When the St. Tammany Parish Council rezoned 70 acres south of Covington late last year to allow a medical supply company to build a huge distribution center, opponents vowed to take it to court and shortly after filed suit.
The first courtroom clash— after months of coronavirus delay — finally happened this week, when 22nd Judicial District Judge Reginald Badeaux heard arguments on motions the parish had filed seeking to have that lawsuit tossed.
The parish argues that the plaintiffs – a group called Coalition for Responsible Zoning and five nearby residents — don’t have legal standing to sue. But plaintiffs’ attorneys say their clients have the right to seek a judicial review of the Parish Council’s controversial decision that opened the door for the company, Medline, to build the center.
Badeaux said he would rule in 30 days.
“The (lawsuit) petition is crystal clear,” said Alex Peragine, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “The parish did not behave responsibly…’Trust us,’ that’s what the parish is asking for.”
Medine, an $11 billion company that is the largest privately-held manufacturer of medical supplies, has operated a 200,000-square-foot distribution center in St. Tammany, just across I-12 from the proposed new site, for more than a decade. The company wants to expand and says that the site at issue is the only suitable spot in St. Tammany for its new 800,000 square-foot center.
The suit claims the council did not consider traffic, flooding and zoning impacts and that its decision to change the zoning from an office park to a new classification never before used — for advanced manufacturing and logistics— is spot zoning.
“They let this one spot go ape — anything goes, two million square feet of concrete, 300 trucks a day. We know we have traffic and drainage problems,” Peragine said.
Assistant District Attorney Alex Ducros, representing the parish, argued that the parish’s comprehensive zoning plan is not a guarantee that zoning will never change and that the parish makes changes all the time and can’t be barred from introducing new zoning.
“Just because it’s the first doesn’t mean there is not rational basis,” Ducros said. He called the new zoning classification for the property parallel to the old one, which allowed things like high-rise buildings, hotels, motels, convention centers and universities.
Ducros also argued that none of the plaintiffs have property that is adjacent to the site or that abutts it, reading a list of each plaintiff and how far their homes are from the Medline site.
Badeaux asked if it is really necessary for someone to be adjacent to the site to have standing to sue, offering as an example someone from Slidell. “The property in question, isn’t it adjacent to I-12?” Badeaux asked of the 70 acres, which is between Ochsner Boulevard and I-12. “What if it causes I-12 to be flooded? Doesn’t that affect a person in Slidell?”
Ducros replied that is what the planning stage is for. He also said that the court could become “cluttered” with similar lawsuits.
Badeaux did approve motions to quash subpoenas that were issued to Parish President Mike Cooper and Jay Watson, the parish engineer, for the hearing Tuesday. The plaintiffs had sought to have them testify.
Ducros said that Cooper wasn’t sworn in until January — after the Parish Council vote. Randy Loewen, attorney for the Coalition for Responsible Zoning, said that he thought their testimony would be relevant, pointing out that the two had gone out to survey areas near the site that flooded during heavy rainfall in May.
Opponents of the Medline project have been putting pressure on Cooper, purchasing a full-page ad recently in The Farmer that urges Cooper not to construct a connector road between Louisiana 21 and Louisiana 1077, calling it a $30 million project that will add to drainage and traffic problems and primarily benefit a “Metairie-based” developer and his efforts to sell his land.
All State Financial Company, which is owned by the family of developer Bruce Wainer, owns the site.
The two-mile connector road from Ochsner Boulevard to Louisiana 1077 west of Covington was touted as an alternative roadway to reduce chronic traffic congestion on I-12 and is on the parish’ major thoroughfare plan, which was made public in 2017.
An attorney for Wainer said last year that the new road is unrelated to Medline but is an important part of the company’s consideration of the site.
