re: House across from Walk On's in Zachary

It is a benefited the public because it 4-laned and upgraded 64 into and from Zachary.

If you look at it on a map it doesn't encroach on the property. The outer edge of the of of the round about pretty much follows the original path of the highway. The only thing he lost was the turn-in into his drive way.

He thought that they had to have his property and negotiated his way out of a deal because of that.

Developers have the ability to offer above market in certain instances, but they have limits.

Wouldn't the circle have made a lot more sense further east? Where Barsket road now ties in?

They wouldn't have had to take any land or reroute Barsket. Chapel Hill road would have been the main entrance to Americana instead of building two entrances.

Shifting the circle east just 30' would seem to allow an entrance onto the circle for his driveway.

quote:

---

That’s always a risk if you build along a rural highway without many restrictions in a suburban area. . Developers can come in later and surround you. That happens all the time.

---

Ask people on Jefferson Highway in BR between Drusilla and Airline about that.


40 years ago that was a sleepy little area with a 2 lane highway running through it.

These days, it is about a 5-6 lane highway which goes flush against people’s front doors after their yards had been EDed for the widening.

quote:

---

Ascension is even worse than EBR when it comes to land use.

---

Which I noticed when I had to go to an event out in Prarieville several months ago.


Livingston has always been a shite show but it is mutating forms.

The attempt to drop a gigantic subdivision off a highway with no real interstate access other than from Range, which is a perpetual clusterfrick, seemed like Livingston today in a nutshell.

As opposed to Livingston 30+ years ago with rebel flags and a complete inability to get fire insurance.

quote:

---

Zachary has issues but I think a number will be exacerbated by large developments proposed or being built on 964 by the prison and on Rollins Road near Rollins Place Elementary.


Rollins is a 2 lane highway about to get another mega subdivision while 964 is about 2.5 lanes and nowhere near anything but the prison and a motel that wouldn’t look out of place in a horror movie.

---

I remember getting pissed when they put up a light at Newell x 64. Then Rollins x Old Baker x 64. I still inadvertently run the Newell x 64 light when turning left to go back into town. I got so used turning out of there without a light growing up.

These days one of my favorite pastimes is reading the Rants and Raves where people continuously bitch about there being nothing for kids to do, the need for more restaurants and, ironically, the need to stop building houses. The best part is that not a single one of those souls lived here 10 years ago. I would also put the chances of one of these people living in a Horton house above 80%. I want to offer a solution: move back to where you came from.

quote:

---

By La standards - Zachary and Central are probably above average when it comes to planning. And it is still a disaster. Ascension is even worse than EBR when it comes to land use. Livingston is even worse still.

---

Central is in a better place with Planning and zoning mainly because they saw the mistakes Zachary made and were able to get in front of it. Zachary didn’t have a master plan/UDC when the school system went independent. Central School came 2-3 years after Zachary.

Those issues have been for the most part resolved but in some respects it’s too late. Also Zachary has the unique issue of having the school district in unincorporated areas outside the Zachary city limits. This is where most developments are being done now. There is a push for annexation of many of these areas by the new mayor but again it’s too late.

quote:

---

Zachary has issues but I think a number will be exacerbated by large developments proposed or being built on 964 by the prison and on Rollins Road near Rollins Place Elementary.

---

A wide variety of subdivisions across almost all price points are approved in Zachary now. They will see 3,000 new rooftops in the next decade. The lower end production stuff will generally be to the south, the nicer stuff to the north. 964 will eventually have to be widened at least south of 64, but luckily they have the space to do it. The subdivisions you mentioned on 964 south of Copper Mill have been very controversial because of their size and scale.

Oddly enough Americana by Walk On’s is higher end for Zachary, but it’s on the crappy side of town because of the flood issues. Because that’s the primary route to US 61, they are going to see more commercial development there. Gerry Lane is opening a huge dealer in that area soon. Supposedly a new grocery is coming up near Walk On’s as well. Notice all of the new stuff is built up to a higher elevation than the older format development around there.

Within Zachary - Rollins is still an Ole rural two lane road but the setbacks are mostly appropriate. They will eventually have to convert to a 3 lane street with a center turn lane. Shouldn’t be a huge problem unless there is explosive growth out there. There would be some push back against widening it beyond that. They should do this now because most of the areas where they would have issues only have development on one side of the street. It gets more dirty if it’s on both sides - like Staring or Lee in Baton Rouge.

Port Hudson-Pride is going to eventually be a pain point. Luckily it’s mostly smaller, higher end developments out there so less potential for traffic issues short term. They tend to naturally have larger lots and greater setbacks. But likely also means more local resistance to future road improvements. Hopefully it won’t need that for a very long time.

Then there is the school problem. They’ve got a decent school district and not much in the way of private alternatives. Zachary likes to have one school for each age group, so they will have to expand those or divide them up into a new school somewhere or risk overcrowding. That’s going to be expensive.

Zachary should route the west bound lanes on 64 to Church Street, then add in street parking. That would really help their little downtown. Denham did something similar about 15 years ago.

quote:

---

Oddly enough Americana by Walk On’s is higher end for Zachary, but it’s on the crappy side of town because of the flood issues.

---

?

My understanding is that, in general, the eastern part of Zachary was what got completely fricked in the 2016 floods.

There are exceptions further out that way like a couple houses which are on high land and are swampy as hell when it rains heavily but I don’t remember there being water issues in Americana.

quote:

---

Those issues have been for the most part resolved but in some respects it’s too late. Also Zachary has the unique issue of having the school district in unincorporated areas outside the Zachary city limits. This is where most developments are being done now. There is a push for annexation of many of these areas by the new mayor but again it’s too late

---

IMO they should annex everything that's in their school district boundaries.

Probably 1/4th of all developments approved in the Zachary school district are outside of their city limits. They have passive control over those areas at best.

quote:

---

Oddly enough Americana by Walk On’s is higher end for Zachary, but it’s on the crappy side of town because of the flood issues

---

I think that area between Walk On's and US-61 is mostly swamp. There are at least 2-3 newer houses along 64 in that stretch that look like they are built on little manmade hills. Their finished floor elevation has to be 3-4 feet higher than the natural elevation of the landscape.

Looks like the entire new commercial development at the corner of US 61 and US 64 is also being elevated by at least a foot or two. Makes you wonder how this will impact drainage in the future.

At least Zachary will benefit from that moat they are building between them and Baker. That should keep the Comite river from flooding if they ever finish it.