SUCCETTE LITIGATION

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On February 5, Judge Brandon Long dismissed the last piece of Woodward Harbor LLC/LSU Foundation‘s suit against the City over Succette with prejudice, meaning the suit cannot be brought again. For me this is much more than just the end of another battle against massive over development on Mandeville’s Lakefront, it’s a victory for every individual that volunteers to serve their community in elected office. Here’s a few of my thoughts…

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Mandeville Citizens/taxpayers should be outraged by Woodward Harbor, LLC and LSU Health Foundation dragging the City of Mandeville, and me personally, through this saga. Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars spent defending absolute frivolous litigation that, in my opinion, sought to intimidate members of the City Council, present and future. Every one of Judge Long’s rulings not only closed the door on every single argument Woodward Harbor, LLC and LSU Health Foundation made in their suit, but in his final ruling Judge Long also admonished their astonishingly careless use of AI in their legal pleadings including their citation of “hallucinated cases” that “do not exist” and if they did exist, incorrectly quoted from and inaccurately described their facts. In my opinion, this was similar to how they distorted provisions of the CLURO throughout the entire process. I along with Councilman Vogeltanz have already urged the Mayor and the rest of the Council to actively pursue reimbursement from LSU Health Foundation and Woodward Harbor, LLC of the hundreds of thousands of dollars of Mandeville taxpayer dollars spent defending me and the City.

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This group targeted me personally. The legal attacks were vicious, inaccurate, personal, distorted the truth, and were clearly intended as retaliation for me simply doing what I deeply believed was right. Constituents spoke loudly and I had an obligation to represent those that put their trust in me with their vote to represent them. In my opinion, this group’s actions were nothing more than retailiation and intimidation of future Council Members.

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As a Catholic, I forgive them.. I am called by Christ to do so. I wish them all well and I hope those involved with Woodward Harbor, LLC and LSU Health Foundation have learned from this and never again repeat the pain they caused me, my family, and the people of Mandeville.

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Judge Long’s rulings, including my dismissal as an individual, have established solid case law that will be cited in similar cases for decades. If there is a silver lining to all of this, it is that perhaps future potential developers will be less tempted to use the same approach not just here in Mandeville, but across Louisiana and nationwide.

With all of that said, I have three pieces of legislation I have written to address issues in the CLURO from the Succette debacle.

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Ordinance 26-02 will require any proposed property rezoning, conditional use permits, and requests for development of Planned Districts to first be presented to the City Council for introduction as an Ordinance before the application (and Ordinance) is referred to Planning & Zoning for hearings and their recommendation back to the Council. This will directly address and remedy the issue of Ordinances for proposed property rezoning, conditional use permits, and requests for development of Planned Districts not being consistent with or containing additional details not considered before the Planning & Zoning Commission when it arrives at the Council for consideration.

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Ordinance 26-03 clarifies and reinforces what I strongly believe the CLURO already requires with regard to the application of site development regulations for individual uses within mixed use developments. That is that when calculating allowable building areas, number of units allowed, maximum impervious areas, etc., only the area of the site designated for each use within the mixed-use site can be used in those calculations. Additionally, areas of sites extending into and under Lake Pontchartrain or other water bodies cannot be used in those calculations. These clarifications will prevent loose interpretations of existing provisions in the future and prevent overdevelopment when multiple uses are proposed on a single piece of property by using the entire property size, which may be taken up with other uses, to increase density beyond what would be allowed by the CLURO if a single use was proposed for the entire site.

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Ordinance 26-09 will require that any Traffic Impact Analysis required by the CLURO for rezoning, conditional use permits, etc. will be contracted directly by the City, with costs paid by the applicants. The Planning Department, Public Works, and the City Engineer will now have the opportunity to develop a complete and proper scope for Traffic Impact Analyses when required for the Commission and City Council to rely upon instead of applicants finding their own consultants and presenting an incompletete traffic study that omits important criteria that may be necessary to properly evaluate impacts. This ordinance will be Introduced at this week’s Council meeting.

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These three ordinances have been/will be referred to the Planning Commission for their recommendation back to the Council then the Council will take them up for debate and a vote. Ordinances 26-02 and 26-03 did not make this next Planning Commission Agenda on the 10th, but I expect they will later this month with Ordinance 26-09 to follow. I urge everyone to be at these meetings at the Planning Commission and the Council and publicly support them. If anyone has any questions about any of them, I can be reached on my cell phone at (504) 881-6920 or by email at jzuckerman@cityofmandeville.com

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While we can now close the door on yet another ugly chapter in Mandeville’s battle against overdevelopment of our Lakefront, it is my hope that some good will come out of this from the Federal case law that has been established through Judge Long’s rulings and the Ordinances I have now introduced.

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God Bless.