GONZALESHaving recently given itself the final say in Ascension Parish's development disputes, the Parish Council on Thursday upheld the previous denial of a 32-home subdivision proposed in a flood plain hit hard in the August flood.

The vote, 9-0, was the first time the council decided on an appeal of a parish Planning Commission decision. The August flood, and how the parish accounts for the drainage impacts of new developments, weighed heavily in the council's decision-making.

All members present Thursday supported upholding the commission's denial of the Hudson Cove development. Councilmen Todd Lambert and John Cagnolatti were absent

Traffic and flooding concerns, especially in light of the flood, were also factors in the Planning Commission's narrow rejection in April of the Hudson Cove development proposed along La. 42 in Galvez.

On Thursday, the developers tried to make the case that engineering showed the project, which would use fill to raise home sites and a detention pond to capture flood waters and rainfall, would not worsen flooding but improve it compared to the current state.

Hudson Cove attorney David Cohn went through a question-and-answer session with the project's traffic and drainage engineers to spell out findings that, Cohn said, show the project would not worsen traffic on La. 42 and would actually improve drainage in the area.

He also pointed out the project had backing from the parish's own planning and engineering officials and its consulting engineer; however, council members aired some skepticism that the use of fill and detention ponds would prevent new residential areas from flooding their neighbors.

Councilman Aaron Lawler said parish leaders have too much experience with detention ponds and fill from past developments to have complete certainty the engineering plans would work as advertised.

"We are going to build land up one side, and we're going to take it for granted that this is all to going work. And it's supposed to work, but we don't know if it is, and it doesn't always have a history of always working. If the history was 100 percent, you probably wouldn't have" a problem, Lawler told Cohn.

Cohn countered that the council members' concerns were unfairly putting concerns from the August flood, which he said was a 500-year to 1,000-year event, on the project, even though the council has not made changes to development rules that could account for that type of flood.

"We got this 300-pound gorilla on our back called the August flood, and we can't get off it," Cohn said.

Lawler and other council members made their comments after neighbors of the proposed Hudson Cove aired their concerns and supplied pictures of how the 12-acre site, which has a slough through it, flooded during August along with the state highway.

Some were former New Orleans residents wholost everything in Hurricane Katrina and nearly flooded again and some did in August after having moved to Galvez.

Another was a woman, Nichole Gautreau, 36, whose house took on 6 inches in August and who said she doesn't want to go through that again. Gautreau, who lives in the nearby Twelve Oaks subdivision, also submitted a petition with 580 signatures opposing the project.

Jackie Laurendine, 52, said she could not understand what the "rocket science" was for anyone to fail to see that adding more homes would worsen drainage in the area.

"Those who didn't flood this time are going down next time if this building continues," Laurendine said. "It's y'all's job to make sure this doesn't happen."

Lawler, who has proposed a moratorium on some uses of fill, is working with other council members to design development rules based on the parish's flood plains. He suggested the developer may have better luck in six months once those rules are in place.

Earlier this year, the council changed the appeal process for commission decisions when it abolished a controversial appeals board. That three-person body had overturned earlier commission denials of other residential communities proposed in the parish.

Follow David J. Mitchell on Twitter, @NewsieDave.

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Ascension Council upholds denial of Hudson Cove subdivision over drainage worries - The Advocate