Meeting Summary

The St. Charles Parish Council held its regular meeting to hear a proclamation on vehicular heatstroke awareness, receive detailed reports from the Arc of St. Charles and the Department of Community Services, and get an update from Parish President Matthew Jewell on ongoing infrastructure and recovery projects. The most consequential action was a closely divided vote to rezone a 50-acre tract on Joe Louis Lane in Hahnville from open land to single-family residential, over strong objections from residents about drainage and traffic. The council also advanced several infrastructure contracts and change orders, approved a parish acquisition of land near Bayou Des Allemands for a boat launch, and formally introduced the annual parish tax ordinance and a zoning corridor ordinance for a future public hearing.

Watch Items

• Public hearing set for Monday, August 5, 2024, 6:00 pm, Council Chambers, Courthouse, Hahnville will consider: 2024-0214, An ordinance to amend the St. Charles Parish Zoning Ordinance of 1981, Appendix A, as amended, Section VI. Zoning district criteria and regulations.; Section VIII. Site design requirements.; Section XXI. Sign Regulations.; to add the Highway 90 Corridor Overlay Zone (COZ), to add criteria for site plans and site plan review, and to add recommended sign definitions.
• The Hahnville rezoning (Joe Louis Lane tract, near the former Fashion Golf Course) passed narrowly despite repeated resident testimony about flooding, narrow roads on Courthouse Lane, and school bus overcrowding. Council members acknowledged the parish's master drainage plan for that area, including recommended culvert upgrades under the railroad tracks, has not yet been funded or built. Any future subdivision on the property will still require separate traffic, drainage, and sewer impact studies and permitting.
• Council members and the parish president discussed the need for a dedicated funding source, potentially through bonding, to complete the roughly $500 million in parish-wide drainage projects identified in the master drainage plan. No funding mechanism has been decided.
• Of the remaining Hurricane Ida trailers still in the parish, 19 are listed as in violation of parish rules and 7 are in a restoration program; the parish said it will work with both groups toward compliance.
• The United Way ramp-building program for homeowners has had its funding cut in half this year, and the parish said it is still working out a strategy to address the shortfall.
• Two additional streets, Scorpio and Leo, remain under evaluation for inclusion in the parish's concrete road maintenance program since the awarded contract came in under budget.