Good evening and welcome to the legislative council, excuse me, legislative committee meeting on Monday, March 16, 2026 at 5 p.m.

in the council chambers in the past courthouse.

Please sign on all electronic devices and remove all hats.

This meeting is called to order with a silent prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Underground individual.

Alrighty, uh, welcome.

Let's go ahead and get started.

Matters before the committee.

Albert, can you walk us through a brief?

Yes, sir.

Um, thank you.

Uh towards the end of last year, the planning commission tasked us with looking at the commercial zoning districts and to achieve two different goals.

They ask us to modernize the use categories and the process by which uses are evaluated in C2.

Um, basically to consolidate things that were no longer applicable and to create categories rather than listing a broad list of specific items.

Um they also ask us to evaluate where possible we would be able to look at special permit uses under C2 in an effort to avoid so many rezoning requests for C3 highway commercial in places where there was no highway or it wasn't an appropriate zoning district.

Um so what you have in your packet is actually three separate items as it relates to this.

The first one is a revision to the definitions, which is mostly a housekeeping matter.

A little over ten years ago, the zoning ordinance was updated in a very significant way.

The use tables were updated within the districts and definitions were added.

What we've done is make sure that the uses that are listed in the different zoning districts have a corresponding definition, so that those things have a self-explanatory item in the uh definition schedule.

Uh you'll see things like animal shelter has been added.

That was an existing use that didn't have a specific definition.

So my staffs use the best principles and practices from professional planning to draw definitions that are appropriate for the zoning code.

The second the second item that you'll see follows the definitions.

It is an update to section 7, which is the supplemental use and performance regulations.

There are items in the zoning code that are a specifically allowed use.

However, there are incidental regulations that go along with them.

So, for instance, at the top of this, accessory buildings have a list of requirements, setbacks, things that they have to meet.

Um this section is where all of those are gathered.

So when you see something in the use table for a zoning district, you go to supplemental regulations to see what additional items are there.

This will actually be important for later discussions tonight, so keep that in mind.

Um what this does in a lot of instances is translate things that were already existing in the use table or in the definitions and puts them in the appropriate place within the code.

This is largely a housekeeping issue.

The main difference that's substantive that you would see are contractor shops.

Um this is kind of the use case that has been a challenge where uh contractor might otherwise need C3 to run their not quite commercial, not quite industrial, like not fabrication, but like plumbing shops, small repair, industrialized operations.

So we we added that section in with some specific development standards that the commission asked us to put in there.

So you can see that on page two.

The third part of this is the larger update to the commercial zoning districts.

Umly C2 and C3.

C1 is not all that heavily used in the parish.

Most of the rubber meets the road with these two districts, with C2s primarily being your retail and service related businesses, and C3 being everything else.

Um C3 encapsulates most other commercial zoning and it primarily deals with your larger, more substantial businesses.

Think Walmart, heavy traffic, grocery stores, um drive-throughs, banks where you're gonna see peak hour trips on a highway.

Um there is a lot of work that is done in here with things being crossed out, nothing is being lost, no uses are being eliminated, they're simply being consolidated under categories.

Um that is the basic preamble for all of this.

Um we're open to suggestions.

This is a conversation.

The commission asked us to start.

We think overall this is gonna make the code easier to review and look through, and we hope that it creates fewer instances where people feel they need to permanently rezone their property to a perhaps inappropriately high commercial zoning district when they have an option for a special permit review in another case.

Thank you.

All righty, thank you, Mr.

Albert.

Um, file number 2026 088 is now open for public hearing.

There's anyone who would like to come up and speak.

Regarding this item, please do so now.

Please state your name and address for the record.

You'll have three minutes to speak.

This public hearing is only for the code revisions as it pertains to commercial zoning at this time.

There we go.

Hello, council, uh Rick Whitney, 1447, one river road.