ERNEST BURGUIÈRES: Entering the even stranger phase of Sucette

By Ernest A. Burguières

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Ernest A. Burguières is a Mandeville attorney who formerly served as District III Councilman. Mandeville Daily is honored to publish Mr. Burguières’ column which is a combined reporting of the goings on in Mandeville government with his personal commentary.

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Four and a half hours last night (June 8th). Went past 10:30.

What was accomplished? More sturm und drang (thunder and lightning)

As we stumble towards a conclusion on the Sucette matter some things start to come in to unmistakable focus. The room was packed. Except for the Sucette group (4-5), Liz Sconzert, the City Attorney and Cara Batholomew, the Director of Planning for the City of Mandeville, everyone present in the audience exhibited varying degrees of anger and fear.

The Council Chair decided that the Sucette portion would start with a recap of the traffic study, the buildout timeline and the use of the marina. It was at this point, for the first time that I recall, that it was revealed that there was all of this talk about a marina which is Parcel U, was not part of the consideration of the Sucette project. How can that be? Ordinance 23-16 goes on and on about slips, marina offices, parking for marina and bulk-heading, etc. for a piece of property that was not being evaluated. Strange.

In any event, the Chair decided that Sucette would be allowed to make unlimited comments on traffic study, the buildout timeline and the use of the marina before any citizen could ask questions or comment. This burned up 30-40 minutes. I asked the Chair and he stated he thought it was more efficient. Enough time passed that people either forgot their issue or they abandoned the meeting out of exhaustion. There was one recurring theme that carried over from prior Planning and Zoning hearings as well as this council hearing; citizens had dozens of questions and comments over the past 6-8 months, but they believed that their questions were never answered because there was no public record of what was asked or what the response was. The result was a feeling of being ignored. The council has just started making the council clerk’s email available for question and answer. The result of this is that that citizen make get a personal answer but the public is nonetheless unaware of the substance and direction of the questions and answers. Without feedback there is a further sense of isolation and dismissal by the citizens that further bred a “us vs. them” feeling. Where were OUR elected officials. How were they protecting US? Only two people exhibited behavior that suggested they were in this fight for the citizens; Jason Zuckerman and Jill McGuire.

Every novel point or question raised in opposition to Sucette was quickly dashed as being irrelevant. For some time now I have felt that Liz Sconzert, the City Attorney and Cara Batholomew, the Director of Planning for the City of Mandeville were sympathetic to the Sucette position. After last night’s meeting a number of people came up to me to ask whose side they were on. It kind of causes a sickening feeling in your stomach. Every point or question was immediately shot down.

Another thing, Ordinance 23-16, the Sucette ordinance, in addition to going into a discussion about what will happen in Parcel U without having Parcel U before them, there was reference to a whole bunch of exhibits, drawings and surveys, that up until a couple of days ago could not be found in City Hall. How can this be? Planning and Zoning, the Council and the City were being asked to consider a huge commercial development over the past 6-8 months without having a complete set of current plans? “Badges? badges? we don’t need no stinkin badges.” (a famous line of dialogue from the 1948 film The Treasure of the Sierra). In other words, don’t bother me kid, I’m busy.

Then into the traffic study. A traffic study is a technical exercise used by planners that generalizes and amortizes a traffic situation that is expected to be believed as gospel. It is written in stone but is wildly affected by which assumptions you plug in. No one understands them except planners. The analysis spreads out traffic counts (amortizes or averages) so that you mathematically minimize what the resident will be left to deal with. It does look good on paper. This is theory vs. reality. The reality is that Antibes east and west; THE ONLY WAY TO ENTER Sucette FROM THE NORTH are two unusually narrow streets that cannot even tolerate any parking. It is these two concrete goat paths that will tolerate hundreds of cars in unknown peak events (e.g. 200 person wedding = 100 cars at say 2:00pm on a Saturday). You owe it to yourself to drive these two streets. This is not compatible at all. Oh, and imagine if you will when Sysco Foods makes a delivery to the restaurant or hotel. They use tractor trailer trucks. You see them going down Girod to the restaurants on Lakeshore Drive. Now imagine a tractor trailer truck making that 90 degree right turn from Monroe onto Antibes west. It cannot happen without the tractor trailer cutting wide to the left and driving over curbs and grass. How much accommodation does Mandeville have to do to make Sucette a success? Before I forget, we were told that the City may have to solve this problem by narrowing the median between Causeway and Antibes west, and in the process cut down two live oak trees that form the gateway to Old Mandeville from Causeway. Think you sir, may I have another?

About 1/3 of the crowd left before they got the chance to comment or ask a question. Many asked why something this significant would not warrant a standalone meeting. We were faced again with an unusual “no time limit accommodation” for Sucette and a three-minute limit on hapless citizens, one of whom donated the balance of her time to her friend who had created a several minute video. Very creative. But the fact remains that the great mass of the unwashed, us lowly citizens, are nothing more than a backdrop for some very slick promoters.

The next meeting is tentatively set for Tuesday, June 20th as a standalone. A group of citizens pooled resources and hired an attorney who specializes in zoning matters. He has written a very interesting critique of this Sucette project which concluded with a copy of a reported case he recently won against West Feliciana Parish (the First Circuit Court of Appeal which includes Mandeville) for being arbitrary and capricious in their zeal to protect a re-zoning applicant.

Whew! Good luck pilgrims!