Sucette Harbor special meeting rescheduled after delay in updated plans

Developer asks for more time to make changes to proposal

Planning director denied that any buildings or structures were planned for Parcel U despite site plan showing otherwise

Update: Corrects rescheduled meeting date to ‘June 29th.’

MANDEVILLE — The City Council has rescheduled the June 29th Sucette Harbor special meeting after confusion over the site plan at the last meeting when it was announced that changes to that site plan had been made but were not yet available.

The meeting has been rescheduled to July 5th at 5:00 p.m. The announcement was made by Council Chairman Councilman at Large Rick Danielson at the beginning of tonight’s (June 22nd) regular City Council meeting.

The council was notified today (June 22nd) that the project developer asked for more time for revisions they had promised to deliver to council members by today.

At the previous meeting on June 20th, City of Mandeville Planning and Development Director Cara Bartholomew made a bombshell announcement at the beginning of the meeting that significant changes had been made to the site plan and other exhibits in response to original conditions or requests made by the Planning and Zoning Commission but those changes would not be available to the council at that meeting.

Councilman at Large Jason Zuckerman asked Bartholomew if the city would require a conditional use permit for Parcel U, which is the marina parcel of property.

She responded, “So at this point, all the plans that we have seen are only showing the docks on Parcel U. I haven’t seen a plan or anything that shows anything else other than the slips on parcel U and the bulkheads.”

So at this point, all the plans that we have seen are only showing the docks on Parcel U. I haven’t seen a plan or anything that shows anything else other than the slips on parcel U and the bulkheads.

— Planning and Development Director Cara Bartholomew

This statement appears to be in contradiction to the most-current available site plan drawings. (See this previous report in for a detailed examination of those plans.)

Those drawings clearly show the restaurant building and outdoor patio seating well into Parcel U (see below):

Sucette Harbor attorney Paul Harrison had promised during questioning by Zuckerman to provide an updated site plan “tomorrow or the next day” after it was revealed that significant changes had been made that were not yet available to the council or public.

Now it appears, those updated plans and exhibits will not be delivered as promised.

It remains unclear if the coming changes from the developer will remove the above pictured buildings from Parcel U. Bartholomew described the coming changes as:

“There was [sic] two buildings located on the west side of the property along the marina, one of those buildings were [sic] removed. … The square footage of that southern building was added on about 2,000 square feet to accommodate just the marina service operations.”

The delay in updates drew harsh reactions from some on the council who during the meeting questioned Bartholomew and City Attorney Elizabeth Sconzert concerning conflicts with a servitude of passage and buildings planned for a parcel that Bartholomew and Sconzert had previously asserted had no such plans.

A vote on Ordinance 23-16 is tentatively planned for July 12th. It is unknown if this vote will be postponed in light of the canceled June 29th special meeting.

This is a developing story.

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