Livingston Parish officials push ordinance requiring drainage plans for small subdivisions to curb flooding

Livingston Parish Council members and representatives from Gravity Drainage District 2 discussed drafting an ordinance that would require drainage plans or, in some cases, full drainage studies for minor resubdivisions after officials said developers have used repeated small filings to evade major-subdivision requirements and created new flooding problems.

Councilman John Mangus said the issue came to his attention after meetings with Gravity Drainage 2; a district representative, Billy Berninger, urged the council to require drainage analysis so that “water runoff without a plan becomes someone else’s problem.”

The discussion centered on a common practice described at the meeting: developers submit a sequence of minor resubdivisions (often nine lots or fewer), wait the allowable interval and then re-file, producing cumulatively larger developments without the drainage studies, road standards or other improvements required…