LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / September 9, 2000

HAHNVILLE – It won’t really change anything, except make the boundariesbetween St. Charles Parish communities more official. Without fanfare, andwith little opposition, the St. Charles Parish Council approved a communityboundary plan Tuesday.

Setting out the plan involved 18 months of work by South Central Planningand Development Commission. The project involved agencies including theU.S. Postal Service, local fire departments and the parish planning and zoningdepartment. It also involved research into archives, dating back to Spanishland grants to determine which area belongs with which community.

Kevin Belanger of South Central Planning aid the last thorny problem wasthat of New Sarpy and Destrehan. That was decided, he said, by drawing theline between Victoria Plantation and Ormond Meadows SubdivisionNew Sarpy resident Stanford Caillouet, a vocal opponent of the plan who atone time pushed for the line to be set at Brown’s Curve in front of OrmondPlantation, spoke out again at the meeting.

“You’re destroying New Sarpy!” he declared.

“We’re trying to put New Sarpy on the map,” responded parish administratorTimothy Vial, in speaking of the smallest community in the parish by acreage.

By acreage, according to the map, the largest of St. Charles Parish’s 14unincorporated communities is Bayou Gauche, which includes most of theacreage of the southern end of the parish, stretching to Lake Salvador.

The communities include Ama, Bayou Gauche, Boutte, Des Allemands,Destrehan, Hahnville, Killona, Luling, Montz, New Sarpy, Norco, Paradis, St.

Rose and Taft.

Community identity clashed with post office closures, such as in Killona andTaft, where it was feared that loss of the post offices would mean loss ofidentity. New Sarpy, though it has a post office, is actually part ofDestrehan’s postal service area. Montz residents receive their mail fromLaPlace. And Bayou Gauche has never had its own post office.

Several public hearings were held on the matter, most with small, but vocalopposition to the plan. With the public input, adjustments were made to theplan, Belanger said.

One of the sticky situations, he added, was the line between Luling andHahnville, was settled as the line between Esperanza and Fashion plantations.

As the two communities are edging closer and closer, situations such as thisprompted the boundary establishment, according to Belanger.

Approval was by an 8-0 vote, with Councilman Brian Fabre absent from thatportion of the meeting.

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