re: New Ascension Parish Building Requirements

Varies greatly but it’s a lot of silt and fine grained material

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Unfortunately, Doc is outmanned and outgunned at the moment, but the elections this year could change that, especially if Clint gets elected parish president.

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For a few years following Doc I thought that too. But in the last 1.5 yrs or so, 3 guys out there added me from Doc's page and are coming out swinging to change the leadership culture out in the AP.
Brandon Gholson ,Jeff Petit, and Devin Graham talk a good game and gaining momentum. I would vote for them if they run for some shite I can vote on .

I'm new to G-tizzle btwizzle. No longer in 70808.

In all honesty the solution to the problem is multifaceted:

1. ALL ditches need to be cleaned out and redug.
2. Most culverts in the parish are very old and too small. Replace them.
3. Dredge all the drainage canals/rivers (Amite, New River, Manchac, Henderson, etc.). Make them deeper.
4. I'm fine with all the new development as long as the new drainage systems are functional. (more on that below)
5. Enforce litter laws - litter is clogging out drainage outlets. Raise mandatory fines to $1,000 for first offenses in the parish.
6. Add more outlets (culverts) below raised roads and highways. Too many of these are acting as levees and preventing water from finding outlets.




Ever pass through all the construction on HWY 42 in Prairieville after a rain? All the BRAND NEW drainage systems put in place to support the new construction are overwhelmed and overflowing. The water isn't draining - it's just sitting there and building up. If the brand new drainage systems put in place aren't working imagine how poorly the older ones are performing!

I'm fine with all the new construction. It brings in tax revenue to the parish which goes to fund our facilities and schools. Just make sure the damn drainage outlets work!

I think AP should do the opposite and not allow any new construction to build more than 6" above the existing ground. I bet that slows some developers. Lived there for 20 years. Development with lack of infrastructure ruined it. Can't go anywhere without dealing with traffic anymore. But a lot of palms got greased along the way so all was overlooked.

You are exactly correct. Drainage is the #1 issue. People can yell from the rooftops about developments but the existing conditions, in my opinion, need to be assessed and fixed first. Anyone from here knows that after a hard rain, Burnside near Hwy 30 will flood and not be passable for a while. That has been the same for as long as I can remember. It's only gotten worse in the past decade, but I've yet to see any real improvement in existing drainage.

Real change at the top is what is needed. The ditches and drainage do not flow like they should, but we have people who are supposed to be working for the parish driving luxury cars and taking expensive trips. While our neighbor's yards are filling up to the doors, the litter and debris clogging the systems are still there.


ETA: I've also heard that the parish has contracted out to third parties to "help".

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The developers will just pay the right people under the table to get a “variance” and never have to meet any of that.

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Sadly, a lot of truth right here.

Reminds me of AP, LP August 2016.

So...let me make a couple few pernts if I may:

The ordinance changes passed last night were multifaceted and honestly-in the past 24 hours-Ascension Parish instituted one of the top 2 most stringent development ordinances in the state of Louisiana. If you are a smart-land-use proponent, then they truly hit the ball out of the park.

The gold standard of development, fill and mitigation within a floodplain is for a community to adopt a, “net-zero,” fill ordinance within a floodplain. Which is exactly what Ascension Parish did.

Net Zero Fill in a Floodplain is a simple concept: Any development that fills or modifies a designated Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) must mitigate the development volumetrically.

Translation/Example: You wanna bring in 3 feet of fill to build your house pad up? You must then mitigate the same amount on the same piece of property. You must have a design professional or a licensed surveyor or another professional qualified in the state to make the calculations and provide you with documentation that you can then provide to the governing authority enforcing net zero fill.

Net Zero Fill is the Gold Standard for both the Louisiana Floodplain Management Association and the Association of State Floodplain Managers (LFMA & ASFPM).

The problem with Net Zero is for folks who are building on smaller areas of individual tracts, offsetting fill with mitigation becomes a logistical or math problem. You simply don’t have enough area to perform the required mitigation based on your fill needs in some instances when the lot’s not large enough.

So how you design a solution for that instance? Well...Ascension Parish went further than the Gold Standard.

AP also instituted a 2’ Freeboard Requirement. Meaning that all structures in Ascension Parish must be 2’ higher than the established Base Flood Elevation (BFE) as determined by their applicable Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) or Elevation Certificate (EC).

Now here’s where it gets really interesting. Ascension also instituted a cap on the amount of total fill, which is totally arbitrary but 36” (3 feet). What does this mean?

This means that if you have to achieve the 2’ Freeboard, you only have one foot of fill you can bring in just to reach the Base Flood Elevation (BFE). Which means on any property lower than 1’ beneath the applicable BFE, you simply aren’t going to be able to utilize fill to meet the Freeboard Requirement.

What does that mean? It means that in any case like this, a developer or prospective home builder must use a different construction method to achieve this Freeboard/Elevation Requirement. Which means Pier and Beam construction.

What does that mean? Well...Developers like offering slab on grade using fill. Why? Well the biggest reason is that when you elevate above the flood zone using fill, you can submit a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) to FEMA. Once its accepted, it removes the mandatory purchase requirement for flood insurance policies on properties. Which lowers the cost of home ownership of properties. Making things cheaper on homeowners.

So not only did the Parish pass the gold standard of floodplain managers from a fill ordinance perspective, they passed the gold standard Freeboard requirement, created an entire class of winners and losers in terms of land owners that must adjust their construction methods if their land is beneath 1’ of the established BFE.

There were some interesting things said by the Council. Some of which were accurate. Some of which...well...not so much.

But make no mistake...what they did is going to cause serious changes in development in Ascension Parish. Whether you view that change as positive or negative, I’m not here to provide an opinion. But it will definitely change things up.

Before I forget, someone in this thread mentioned that the existing drainage ponds (retention/detention facilities) done on Engineered Dirt (Read: Subdivisions) are silted up and not working properly.

The Council responded to that by also passing an ordinance that requires regular inspection of those drainage/mitigation facilities by the Parish and-when found to be deficient-owners/responsible parties are given a 60 day response period and a 6 month window to make the changes or face penalties from the Parish.

ETA: These ordinances apply to any permitted structure in the Parish. Meaning subdivision/neighborhood developments, individual tracts, and commercial developments. They also apply throughout the Parish, regardless of flood zone designation. Meaning X-Zone, A-Zone...everywhere. Everything.

I don’t see much of an appetite for loopholes considering the teeth of this ordinance.

LOL at all the HOAs that will be responsible for the abysmal retention ponds and drainage the developers built.