HAHNVILLE — St. Charles Parish officials said in an effort to conserve and manage the parish’s precious coastal resources, officials put together the first-ever Coastal Zone Management Program.

St. Charles Parish Coastal Zone Supervisor Earl Matherne said the plan offers distinct advantages to the local government and residents.

“Having a formal document in place that clearly identifies and plans for the future of the unique geology, wetland habitats, hydrology and natural resources that exist in St. Charles Parish is integral to support future sustainability,” he said.

The plan also will more easily allow the parish to tap into financial resources to protect the coastline, which has implications with regard to hurricane protection, flood insurance and economic opportunities, according to Matherne.

The plan’s stated goals are to:

• Maintain or enhance overall environmental quality of the parish.
• Conserve the integrity of productive wetland areas.
• Enhance parishwide opportunities for recreational use of suitable wetlands.
• Minimize adverse effects of transportation, industrialization and urbanization on environmental quality.
• Balance the resource needs to maintain productive wetlands and agricultural lands.
• Protect renewable resources within the parish.
• Minimize effects of mining non-renewable resources within the parish.
• Minimize detrimental effects of coastal dependency on wetland areas.

The plan also identifies and describes 17 environmental management units defined by land and water characteristics, including Lakes Pontchartrain, Cataouatche and Salvador, as well as the LaBranche and Allemand Wetlands.

The St. Charles Parish Coastal Zone Advisory Committee will consider all comments submitted by the deadline before taking action on the plan at its next meeting, set for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Courthouse Council Chambers in Hahnville. The plan will be up for adoption by the St. Charles Parish Council this fall.

The document may be reviewed online in the news section at stcharlesparish-la.gov or in person at the St. Charles Parish Department of Planning and Zoning. Any individual, group or agency may submit written comments by Sept. 28 to

St. Charles Parish Department of Planning and Zoning, P.O. Box 302, Hahnville, 70057 or ematherne@stcharlesgov.net.