Rouzan won. Now what?

Editor’s note: Staff writer Jeff Roedel has been a resident of the Southdowns neighborhood since 2005.

A few years ago the City Park golf course debate taught us that if united they stand, a small group of homeowners could rebuff a city’s plan for change. In February the Pinnacle vote taught us that the voice of a few neighborhoods could be drowned out by the votes of the populace (and that established casinos will claw and scratch with everything they have to stave off a new competitor). Now that the dust has settled and developer Tommy Spinosa is going to build his traditional neighborhood development almost exactly how he proposed it originally, the question remains: What have we learned from the Rouzan versus Southdowns tug-of-war?

And make no mistake, this was a war. And like all wars, the fallout and consequences will reveal themselves—if not immediately, then months or years from now, maybe even in unexpected places.

“Rolfe McCollister is a snake, and you can tell him I said that!” This surprising missive about the owner of this magazine and Baton Rouge Business Report came from the lips of a tall, stern-faced cowboy of a man handing out flyers at one of the most contentious local public meetings of 2007, the Planning and Zoning Commission’s hearing to rezone Spinosa’s 119 acres between Pollard Estates and Southdowns. The cowboy took one look at my business card, and with his steely eyes trying hard to bore holes right through mine, decided not to be a part of my story. If Southdowns was like the Confederacy warding off the advances of Spinosa’s Union Army, I thought to myself, and this here must be “Stonewall” Jackson.

“I’m not going to tell him that,” I said. “That’s just rude.”

“Oh, you’re not going to tell him that, are ya?” he said sarcastically before turning away to hand out more flyers.

Last fall people fighting Spinosa’s plan for Rouzan were angry over more than just Business Report columns by Publisher McCollister and Executive Editor JR Ball, though those certainly added fuel to their collective flame. No, in their minds, they rallied that night as the final line of defense for their territory, their neighborhood and, as some argued before the commission, their very way of life.

A fire marshal stood guard outside the door, keeping another 100 people out of the chambers in what the Planning Commission’s Metro Council representative Martha Jane Tassin sarcastically called a “unique situation.” For every person who left, the marshal allowed in one new person.

“(Spinosa’s) not out to make a quick buck,” one overly brave Rouzan supporter announced. This sparked a round of laughter from the largely anti-Spinosa crowd in which hot pink and neon green “Rethink Rouzan” stickers outnumbered white “Support Rouzan” T-shirts about 5-to-1.

Leaning over to whisper to me in the middle of that meeting was Margaret Lovell. She and her husband Pat have lived in Southdowns since 1977. “We’re not jihadists,” she said in earnest, rebutting a recent editorial. “We just love our neighborhood.”

In January the Planning Commission approved the plan of Spinosa’s JTS Interests to develop the TND with 750 residential units. Lovell was disappointed that, as she saw it, there had not been a more formal process of negotiation. Most “Rethink Rouzan” advocates and some Metro Council members preferred to limit Rouzan to 600 units or less. But Spinosa insisted in order to support the commercial side of the development 750 units were required.

“It’s crazy to me that we’ve approved something knowing there are going to be traffic and sewer problems with the attitude that those will be dealt with on another day,” Lovell says. “We did everything we could do.”

Unlike some neighbors, Lovell is only against the high density of the development and not the TND as a concept. But her greatest disappointment, she says, could be with Mickey Skyring, her neighborhood’s councilman and a Rouzan supporter.

“I’m absolutely convinced when [director of Public Works] Peter Newkirk tells me the drainage, sewage and traffic issues will be resolved,” Skyring says. “You have to put your trust in somebody, and I do. Those individuals working to solve those issues, I have faith in.”

Spinosa did not make himself available for an interview before deadline, but Skyring says the developer was transparent with him early and often, meeting regularly to address his concerns. Impressed by the plan, Skyring soldiered on in support of Rouzan even as the Southside Civic Association, led by Chris Kisling, organized petitions and marches, and some even suggested recalling him from the Metro Council. Things got so heated that e-mails attacking Skyring and members of his family littered his inbox. After a few weeks he could do nothing but ignore them. A month after the Planning Commission sided with Spinosa, Skyring announced he would not seek re-election. He plans to retire in the near future, but says he is as positive as he can be about the future of Rouzan.

