A Times-Picayune article discusses the initial hearing held before the St. Tammany Parish Administration Hearing Officer regarding the initial list of abandoned properties in unincorporated areas around Slidell.

First batch of houses set for razing
Tammany gets tough on abandoned homes

During Hurricane Katrina, a house on Fifth Street near the Rigolets was picked up by the storm's tidal surge and carried across the street, where it came to rest between two other heavily damaged houses, according to St. Tammany Parish officials.

The collapsed structure, originally at 41037 S. Fifth St., has remain wedged between the houses.

But during a hearing Wednesday, that house became the first to be condemned and ordered demolished. Parish officials say many homes apparently have been abandoned by their owners after Katrina.

Parish officials estimate there are at least 500 heavily damaged homes in the unincorporated areas that have become blighted or dangerous since the storm.

And through the parish Bureau of Administrative Adjudication, essentially a court for alleged violations of parish codes and regulations, officials began taking action on those properties.

During a hearing that lasted more than six hours, Slidell lawyer Alan Black, the bureau hearing officer or judge, condemned seven houses near Slidell and gave the green light for the parish to demolish the structures and bill the owners for the costs.

The other houses are at 4801 Pontchartrain Drive, 4815 Pontchartrain Drive, 4799 Pontchartrain Drive, 303 Smokey Hollow Drive, 57521 Baldwin Drive, and 53235 Louisiana 433.

Black gave another property owner 60 days to demolish a house, at 42307 U.S. 190 East near Slidell. That house was lifted off the ground by the storm surge and came to rest atop of a pickup truck.

Black also gave the owners of eight houses who said they want to rebuild their homes until February to take significant steps to begin restoring their blighted properties.

Those owners gave Black reasons for their delays in taking action, including problems settling with insurers. Others said they have begun steps to rebuild.

Black told those owners that "as long as there is a substantial good faith effort to bring them into compliance" with parish codes and regulations, he will refrain from condemning the structures. But by February, significant improvement has to be made, he said.

"I don't want nobody leaving here thinking they didn't get a fair chance to preserve their homes," Black said.

Consulting engineer Roy Cartier and Robert J. Batherson of Camp, Dresser and McKee Inc., hired by the parish to oversee the demolitions, said all the houses on the hearing docket Wednesday received extensive damage from winds and a storm surge ranging from 10 to 15 feet.

Batherson said the Fifth Street house that floated across the street near the Rigolets is preventing the owners of the two adjacent houses from demolishing their structures.

The owners of the adjacent houses, he said, have qualified for a FEMA program that pays for demolishing dangerous storm-damaged structures on private properties, Batherson said.

But the two houses can't be demolished "because of the house in the middle" belonging to Donald Edward Gonzales, who was not at the hearing and who did not apply for the FEMA program, Batherson said.

Batherson said he was told by a family member that Gonzales was in a hospital out of the area and does not have the means to take care of a washed-away house. Applications for the Federal Emergency Management Agency program have been closed for weeks.

Neighboring parishes already have begun condemning and demolishing abandoned Katrina-damaged houses, Black said. St. Tammany officials have been patient in not condemning houses in unincorporated areas, but "it's been 15 months" since Katrina, he said.

The next hearing to consider condemnations is scheduled for Dec. 19 at 9 a.m. in the parish government complex north of Mandeville.