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Committee urges parish to create plan for legacy detention‑pond problems
Summary
Members of the Livingston Parish Master Plan Review Committee urged the parish to develop a cohesive policy to address legacy detention ponds and improperly built subdivision ponds after members described repeated local flooding and unclear ownership of pond outfalls.
Committee members raised a recurring problem on March 17: detention ponds and privately built "sport lakes" in older subdivisions that are not maintained, have unclear ownership, and cause recurring flooding for adjacent homes.
Gerald Burns, a committee member, described a neighborhood on LA 447 North called Collins Place where six homes at a corner of the subdivision become flooded after modest rain. "When they get a 1 inch rain, they have to wade in water up to their waist almost to get to their homes," Burns said. He told the committee the subdivision's homeowners association would not fund repairs for just those six houses and that no public body (the parish, drainage district or other agency) claims ownership of the land under the detention pond, leaving the problem unresolved.
Burns said Collins Place is not unique: the parish has a number of legacy detention‑pond problems created by older development practices. He cited a separate pond near Highway 16 with an outlet in the middle of the pond that is inaccessible for maintenance, and he said some "sport lakes" function as headwaters for local creeks and are not in public control.
Committee members agreed the parish needs a standard approach when legacy drainage problems arise. Burns recommended the parish develop "a blueprint, a, b, c, d, how we will approach a legacy issue," so that staff and elected officials have a clear, repeatable process to follow when ownership and maintenance responsibilities are unclear.
The committee discussed scheduling a fuller review and agreed to place the issue on a future agenda for more detailed consideration. Members said some solutions used in other jurisdictions include establishing drainage servitudes or asking developers or HOAs to record maintenance obligations; committee members did not adopt any formal policy at the March 17 meeting.
The committee item flagged several recurring challenges: unclear private ownership of pond bottoms, homeowner associations unwilling to assume disproportionate costs, drainage district reluctance to accept responsibility, and limited parish authority to compel private maintenance unless a recorded servitude or ordinance exists. The committee asked staff to bring options and examples from other parishes to a future meeting for further discussion.
