2009 - Page: 5B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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BRUSLY — The Town Council unanimously readopted the town’s zoning ordinances late Monday despite an attorney’s warnings of a potentially detrimental effect on dozens of homeowners.

Homeowners in areas that are zoned as commercial or transitional areas could wind up unable to sell or use those houses as residences if the structures stand vacant for six months or longer, attorney Steve Irving told the council.

But the town counsel, Thomas W. Acosta, Jr., said readopting the zoning ordinance would have no such effect. He said property historically used as residential housing is grandfathered in and could continue to be used for that purpose.

Irving represents Skipper Grady, a Brusly resident who has been locked in a long-running dispute with Mayor Joey Normand over Grady’s use of a building on East Main Street.

The building once housed Ethel’s Restaurant. It was later used as office space for a contractor whom Grady said lived in part of the building.

Grady has residents living in two apartments in the building. Another section is being converted for commercial use.

Questions about whether Brusly’s zoning ordinances and amendments have been legally adopted over the years arose during litigation over Grady’s use of the building for residential purposes. Irving said changes since 1982 were not advertised before they were adopted for the time required by state law, rendering them invalid.

“Brusly does not presently have a legally valid zoning ordinance,” Irving said, before the council voted to readopt the zoning ordinance.

A visibly angry Acosta responded: “That’s a lie!”

He said the original zoning ordinance was adopted properly in 1971, but conceded the correct procedures might not have been followed in later years.

Acosta said before the meeting the council was acting to readopt the zoning ordinances to eliminate any potential problems. Grady faces a court hearing Wednesday on whether he is violating a court injunction that prohibits him from renting part of his building as apartments. He said the people living there are there as his “guests,” not as paying tenants.