PLAQUEMINES PARISH, La. — Residents in Oakville got a win Tuesday night after they banded together against a zoning change proposal.
“We as a community are sick and tired of being pushed over,” Dwight Williams a resident of Oakville said. “This is the last time we are going to stand for it. We don’t want it, we don’t need it.”
Williams is talking about a request from Oakville Properties LLC to the Plaquemines Parish development board to change the historically black subdivision’s zoning district from Rural and Agricultural to General Commercial. It’s a move the residents say will bring major problems to their quiet community.
Claude Klein of Oakville Properties LLC told the development board they’d planned to develop temporary housing out of modular buildings, creating temporary housing for the construction workers building a massive LNG plant on Highway 23.
“It’s basically a trailer,” said Klein. “It’s 80 by 14. That is the largest one there are a couple that are smaller than that. They will house anywhere from 10 to 12 people at a time.”
Dozens of residents signed three petitions in opposition to the company’s proposal. They say the community founded in 1869 by freed slaves was not built for commercial development.
“Our infrastructure is not set up for that,” said Allen Green, President of the Oakville Community Action Group.
Green enlisted the help of Mia Dalton, with the Tulane Environmental Clinic to advocate for the residents.
“This will significantly increase vehicular traffic on both West St. Peter and Oakville streets,” said Dalton. “These streets are already very narrow and they are the only roads connecting this proposed commercial property to Highway 23.”
Many told the board they worried an agreement to change the community's zoning to commercial would incentivize future developments.
“I totally feel we have taken advantage of these communities, and we need to stop,” said David Clark, a resident of Plaquemines Parish. “We need to go to these other communities that live a mile or a half mile away and have a voice in shutting down a project like this. These guys in their backyard, they got to bring a whole community out here to shut this kind of stuff down.”
In the end, the board members who were present voted unanimously against the change — denying Oakville Properties LLC the zoning change request.
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