By Leonard Gray / L’Observateur / February 4, 1998

HAHNVILLE – A parade of citizens spoke Monday, mostly in support of anaccess road to a new Winn Dixie supermarket planned next to LakewoodWest Subdivision in Luling.

The St. Charles Parish Council heard the voice of the majority and voted8-0 to approve the access road to Lakewood Drive, council memberscommenting it would be safer than having local residents drive onto U.S.Highway 90 to reach the grocery store.”The way I see it, it’s absolutely the safest way,” Parish Councilman EllisAlexander said.

The issue split the Lakewood West community, some residents declaring ita hazard to children and other pedestrians and bicyclists.

“It’s all about money,” resident Joann Robinson said after the vote. “Noone talked about the hazards.”

Parish Councilman Ron Phillips tacked on an amendment to the approval,mandating a height-restriction bar over the access road to keep out largetrucks which could be more of a traffic hazard.

That talk left Lakewood Apartments owner Brian Becker unfazed, though,who said the “dangerous and unnecessary road” would breed crime, trashand noise to the neighborhood. Becker’s attorney, Gilbert Buras Jr., addedthe Parish Council is asking for trouble and commented the road is”absolutely unnecessary for the viability of the project.”

However, Dr. Edward Jeansonne Jr., whose office is next to the proposedroad’s site, said the road is a convenience.Bauer and Co. also received a letter of no objection to clear and fill the9.2-acre site on U.S. Highway 90 near Lakewood Drive.

Developer Tom Bauer said the new Winn Dixie Marketplace supermarketwould provide 350 jobs, $6 million in annual payroll and $800,000 inannual sales tax revenue for the parish.”We’re committed to make this store the best,” Bauer said.

The coastal use permit application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,and Louisiana Departments of Environmental Quality and Natural Resourcescalls for clearing and adding 30,000 cubic yards of fill to raise the site’selevation by 2 feet. A 2-foot levee will enclose the area from thePeterson Canal east for 600 feet, then north for 800 feet to the edge ofU.S. 90.

In other activity, the Parish Council voted unanimously in opposition tocreating a River Parishes Convention, Tourists and Visitors Commission.

Rep. Bobby Faucheux and Joel Chaisson II proposed the idea during the1997 Legislative session. However, as Faucheux did not first tell theparish governments about the idea, the parish councils protested and thebill was yanked.

“It just creates another bureaucracy,” Parish Councilman Barry Minnichsaid.

The Parish Council also approved a coastal use permit for MCITelecommunications to re-bury a fiber-optic cable exposed and washedout in the Bonnet Carre Spillway along the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad.

Resolutions were approved to ask South Central Planning and Developmentto develop building codes and to re-examine and review the 1990Comprehensive Land Use Plan.

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