KERRY M. KIRSPEL

Focus SB News

The Caddo Parish Planning and Zoning Citizens Advisory Committee held its first meeting Tuesday at Government Plaza to elect officers and discuss its scope of work.

Elected as chairman was Gen. Jim Graves, with Loyd K. Thomas as vice chair. Jessica Tullis was elected secretary.

Tullis recommended that an assistant secretary also be elected for those times in which she might be unable to perform her duties. Billie Francine “Fran” Brice was elected to that position.

 Other committee members are Michael Billings, Ray Holman, Chris Kracman, Don Razinsky, Ray Tindel, Marty Wooldridge and Paul Young.

 After a brief discussion, the committee determined that future meetings will be held in council chambers on the third Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. to allow for input from the citizenry.

 Much of the discussion focused on the scope of the committee’s duties. “Where I see things go wrong,” Graves said, “is when committees and commissions and legislative bodies have attempted to legislate beyond their authority, and they’ve attempted to solve problems that they have no control over or can have no impact on.”

 Henry Bernstein, assistant parish attorney, spoke to the committee offering to serve as a source of research or information that is needed.

  Graves said, “I always find it useful to define for a group what we are not doing so we don’t spend a lot of time spinning our wheels. As I understand it, we are not doing anything that has anything to do with zoning inside the city of Shreveport.”

  The committee instead will focus its energies on the unincorporated areas of the parish, not in the five-mile band past the Shreveport city limits or within the city limits of any other incorporated municipality.

 Jeff Everson, clerk of the parish commission, said that the Parish Unified Development Code (UDC) “will still apply within the area where it applies now, but we will not necessarily have the same enforcement arm to handle rezoning applications or questions about zoning or enforcement of zoning because we will no longer be a part of that body.

He said they will decide how specific to make the committee. “My bet is they will probably recommend it not to be as specific as it has been in the past.”

Gen. Graves summed up the committee’s conclusions after its inaugural meeting. “We’re not getting down into details,” he said, opting to be a resource for every citizen.

“Government serves best when it does things with its citizens, not to them.”