JOHN E. SETTLE JR
Editor/Publisher
State Representative Danny McCormick successfully enacted House Bill 697 in the 2020 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature. The bill effectively gutted the Shreveport-Caddo Metropolitan Planning Commission (SCMPC).
The bill becomes effective on Jan. 1, 2022.
Currently, the SCMPC has planning/enforcement jurisdiction within the city limits of Shreveport and a five-mile contiguous zone in the parish.
The legislation removed the parish from the jurisdiction of the SCMPC and takes the parish out of the 2030 Master Plan.
The bill provides that the Shreveport ''city council may create a commission, to be known as the Shreveport Metropolitan Planning Commission of Caddo Parish." Such action will require the adoption of a new ordinance by the Shreveport council.
The current board of directors of the SCMPC is composed of nine members. Four are appointed by the council, four by the Caddo Commission, and the last member is a joint city-parish appointee.
The new Shreveport Metropolitan Planning Commission (SMPC) will have a nine-member board of Shreveport voters appointed by the city council.
Currently, the SCMPC is jointly funded by the city and the parish. Unless the Caddo Commission agrees to fund the new commission, its sole funding will be city moneys plus fees charged for services. The impact of the potential loss of parish funding will be major.
The current SCMPC implements and enforces the Shreveport Unified Development Code and the separate Caddo Parish Unified Development Code. If the parish is to enforce its UDC in 2022, it will need to contract with the SMPC or establish an in-house planning and zoning office.
In May the commission established the Caddo Parish Planning Commission (CPPC). It is to consist of five members, appointed by the commission, whose primary domicile is in the parish.
The new CPPC came into existence on July 1, 2021, and on Jan. 2, 2022, it is to assume all duties and authority of a planning and zoning commission. Prior to January, the CPPC is to serve in an advisory capacity regarding proposals for planning, subdivision and zoning ordinances to take effect on or after Jan. 2, 2022.
To date, the Commission has not appointed any members to its new commission. Thus, the parish commission has not come into effect as of yet.
The Caddo Commission has established a Planning & Zoning Citizens Advisory Committee to make recommendations to the Commission’s Long Range Planning Committee on planning and zoning within the parish. One of the committee's charges is to review the fiscal impact of the commission establishing a new, separate planning department or contracting with the new Shreveport planning committee.
The wheels of government move slowly and especially in November and December, when budgets for the upcoming year must be approved, and meetings are sandwiched around holidays. The Shreveport council should feel a sense of urgency on their needed action to have a planning agency, on Jan. 1, 2022. One questions if this sentiment is shared by a majority of the Caddo Commission.