BB council splits over trailer rules

Karl Jeter
karl.jeter@techetoday.com

Breaux Bridge – Last week, Breaux Bridge residents seeking variances to allow placement of mobile home/trailers that do not meet newly-passed city codes met with mixed outcomes.
In a special meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 25, the city council, acting as a Board of Adjustments, heard appeals by three residents. All were previously refused variances by the council.
One appeal was successful, two were not.
Previous city administrations were fairly generous with zoning variances of all kinds. When Mayor Ricky Calais took office in 2015, it was decided that the city would maintain tighter adherence to city building and zoning codes. The trailer issue was a major topic of debate at several council meetings earlier in the year.
Many complaints had been made about trailer variances outside areas zoned R-4, where trailer parks are allowed. Most commonly, neighboring residents have said their property values are being adversely effected by out-of-zoning trailers.
Former Legal advisor Chester Cedars strongly recommended ending the practice of circumventing city codes with variances. He said it creates a system in which council members feel they have limited grounds to deny subsequent variance applications.
In September, after much debate, an ordinance amendment was adopted by a unanimous vote, setting out stricter requirements for trailer placement.
One amendment requires pre-inspection of trailers prior to moving into the city. But no trailer more than seven years old was to be allowed, regardless of condition or location within the city.
Existing trailers are “grandfathered,” allowing them to remain, but with certain requirements. If a trailer is uninhabited for more than one year, or for any reason electric service is cut off, they are subject to reinspection, and the age limit comes into play.
At Tuesday’s special meeting the strict application of those ordinances was tested under circumstances that made the decision more difficult.
The owner of a mobile home located in an R-4 zoned park along Rees Street lost the home in a fire. She moved a 22-year-old trailer onto the site without prior inspection. The trailer does not meet the age requirement and also failed the required inspection on grounds related to condition. Loss of the trailer technically negates the grandfather clause, and she was denied a permit.
At the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Ricky Calais cautioned members that the new codes should be enforced and the council should not “pick and choose” individual aspects of the code to ignore. City legal advisor Bart Hebert cautioned that appeals should be handled objectively or the council could “open the door to effectively eliminating the age restriction.” None of the eight conditions set out in the code for exceptions apply in any of the three cases, he said. He suggested that it would be a wiser course of action to amend the code’s age restriction instead of granting a variance.
Parish Council member and former Breaux Bridge Council member Albert “Da DA” Menard, as well as SMILE board member Palmer Johnson spoke to the council on the appellant’s behalf. Menard said Hebert is clearly correct about the law and supported amending the code. Calais said that could not be done in the current special meeting.
Johnson said the restriction resulted in too much harm to residents like the petitioner. “People don’t want to have to leave a town they love because they can’t afford anything else. These people will be a benefit to the city,” he said. The emotional owner said “I have nowhere else to live,” and her plight hit home with the council, changing the mind of one member who provided a critical swing vote in her favor.
In a 3-2 split vote, the council approved the owner’s appeal to allow the trailer to stay. Council members Howard Alexander, Dist. B, and E.J. Ledet, C, voted in favor of granting all three variances, Brenda Castille Hobbs, A, and Gary Champagne, E, voted against all three, Glenn Angelle, D, voted in favor of the Rees Street owner’s appeal but against the other two.
Approval was made contingent on repairs being made to the satisfaction of the city inspector. The other two appeals were denied on the grounds that, along with exceeding the age limit, they were on R-3 zoned lots.
Mayor Calais and the members who voted against the variances said they sympathized with the owners, but felt the ordinances must be followed as written. Calais added that loose adherence to codes has resulted in a situation in which nothing new has been built on the west end of town in more than 20 years.