CPPJ Oks new Moss Bluff standards
Published 11:54 am Saturday, December 6, 2014
Starting in January, new businesses developing along four major corridors in the Moss Bluff area will have to follow new standards that are meant to raise property values and improve the appearance.
Calcasieu Parish police jurors approved the changes Thursday, affecting parts of U.S. 171, La. 378, Parish Road and North Perkins Ferry Road. The development standards were updated after officials spoke with residents in the Moss Bluff area who supported the change.
Development within those four corridors that border rights of way and are zoned commercial, industrial, mixed-use or multi-family residential, along with manufactured homes or RV parks, would have to adhere to the new standards. They would not apply to areas zoned residential or agricultural.
The changes, which officials have described as minimal, would affect architecture, parking, signs and a structure’s placement along property lines.
The front yard of a new business must be set back 20 feet from the right-of-way line. Parking must be hard-surfaced. Monument or wall signs are acceptable, but the signs can’t flash or blink.
The outside of a building could be built with brick, masonry, vinyl, textured concrete or stucco. Landscaping requires at least a 10-foot landscape strip along the public right of way and a tree for every 15 parking spaces.
Motorized, operable vehicles are the only items that can be displayed in front of buildings. Any other products being sold must be behind a screen or indoors.
New businesses wanting to make alternative design standards that vary less than 25 percent from the standards must get approval from the parish planning director after a seven-day review period.
Changes that are more than 25 percent would require a 14-day review period by the corridor overlay district review team, made up of three police jurors and two zoning board members.
The new standards would not affect existing businesses unless they are “damaged, destroyed, repaired or renovated to 75 percent or more of the fair market value of the structure,” according to the development report. Another exception is when a building that is used for residential purposes is converted or replaced with “business-type use.”
Moss Bluff resident Scott Bailey said the new standards may increase the cost of new development, but will add value to real estate and improve the quality of tenants. Bailey said he has developed a strip mall on U.S. 171.
“I think it’s overdue,” he said. “A town just doesn’t get nice overnight. If we want our town to be nice 20 years from now, we have to start today because that’s how long it takes for good decisions to have an impact on the community.”
Officials with the Ward 1 Economic Development Board released a statement supporting the changes.
Wes Crain, parish planning director, said the department notified the Southwest Louisiana Association of Realtors and Home Builders Association of Southwest Louisiana of the new standards.