Firm believes all land will be obtained by January
A consulting firm helping St. Charles Parish secure land for the Luling phase of the West Bank hurricane protection levee expects all land necessary for the levee’s construction to be obtained by January.
Once that process is complete, the first phase of construction could begin in the fall of 2012.
Lucas Lilly, a planner/real estate specialist with GCR and Associates, said that appraisers are currently in the process of establishing a fair market value for the property behind Willowridge Subdivision. He expects compensation offers to be made to the landowners in early November.
“We anticipate the negotiations lasting 30-90 days depending on the response we get back from the landowners,” Lilly said. “If we fail to reach a compromise or find something that the parish can settle on and the landowners can settle on, we will move with Lafourche (Basin Levee District) to do what’s called a quick-take expropriation of the property.”
Government agencies, such as the Lafourche Basin Levee District, have the power to take land for a public project through eminent domain. However, that process can sometimes drag on for years in the courts. Quick-take expropriation allows government agencies to bypass that process and take immediate ownership of the land.
If a quick take does occur, the parish, through Lafourche Basin Levee District, would deposit the higher of two appraisal amounts for the property into the court’s register. The money could then be withdrawn by the landowner or stay in the register and accrue judicial interest.
If the landowner challenges the amount of compensation, the decision would ultimately be decided by the courts.
The landowners would be able to challenge the public need of the levee project before the quick take, but Lilly said that would be hard to do.
“We think there is no challenge,” he said. “We feel there is a public need for this project.”
If the landowners’ challenge fails, Lilly said the parish would take possession of the property through Lafourche “after about 10 days.”
According to the parish’s permit, about 9 acres of the levee would be built on a conservation easement that was created in a 2000 consent decree. However, Lilly said that once the Lafourche Basin Levee District or the parish acquires the property the consent decree would be more easily modified.
“The corps seems to be on board with that as well,” he said.
Mark Roberts, of Burk-Kleinpepter, Inc., said that if all land is acquired by January, construction could begin next fall.
Initial construction would include clearing and grubbing the right of way and the excavation of a burrow canal in order to obtain embankment to construct a levee to 5-foot elevation.
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