Alright guys I'm beating my head against a wall here. Maybe the infinite wisdom of Tigerdroppings can assist.

TLDR: Lafayette Zoning and Development won't grant me an address because the property doesn't have a certified road that runs in front of it, rather a "glorified driveway" that leads to homes behind me. Gov says I need to create a private road, which requires an application signed by neighbors who won't oblige. Is there any legal recourse I can take?

So there's a public road, maintained by the parish government on the north side of Lafayette. After this 975' of road, the road kind of doglegs off, and then there are three 1.4 acre tracts of undeveloped land. One of those tracts is for sale. The problem is that after that dogleg, the parish doesn't consider that to be a roadway, rather they call it a "glorified driveway" that extends to two homes further down that driveway. Those two homes have an address of the public road.

LCG says that I'd have to turn that "glorified driveway" into a private road, which requires an application be submitted to zoning and development. That application requires all of the property owners that would border that private road to sign the application, and that's a hard no-go. I've knocked on doors and felt these neighbors out. Its mostly family land that's been in this family for three+ generations, and they're self proclaimed bull-headed people, who are perfectly content with things the way they are. They treat this land as if its theirs already, riding their four wheelers and horses through this land on a regular basis.

The properties beyond me who have the public road address are "grandfathered". I'm being told that since the implementation of UDC, which then became the LDC, Lafayette won't give permits to anyone who isn't off of a bonified roadway.

There are a few wrinkles that I don't know if they're relevant or not -- but I'm going to put them out there in case they matter. The property is illegally platted, meaning they were subdivided in 2015 and not submitted to Zoning because they can't technically be platted on that "glorified driveway". What is now illegally platted was once 7 different skinny lots that are now 3 wide lots and one skinny lot.

There was once a home on the property I'm looking to purchase, but that structure was torn down and removed. What remains is a small wooden shed and a water shed that houses a water well. I haven't dug super deep into trying to find out what that address was, because I'm being told the fact that the structure was removed prevents the grandfathering of that property.

The neighbors tell me that the parish actually brings equipment an maintains the road all the way down the glorified driveway, but public record only shows that LCG maintains the 975' of public roadway. So the workers go beyond what they're supposed to. I was really hopeful that I could find record of them going further to show the government that they're already treating it like a public road, but they've covered their bases there it seems.

My next step is to find the documentation at the clerk of court in regards to the public right of way that was granted to the properties beyond me, but I don't know if that will be helpful.

My dream scenario is that there's an attorney who's worked through a similar situation and that there's precedent in a court house somewhere that could help me to start a case against the parish, or maybe even against the other land owners, though the latter is much less desirable. Any recommendations on attorneys specializing in this area would be greatly appreciated.