Crawfish Aquatics gets narrow nod for swim school in Ascension, but future of La. 73 corridor up in air – The Advocate

GONZALES Parts of the winding, oak-lined stretch of La. 73 in Ascension Parish between Airline Highway and Interstate 10 have a quality much like that of Highland Road in Baton Rouge.

With older homes on large lots and cemeteries and churches, the area northwest of Gonzales also has drawn significant new residential development and was among the fastest growing parts in one of Louisiana's fastest growing parishes in the first decade of the 2000s, census tract data show.

Amid that growth, which has continued in the current decade, commercial development has sprung up around the residential pockets of La. 73. It's been a persistent battle before the parish Planning and Zoning Commission as developers see dollar signs in those rooftops with above-average household income, census data show.

One recent example occurred in May, when the Zoning Commission and later the full Parish Council rejected a request to rezone residential land at La. 73 and Post Office Road to commercial.

Largely surrounded by commercial properties, the family homestead was owned by heirs looking to sell, but commissioners and residents feared rezoning would spur further commercial growth and more traffic on La. 73.

Crawfish Aquatics, the private Baton Rouge-based swimming club and youth swimming education company, was among the latest to try to win a spot along the highway and this time succeeded.

Dr. Steve Ripple, a pediatric dentist who co-founded the company in 1999, told a parish panel last week that his school serves young families and aims to spread the knowledge of swimming. Ripple said about a third of his workers in Baton Rouge are from Ascension as are about 100 of the 600 students at his school on Siegen Lane.

"They make the drive because they see the value added to their children's lives," Ripple said.

The two-building, five-unit complex will be built on 3 acres next to the entrance of Longwood subdivision and empty traffic onto three-lane La. 73, plans show. In addition to the swim school, the complex would have a small restaurant, the Amazing Athletes Pre-School, a pediatric dental clinic and a future medical tenant.

Unlike the brothers and sisters who grew up on La. 73 and were looking to sell their family home, Ripple got his plan approved despite facing considerable opposition.

Ripple was shot down once before. Five months ago, the joint Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial of a specialized rezoning for the project and the council went along with the commission's recommendation.

But Ripple came back this month with a special agreement with the parish that allows Crawfish Aquatics to achieve its goals in a scaled down way. It requires no zoning change because part of the property already had a mixed-use zoning.

Amid shouts of "sold out" and "we know where the money goes," Zoning Commissioner Wade Schexnaydre made the case to recommend the contract agreement. The commission narrowly adopted it 3-2 on Wednesday with the tie-breaking vote cast by Commission Chairman Matt Pryor.

Commissioner Julio Dumas also voted to approve the agreement while commissioners Tony Christy and Ken Firmin voted against it. Commissioners Morrie Bishop and Aaron Chaisson were absent.

The final vote, which does not require council approval because it doesn't involve a rezoning, came after the commissioners heard more than an hour of testimony largely from residents of Longwood subdivision, as well as from a former planning commissioner and the parish councilman for the area.

Residents aired worries that the private swim school and its related commercial enterprises would further boost traffic on La. 73, where housing developments continue to be built and the Ascension Parish school system plans a new primary school.

Longwood resident Denise Drago asked those in the commission audience to raise their hands if any had driven in the "horrible" traffic on La. 73. Virtually all the hands in the room went up.

"Commissioners, do you see all those raised hands? Traffic congestion on (La.) 73 hasn't been addressed nor ... are developers offering any solutions," she said.

Actually, Ripple will have to pay nearly $30,000 in traffic impact fees, which are designed to address a development's share of traffic impact.

While some critics regularly question the strength of parish rules for traffic studies, the study for the original, larger Crawfish Aquatics project found it would have minimal traffic impact on La. 73. No road improvements were required.

The smaller project also eliminated rerouting Bayou Goudine, as the original plan had proposed.

But the dispute Wednesday reprised an ongoing debate in Ascension about the extent of the commission's power to say no when a project meets parish development requirements, as Ripple's project did.

Councilman Daniel "Doc" Satterlee urged the commission to exercise that power and vote no over La. 73's chronic traffic, but Pryor, the tie-breaking vote Wednesday, has taken the view that the commission can't exercise that power easily and not without sufficient evidence.

In a later interview, Pryor said the commission needs to look at the master plan and examine areas like La. 73 where growth is creating pressure on existing zoning.

Commissioners already called Wednesday for a review of the residential zoning around the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center, miles from La. 73, in light of a new road being built to the complex.

"I think that there needs to be a serious look at the whole land-use master plan to identify those areas where we want to direct growth and those areas where we dont want to direct growth and commit the resources and the development to allow for that growth to occur," Pryor said.

Follow David J. Mitchell on Twitter, @NewsieDave.

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Crawfish Aquatics gets narrow nod for swim school in Ascension, but future of La. 73 corridor up in air - The Advocate