Zone meeting turns heated over Sasol property buys
Published 10:50 am Wednesday, September 17, 2014
The Calcasieu Parish Planning and Zoning Board on Tuesday voted unanimously to deny a request from a Mossville resident to rezone his property from heavy industrial to residential.
But not before a little drama unfolded.
The request came from Stacey Ryan, the owner of a FEMA trailer that sits on slightly more than one-tenth of an acre at 3009 Fifth Ave. in Mossville. Ryan’s property was rezoned from residential to heavy industrial in May, a move the Police Jury approved to make room for Sasol’s multibillion-dollar expansion project, which will extend into the Mossville area.
Ryan said he wanted the property rezoned back to residential so he could live in the trailer. He also asked to have electricity and running water sent out to his property.
“I did not wish to have my property rezoned heavy industrial,” Ryan said. “I’m still on the property whenever I can be there, in a sense, but I need more to be able to establish power the way I want, running water, which I have asked for. The basic things, civil rights in order to live and enjoy life. That’s all I’m asking for.”
Board member John Duhon told Ryan he should consider selling his property to Sasol. He said most of Ryan’s neighbors sold their property to Condea Vista during a buyout in 2000.
“You not accepting (Vista’s offer) puts you in this position; it puts the utility companies in this position,” Duhon said. “You could have moved your home on a lot bigger than this with the money Vista would’ve paid you. I can’t have a lot of sympathy for you when you didn’t take advantage of the situation.
Ryan said the money Vista offered him would only “fill (his) gas tank for a month.” Duhon replied that Vista’s offers did not deter Ryan’s neighbors from selling their properties to the company.
“Mr. Ryan, let me offer you some advice: Sell out to Sasol,” Duhon said. “What’s going to happen is there’s going to come a point where they won’t want your property. You can’t do anything; you can’t get any utilities. You’re going to be stuck there. Nobody’s ever going to buy that piece of property. You might want to move while you can.”
At the outset of the meeting’s public comment period, Westlake resident Debra Ramirez, a former Mossville resident, approached the rostrum and began lecturing the board.
“First of all I want to say this: God is not liking what you all are doing being so attentive to industry and their needs as opposed to the people who put you in those seats,” she said. “Land zoning is a tricky thing because each of you will have an inheritance that you’re going to leave to your children.”
At that point, board Chairman Jake Porche told Ramirez she was out of order.
“I have a right to stand here and talk,” Ramirez said.
“You don’t have a right to insult the board,” Porche replied.
Ramirez then began protesting Porche’s ruling, prompting him to call for the bailiff to remove her from the meeting room. Ramirez resisted, forcing the bailiff to grab her arm to pull her away from the rostrum.
When Ramirez was removed from the meeting room, Porche called for a five-minute recess.
“Y’all going to reap what you sow,” one woman said from the back of the meeting room.
Mike Hayes, Sasol’s public affairs manager for U.S. megaprojects, told the American Press on Monday that the company has made Ryan an offer on his property based on “the ongoing property values in the area.” He said Ryan has not acknowledged Sasol’s offer.
“We would like to work with Mr. Ryan to acquire his property,” Hayes said. “There’s absolutely no doubt that we’d like to acquire his property somewhere between a reasonable and generous price.”
Hayes said Ryan’s property is not within the area of the company’s Volunteer Property Purchase Program. He added, however, that the property lies east of the Kansas City Southern Railroad, an area where Sasol wants to build warehouses and “other facilities.”
“That is property that is adjacent to the plant property that we would like to have within our fence line,” he said, adding that lots outside of the program were open to negotiation.
“The offers that we are making on lots quite frankly is more generous than what we’re offering in the program,” Hayes said.
Board members Lutricia Cobb and Gerry Navarre did not attend the meeting.