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Department of Development outlines staffing cuts, end to contracted blight abatement in 2026 proposal
Summary
At a City‑Parish council budget hearing, Rachel Lambert presented the Department of Development’s proposed 2026 budget showing about a $1.1 million reduction, elimination of 31 allotments, reduced contracted blight abatement funding and proposals to raise selected fees to soften service impacts.
Rachel Lambert, speaking for the Department of Development at the council’s third 2025 budget hearing, told council members the department is planning about a $1,100,000 reduction for 2026 that would eliminate 31 position allotments and sharply reduce contracted blight‑abatement spending.
Lambert said the subdivision engineering division would lose its second engineering position, leaving a single engineer for that office, and that permits and inspections plan reviewers would be reduced by two under the South Central planning contract. She warned those cuts will likely lengthen review times even as the office seeks to meet guaranteed turnarounds of seven days for residential and 24 days for commercial permits.
Lambert also described a steep decline in permit revenue after the City of Saint George assumed permitting functions Oct. 16, 2024. She presented a comparison showing roughly $4.7 million in permit revenue for January–October 2024 versus about $3.2 million in the comparable 2025 span, a drop she described as “about a 30% reduction.”
Neighborhood revitalization (blight abatement) would lose general‑fund support for contracted abatement in the 2026 proposal, Lambert said, noting the department spent about $2.2 million on contracted abatement this year. She said the department expects to rely primarily on in‑house crews and limited CDBG dollars, but that significant parts of the parish are ineligible for CDBG without environmental or historic preservation clearances.
Lambert said the department is proposing mitigation steps that would require council action, including revising inspection and subdivision fee schedules, raising reinspection fees and pursuing grant funding. She told council members that changes to permit and subdivision fees and any increases to fines would have to come to council under Title 8.
Council members asked for more detail on the condemned‑property queue and the cost of rescinding condemnations; Lambert said about 30 structures were in process, roughly 70 were condemned and awaiting demolition, and about 90 more were in an ‘introduced’ status. She said rescinded condemnations this year numbered about 45 and that recording and testing costs when rescissions occur typically run in the low hundreds per file, with asbestos testing and other costs added when required.
The Department of Development presentation closed with Lambert saying the department will evaluate fee structures with stakeholders and return to council with proposals.
