Board Of Adjustment - Regular Meeting

The time is now 2.05. I'd like to call the Monday, August 31st, 2026, Bossier City Parish Board of Adjustments meeting to order. Please stand. Please bow your head. Thank you, dear Lord, for this great day. Thank you for this great technology that we have. Please help it to work today. Dear Lord, please give us the proper knowledge and wisdom to make some proper decisions. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.

Amen.

Please face the flag.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Please be seated. Welcome to the Board of Adjustments meeting, which falls under the Metropolitan Planning Commission of Bossier City and Bossier Parish. This board is appointed by the Bossier City Council and the Bossier Parish Police Jury. It serves voluntarily and without compensation. Roll call, please.

Charles Davis. Here. Megan Davis. Here. Suzette Haddon. Here. Carrie Landry.

Here.

Tim Willihan.

Here.

Michael Vercher, we have a quorum. In accordance with Louisiana Open Meetings laws, the Bossier City Parish BOA asks for order in the Quorum at our meetings. Please silence your cell phones. For anyone who wishes to address the board on any item on the agenda, we ask that you come forward, identify yourself for the audio record, and sign in. Speakers must address the BOA board at all times. For those that would like to make a comment on an item, please limit your comments to three minutes on the particular item that is up for discussion. All other audience members are asked to observe the meeting quietly. If there is a need for audience members to hold a conversation or take a phone call, you are asked to please step out of the meeting.

Thank you. Next section is to approve the agenda as written. Request a motion to approve the agenda as submitted. I move that we approve the agenda as written and submitted. Second. Second. All in favor? Do we vote? Yes. Thank you. Motion passes. Thank you. The first item on the agenda is PBOA 1652026, the application of Christina Cato requesting a special exception used to a 76 by 30 modular home on a tract of land being 2.2 acres, more or less, located at 4505 Pinecrest Drive, Mosher, Paris, Louisiana, Police Jury District 2. Is there someone, an applicant here? Thank you so much. Come forward and just state your name and briefly describe what you're trying to do. Thank you.

Yes, my name is Christina Cato, and I'm just requesting for a module home to be placed on our track and lane. Okay.

And the module home, do you have any updated pictures of that, or is it just the ones from that drawing that you have?

I can give you, like, a general idea. It's not the same color. I only have one piece of paper. Is that okay?

Can we, yeah, let's just pass, we'll pass it down. Okay.

Can you put it on that? Put it on that.

Oh, great.

There we go. And then don't forget you have the button on your panel and you can click it to show on your computer.

So, Ms. Cato, what type foundation is the home going to sit on? It's going to be a concrete slab. A concrete slab.

Well, concrete runners. I'm sorry about that, Mr. Landry. Concrete runners. Runners. Yes. The alternative to a slab. All right.

So, is that, help me out here, P&B is going to sit on the runners or is it going to sit directly on?

No, it's actually going to sit on the runners. It's going to be tied to the runners. It's just something that's a little cheaper than doing a standard slab. Okay. Yes, sir. Thank you.

So is the actual house sitting off the ground, though? According to the picture that you're showing there, it looks like there's there's a airspace underneath it.

Yes, it will be a crawl space. Yes, ma'am. It will be a crawl space to access any utilities that's running underneath.

Miss Cato, is that the that's the front elevation that we're looking at, I guess?

Yes, this right here is just an example picture. My house would be just a little different. Of course, you know, with the windows in the doors. But the elevation is a 6-by-12 roof, so it's not the standard mobile home, which has come off a 3-by-12 or a 4-by-12 roof. So mine is a 6-by-12, so it's way higher than actually the homes around the land. As well...

Any porch on your... Any front porch or is it a flat face like you see there?

So, no, it will not be... Well, as it comes in, it will be a flat face, but in the future, my husband will put a front porch on there. But... first just before we move in it we will put up a porch on the front okay it will not look that plain at all um i'm trying to think of what else oh and that is vinyl side and we will we do have to upgrade it we have the um it's not the hearted board it's called a smart board they are turned into the concrete board more price effective um that we will have on our home and it will be I think this is vertical, if I'm not mistaken. It will be vertical.

And it will be a brick skirt or skirting that goes around the bottom of the home?

This one here, like I say, just a generalized picture. Mine will match the siding on the house, so it will be that smart board going all the way down.

All the way down.

Yes, ma'am.

And the garage, you have a detached garage in your original rendering. Is that still going to be the case?

Yes, we're still trying to get some quotes on the garage. It's just expensive trying to add the garage from their facility. your driveway coming into the property how is that going to be laid so we're running into a problem actually because from the way if let me see if i finally got a picture oh i do let's see if you can see that yeah it's a little blurry so from the main road on the if you're looking at the road and i'm we're looking towards north on that left-hand side the main sewer line is literally coming off of that side and go oh excuse me it's going straight down through the property literally to the middle so i don't have that much room to come off without going into somebody else's lane, which I'm trying to avoid. And I know we're supposed to either have concrete or asphalt. That's what I was told. Now, I can come off, but I got to stay off at least 15 feet away from the main sewer line for any feature renderings there. So I could either come in straight and then make that turn like the little yellow line but like i said i would be approaching my neighbor's side and i don't want to cause an issue or i could be uniform like the the car and it will go straight going towards the west and then north well sorry south into the house and i had to go around a humongous street and the gas lines are running through there too so that's the issue that we're coming up against right now

Okay, so on your drawing here, which one is your sewer line?

