March 7, 2024
Mr. Ronnie Williams
Mayor, City of Natchitoches
700 2nd Street
Natchitoches, LA 71457
RE: No notice of property subdivision as required by state law
Mayor Williams:
Louisiana law requires notice to property owners within 300 feet of property being rezoned or subdivided to be duly notified for the purpose to fully understand and offer feedback and input. The City of Natchitoches did not provide us notice regarding the subdivision of property by Rowanoak Development, LLC on Washington Street. We have discussed this no notice with Shontrell Roque, the City of Natchitoches Planning & Zoning Director. We have also discussed this no notice directly with you. To date, no action has been taken by the City of Natchitoches to address this no notice as required by Louisiana law to the impacted property owners.
The City of Natchitoches Planning and Zoning Department produced two letters on this matter. A letter dated February 7, 2022 regarded the subdivision request for 23.95 acres (see attached). A letter dated June 20, 2022 changed the development foot print and reduced the requested subdivided area from the original 23.95 acres to 14.244 acres (see attached). Shontrell Roque signed both letters and told us these letters were sent out to the property owners identified by the Natchitoches Parish Assessor’s Office that are within 300 feet of the subdivided requested property (see attached). We are not aware of any property owner on this 300 feet list that received this letter. Over half of the 25 listed impacted property owners have signed statements that confirm they did not receive either of these two letters (see attached the three signed statements for our property). These facts suggest the City of Natchitoches allegedly did not follow Louisiana law with this lack of notice.
This group of impacted property owners is not necessarily opposed or supportive of this development. Yet, the property owners we have visited with are 100% in agreement that we all should have been notified of this subdivision request as required by Louisiana law.
Two aspects of due process that are of interest to our community include the waste water / sewage load and the impact of extra traffic entering and existing Washington Street from this development with the current speed limits. Our community would have appreciated the opportunity to understand how the additional waste water / sewage impacted the current system. In addition, the curve from the North Bypass toward Flora Street on Washington Street is an accident prone area with merging traffic. The entrance of this development is directly in this section of Washington Street. We would have appreciated a discussion to consider lowering the speed limit from 45 MPH to 35 MPH to better address this safety concern.
Providing input and having a robust discussion of these two matters and other points of interest are the reason that Louisiana law requires proper notice to property owners within 300 feet of property that is under consideration for zoning or subdividing changes. The lack of notice from the City of Natchitoches as required by Louisiana law did not allow this required exchange of interaction to happen.
Sincerely,
/s/
Terry Chesser
1485 Washington Street
Natchitoches, Louisiana
/s/
Gina Puls
1525 Washington Street
Natchitoches, Louisiana
/s/
Ruth Shoemaker
1517 Washington Street
Natchitoches, Louisiana
Paid for by the Citizens for Responsive Government
