JOHN E. SETTLE JR
Geez -- Is Shreveport really open for business?
Well, if you need a variance from a zoning law, then not so.
The Shreveport Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) meetings for January and February of this year were cancelled for lack of a quorum.
No meeting was scheduled for March.
On Tuesday, April 19, the Shreveport City Council bent over backwards, and arguably violated the Open Meetings Law in so doing, to appoint Bernie Woods and Jacoby Marshall to the ZBA.
A ZBA meeting was scheduled for the next day, Wednesday, April 20.
Woods and Marshall showed up, but the other members, Alan Berry, Durwood Hendricks and Clarinda Henderson, did not. Thus, another meeting cancelled for lack of a quorum.
The agenda for the meeting had 13 cases that have now been delayed. Some of these have been on hold since January of this year.
The cases requested a manufactured home, an open storage shelter, a home-based beauty salon, a primary education facility, a specialty food service, a medical office and an outdoor storage/display for a vehicle dealership.
Seemingly, three of the now five members could have showed up for this ZBA meeting.
If not a priority to Berry, Hendricks and/or Henderson, then they should resign.
In the meantime, business is on hold – again -- in Shreveport.