Can I put my hand? Oh, I can. Okay.

Right there.

And it's going straight down.

And you'll be on city water then? Yes, ma'am.

That's city water and sewer. Yes, ma'am.

Primary usage is for your family to live there? Yeah, just family.

Yes, ma'am. No, yes, sir. I'm sorry. Just family.

Any other questions from the board? Okay, thank you. Okay, yes, sir. Anybody from the audience? Okay. Step forward, state your name, and write down your name. I'll write down my name. OK. Thank you.

Okay. My name is David Mathis, and I am one of the affected property owners in Tall Timbers. I'm here not only for myself, but also 25 other affected property owners that have posed a special exception that asked me to speak on their behalf. Since the majority of these people are unable to attend, so they sent a signed statement to represent their opposition to the special exemption here. And I have that signed statement right here. I canvassed 11 affected properties in tall timbers, and out of the 11 property owners, only one property owner was not opposed. I canvassed the entire neighborhood in Pinecrest subdivision, which is only 38 homes. Out of the 16 property owners that were home at that time, only one property owner was not opposed. Statistically, that means 90 to 95 percent of the Property owners living in the neighborhood do oppose this. We are not here to attack the property owner. We welcome him to our neighborhood. A new home built to the community standards does nothing but enhance the quality of our community and increases our property values. A home built to some substandards in our neighborhood does the opposite. What we are opposing is this property owner trying not to be held to the same high quality standards as other property owners that bought in this neighborhood. One family told me they pay a lot extra just to get into a quality neighborhood like Pinecrest subdivision. There are no modular homes in Tall Timbers subdivision. There are no modular homes in Pinecrest subdivision, and there are no modular homes in Wafer Forest subdivision, which is a very old subdivision there. We do not want one of these lower quality homes built in our backyard. Once you get one in the neighborhood, that's enough justification to approve another one. In closing, I would ask each and every one of you If you would approve a home built next to you that does not meet your community standards, think about it. Would you? Thank you very much. Do you need this?

Yes, please. Right over here.

Thank you.

Excuse me, sir.

What, sir? Mr. Matheson. Can you stay for just a couple of questions?

Sure.

Can you state your address?

My address is 509 Pinecone Drive. Thank you.

Is that in Tall Timbers?

That's in Tall Timbers.

Where is Tall Timbers neighborhood an association to the neighborhood we're talking about?

Well, part of it shares a property line. My property does. It shares about 180 feet of property line, and I think I share the most, and I'm actually right behind his property there in Tall Timbers.

OK.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Before you go, any other questions? No?

Yes.

Thank you. Anybody else from the audience have any questions or comments? Please come forward, state your name, and write it there. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am also a neighbor of actually my backyard about, I don't know if it's as much as David's, but probably at least 150 feet or more. My backyard is right up against this proposed property. I don't know if you guys remember back that huge flooding period in I think it was 2016. We lost a lot of homes in the Tall Timbers area. That runoff is continual. They've done a lot to help mitigate that. But every time it rains, there's streamlets coming down through property yards and all that. That area that was right behind my home that they proposed to build something on, that is going to impact additional drainage runoff. It's going to come right into my yard and my neighbor's yard, who is also very vehemently against this. And you can see the actual runoff going right through the yard, down in the drains, overloading the drains actually in the Tall Timbers area. So it does impact us directly. And again, I have no problems with the neighbors at all. I just don't think that that would be in our best interest. Not only our best interest, it could be detrimental to us. So I thank you for your time.

And that drainage is already occurring, you said?

It's already occurring. And this cannot do anything but make it worse.

Any other questions?

I have one. How far from this property you referred to on the flooded? I know the parish brought up some.

Right.

How far is this?

We're at the eastern end of that. It's probably about, let's see, I walk it almost every day, half a mile from the lowest part to the nearest flooding. It was probably less than a quarter mile.

But it's not adjacent to this lot.

No, the flooding was not adjacent. What we're getting is a runoff coming through it. And I myself have had to do additional drainage just to mitigate that. And it's not something that we should have had to do. But again, as I said, this is only going to make it worse.

So the runoff is occurring before this structure?

Yes. Yes, it is. No, but what this is going to... Yes, it is, to answer your question. But it's a nice heavily forested area, or it was until it was... level. So we we have not had a big rainstorm yet. As we all we've been pretty much in a drought for the last couple months or so. So I haven't seen any impact since they leveled it. But it is I mean, just by looking at the slope of the land at all slopes towards tall timbers, that whole lot comes down is going to come through my yard to David's yard, through Todd Francis yard, all neighbors that are right next to that property.

