I'd like to call the zoning board of adjustment meeting to order on today, December 18th, 2025, and the time is 6 p.m.

Would you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance?

I Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which you stand for one nation under God, individual liberty and justice for all.

Okay.

My first uh case of the evening is 2025-45-CBA requested by James and Cherish Dugah to reduce the minimum building elevation from six foot NABD 88 to 12 inches above the center line of the street for a mobile home at 228 Twin Bridge Road to Zalman Zoning District R1AM Council District 4.

If the oh applicant is present, please come forward.

And when you come forward, I need you to state your name, your address, and what you're about to say is true.

Um James Dugas, my address is 228 Twin Bridge Road, Desalmes, Louisiana.

This is my wife Sheriff's.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Uh please tell us what you want to do.

Um we wanted to put our home instead of putting it five or six or eight feet in the air, we're asking to be one foot above grade.

Um we have I have health issues, my wife has health issues, and we both take care of our disabled parents from time to time.

And having uh tall stairs is just gonna be a discomfort for all of us and was one.

Um that we lost our home in Raceland for Mida, and we was in a slab home, and we're quite kind of scared of being too high up in the air, being in a high wind zone, and uh we're just requesting to uh be that one foot or more because the home actually from the drawings and from where we've talked to the contractor, we're actually gonna be close to 24 inches above the road grade, which is this is it's a significantly higher than what we anticipated anyway.

Okay.

Oh do any of the commissioners have any questions or the applicants okay?

Okay, turn your microphone.

I see a green light, okay.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Are you nervous standing up there in front of us?

Excuse me.

Are you nervous standing up there in front of us?

I'm not nervous.

Good.

Good.

I don't like nervous people.

I want some people be calm.

Um this is my first meeting on a ZBA since about the 1990s.

So uh we um I notice there's no more mule parking spaces in the uh at satire and sarcasm in the parking lot.

But I have a number of questions for you.

Okay.

Let me give you a caveat.

Um back then when I served, I was known as the anarchist.

I didn't care if somebody wanted to dig a 10-foot hole deep and put up a house on that at your property.

But we have some other issues here.

Okay.

Because if you don't elevate that house, and you get into an emergency, that means that other people have to risk their lives to get to you.

Correct.

All right.

How high are the maybe planning and zoning could answer this question?

Are there any other structures with the with this proposed elevation?

Um near this this this house.

We actually um submitted photos of we said we submitted photos of a lot of mobile homes that are in like very close vicinity to our neighbor in our neighborhood.

One of them is actually our neighbor, and it looks like they're not like about two feet, which is the standard hood manufacture um home requirement that it I don't know what it was whenever they got their homes there, but there's actually some new ones that are the 36 inches high because they require that height for the home to be, and then you know, of course, with your pad and stuff, and then anything more is with the parish or FEMA adds on to that.

And I had submitted photos of those.

And I just want to add to what you said that puts um people in danger to get to us if there were a storm or anything that came.

We did stay for Hurricane Ida, and we still have like I don't like to call it PCSD, but it kind of is because of that storm, like a lot of other people do, and we would not stay for a storm.

We would evacuate.

If this request that you have is denied.

Uh I have no idea how my colleagues here will vote.

I have no idea we haven't discussed that at all.

Which we're not supposed to.

But my question then is have you approached any NGO, non-governmental entities, insurance companies, governmental entities, council on aging, to see if you could get some assistance with a chair lift or a stair lift.

We've taught I've talked to someone about my mother's situation because we take care of her a lot, and they said that she would have to be more of a resident for us to help her for her for her needs at her home would be one thing, but to help us in our home would not be an option, is what they told us.

Well we're in a flood X zone right now, too, so that's kind of well.

I I'm very familiar with how FEMA comes in and recategorizes back in the days of the dinosaur, the Map Sedan when I did this before.