Spanish Town appeal in limbo after meeting

• By CHAD CALDER
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Oct 22, 2009 - Page: 1B

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Time expired at the Metro Council’s zoning meeting Wednesday night, leaving in limbo Spanish Town landowner Richard Preis’ appeal of the Historic Preservation Commission’s claim he is effectively demolishing seven rental properties in the neighborhood by neglecting them.

Mayor Pro Temp Mike Walker, who had just angrily warned council members their questions were going over their allotted time limits and declared the meeting would strictly follow protocol, abruptly announced at 8 p.m. that the four-hour meeting was over by council rules and that the issue was dead.

Preis said after the meeting he will put the issue before the full Metro Council in two weeks and he considers the public hearing held. Spanish Town residents and preservation commission members — largely sidelined during the question-and-answer session — expressed exasperation at what they said was misinformation presented to the council.

Preis owns land overlooking Arsenal Park that is slated to become home to the Capitol Lofts apartment complex and wants to sell the land to developer David Slaughter so the rental homes can be torn down for the development. Preis was appealing an August citation by the preservation commission that gave him 90 days to fix up the seven homes on State Capitol Drive and North Seventh Street or come before the preservation commission and explain why he couldn’t.

The commission, some of whose members have publicly opposed the Capitol Lofts development, claiming it would disrupt the historic neighborhood and threaten the homes, was using a little-known and previously untested part of the city-parish’s development code that says property owners can be cited for “demolition by neglect.”

Sam Bacot, Preis’ attorney, told zoning committee members Wednesday night that Preis has the right to bypass the process and go straight to the Metro Council. The zoning committee is made up of all 12 Metro Council members.

Bacot said the “clock is ticking” on the citation and Preis has the right to get the matter cleared up quickly or else he will be fined and the project further delayed.

Carolyn Bennett, historic preservation commission member and director of the Foundation for Historical Louisiana, said the council has the responsibility to let the issue run its course before taking up the issue.

Most of the zoning committee’s questioning was of Bacot and Lea Ann Batson of the Parish Attorney’s Office, who has said publicly Preis has the right to appeal now, with members trying to figure out issues ranging from jurisdiction to Preis’ plans for the property.

Council member Ulysses “Bones” Addison said the laws need to be rewritten to avoid confusion and indicated he supported Preis’ right to appeal, as did committee member Chandler Loupe, though Loupe spent his time seemingly convinced the preservation commission had given Preis 90 days to tear down the houses.

With about 30 minutes to go, Walker warned the commission about time limits and said no one else would be going above their allotted minutes.

Committee member Rodney “Smokey” Bourgeois said preservation commissions exist precisely so Metro Council members don’t have to hash out issues they aren’t familiar with. A few minutes later, Walker declared the meeting was over.

Any council member could have called for a vote to extend the meeting by 30 minutes, though no one did.