If no structure goes in that property right now today ever In the proposed property if no structure goes in the current property, huh? How's that gonna change the effect that is having on you now? Or is it gonna change them?

I'm thinking that depending on how they landscape it What is? well since it was clear-cut or whatever that has additionally added to the problem Hopefully it'll go back up and regrow, and that will absorb a lot of the rain.

Are you located off a pine cone drive as well in Tall Timbers?

I am at the very end of Whispering Pine Circle. And as I mentioned before, my backyard, at least, I would say 150 feet of it, is right there where that property is. So if you can, I don't know, I don't have a map with me, but...

I see it and you're saying that in your backyard due to high rains or if we should get the high rains since 2016 that you have a flooding issue in that backyard area we have water coming through it yes rolling down the back side of it or actually going into your backyard because of that it's coming through our backyard and our neighbor's backyard is it due to the fact that the land here is higher than your land then because yes I would say so yes and so it's a natural runoff in our direction Right, so I would think clearing the land and leveling it out some would possibly help reduce that problem. Is that not correct?

I don't know that it is, no. I can't say for a fact. I haven't had a professional come out and view it, but I would say that depending on how they landscape it, if they put in some sort of blockage or whatever, that may mitigate it. Otherwise, it's an issue, and I can't see how that's going to help it.

Any other questions? Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

I would like to add to what he was talking about, the flooding. Well, the last really big rain that we had was in July. We had four inches. I know because I have a rain gauge.

Sir, can you please repeat your name?

Oh, my name is David Mathis.

Thank you.

Okay. The last big rain we had was in July, and we had four inches out in tall timbers because I have a rain gauge. And I actually have pictures of just what four inches of rain would do. All the runoff that comes through our property and everything also goes down between a ditch that runs between two houses. And I have pictures after four inches of rain that this ditch is overflowing and it's about ready to flood one of the properties right there. You can also see all the dirt and everything, you know, when they landscaped it, that it's in the water because this was the first big rain that we had since that time. But the ditch itself is very narrow. And Also, when they cut down the trees and then pulled all that stuff, they did level. It had a lot of gyps and everything back there. It wasn't level at all. There's an old sewage pump lift station that's there as well. And all that water will run right down through there. And since they took away the watershed, we'd have even more rain now. The roots and everything would actually soak up a lot of the water. A lot of it was caught in the gyps and made a lot of little ponds back there. But since it's been leveled out and everything... And I don't know if they can take it to Wafer Road or not. I've looked at that. I've got, like I say, pictures of the drainage all through Tile Timbers just with four inches of rain. And that's not a common thing. It's a very common thing around four or more inches. So if y'all would like to see the pictures, the videos that I have, I'd be more than happy to show them to you. No, I think we're good. Okay.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Do you guys have any other questions or concerns? Ms. Cato?

I just have one other comment that was emailed to us Saturday, August 29th at 2.42 p.m. It states, dear members of the board, I am writing to submit my formal opposition regarding the proposed building and land use variance for the modular home trailer adjacent to my property. I am unable to attend the hearing and personally request that the statement be entered into the official record. My concerns regarding the proposed construction are as follows. Property values, the placement of a modular home or trailer directly adjacent to standard single-family homes risk negatively impacting local market comparables and depressing surrounding property values. Neighborhood density and tenant vetting. If this structure is intended as a low-cost rental unit, the lower rate could lead to higher tenant turnover and potential community management issues directly neighboring my home.

sincerely mr. Zack kid thank you it's my understanding that this piece of property this 2.2 acres is no part of any subdivision is that correct that's correct okay there's no additional comments I'll call for a motion I move to approve the special edition exception for this 76 by 30 module home as it's written there second all in favor let's call for a vote

Okay. We have four. It carries. It's 6-4, so it carries, so it passes.

Okay.

Next thing is approve the minutes. Approval of July 20th, 26 minutes. Request a motion to approve the July 20th, 2026 minutes as submitted. May I get a motion?

I move to approve the July 20th minutes as written.

Second. Okay. All in favor, I place your votes. The vote carries. Okay.

Mine will let you go.

There it goes. Thank you.

Okay.

Motion approved. Approval of July 20th, 2026 workshop meetings. I request a motion to approve the July 20th, 2026 minutes. That's submitted.

I move to approve the minutes from the meeting.

Second.

OK. And second. Place your votes to approve the minutes.

Ms. Haddon, it looks like I lost you on the internet.

So can you verbally say your vote? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. If it passes, I'll approve. Thank you. Any old or new business?

Just new business. Our consultant half, who is working on our comprehensive planning UDC update, will physically be in town the last week of September. That's when we'll start meeting with our committees, our advisory committees, our stakeholders, and our community to start getting some input on what they need or what they think we need as far as community growth goes. So we're kicking off those meetings at the end of September. Of course, you all will be invited.

Thank you.