“People are thinking it’s going to be constant horns honking and bumper-to-bumper traffic because it is a commercial area, but it’s not like that,” Skyring says. “I feel awkward telling the person who owns the property what he has to do with it. Every issue that I had was answered by Mr. Spinosa.”

Renee Major is one Southdowns resident who says her questions have yet to be answered adequately. She continues to believe density, drainage and traffic will be major problems for the area surrounding Rouzan. When Rouzan first came up, the LSU English professor checked out a stack of library books for what she calls a “crash course on urban planning.” Major studied up on the trends and philosophies of smart growth to the point that she could spot when JTS Interests used a buzzword from one of her books.

“I’m not an urban planner, but what’s disturbing is the Planning and Zoning Commission doesn’t seem to be made of urban planners, either,” Major says. “We’re getting marketing, not urban planning.”

David Cronrath, an architecture professor and dean of the LSU School of Art and Design, says politics plays too big a part in the current process, and that the commission’s decisions lack rational forethought. He believes congestion, random density and drainage issues are not root problems, but symptoms of Baton Rouge’s lack of passionate leadership for planning a coherent, sustainable city. Nothing short of a new comprehensive city plan and the technical staff to study and implement it will put an end to such dramas, he says. “The process, as it is, is contorted,” Cronrath says. “Claims are being made without any studies being done prior to decision making.”

Others take a narrower view that Rouzan is a positive development with conditions. Michael McDuff of the Baton Rouge Growth Coalition (Tommy Spinosa is a board member of the organization) says the mixed-use development expedites the need to widen Lee Drive. As part of the Horizon Plan, that project could call for the purchase of some homes along Lee and major utilities work. It has been a contentious topic among concerned neighbors and some city officials who say it is cost-prohibitive. But Rouzan certainly makes the widening of Lee Drive the next great showdown. “People need to realize that Lee Drive is a bottleneck problem right now,” McDuff says. “I’m sure JTS will compromise and work with people on both sides, but people need to be realistic and open to widening Lee.”

The growth coalition was just one group that appeared at the Planning Commission meetings to support Rouzan. The Center for Planning Excellence and American Institute of Architects-Baton Rouge chapter were there, among others. The commission even formed an official “Blue Ribbon Panel” to negotiate density with Spinosa, the first time Skyring says he has seen that. But beyond trying to mold and shape Spinosa’s property into the image they deem best, each of these groups was subtly staking a claim for having a strong voice in similar debates in the future. The fact that the agendas of these outside groups lined up with that of the developer this time is somewhat immaterial. The larger issue is the transparency of the entire exercise for what it really was: a fight for control. Cronrath would argue that this fight for control is another symptom of the city’s lack of overall planning. In a powerless vacuum, outsiders will inevitably attempt to create power for themselves.

Chad Ortte, a real estate agent with Donnie Jarreau who lives on Lee Drive, says the voices of outside groups are important to the process if they represent valid arguments. However, he believes much of the anti-Rouzan sentiment was based on emotion. Ortte is a fan of Lafayette’s River Ranch TND, and has studied similar developments across the country. He calls Spinosa a meticulous, first-class developer.

“A project like this that represents smart growth and meets the proposed guidelines, codes and restrictions for the rezoning should be allowed and encouraged,” Ortte says. “I know I am not alone in wanting change here in Baton Rouge, and I believe we stand with a stronger voice of reason than those against change.”

Structural changes may occur at the city-parish level and more public education on smart growth might be initiated, but even then the heated, contrasting voices could continue.

Homeowners in some other section of the city will be dismissed as NIMBYs, and a different developer will be slandered as greedy. More than likely another set of constituents will label their Metro Council member a traitor.

A huge sign petitioning for Mickey Skyring’s recall still stands on Hyacinth at Stuart Avenue. There is no question a certain amount of healing is in order. Major sums up her feeling of loss like this: “Spinosa lives far away, but we have to live with Rouzan in a more immediate and long-lasting way.”

The question then becomes: How can the city bridge that divide? Skyring predicts there will be no boycotting of the stores, restaurants and green spaces of Rouzan, that these strong objections will gradually fade.

“I think people all over Southdowns and Pollard Estates are going to go to the TND,” he says. “I firmly believe that will be the healing process. As Rouzan grows and develops people are going to see that it is a good thing.”