By LEONARD GRAY

HAHNVILLE – Bowing to the demands of Fashion Plantation residents, the St. Charles Parish Planning Commission voted unanimously this week to deny developer Dr. Ray Matherne from building a road to an adjoining residential development.

The vote brought an eruption of cheers and applause from some 25 opponents to the application. Five members of the seven-person board were present to hear the application by Matherne to modify the plat for Fashion Plantation Estates, Phase Two, by adding an access road from Louisiana Highway 3127.

Though previously approved to have access through Phase One, fronting River Road, the Union Pacific Railroad has thrown up legal barricades to Matherne’s railroad crossing plan, while Phase One residents have mounted vigorous opposition to through traffic. This left Matherne with the possibility of adding an access road from Highway 3127, but Phase One residents argued successfully should this be approved, it would be just one more step toward making a through street, connecting River Road to 3127.

“It’s politics,” Matherne said after the vote. “It’s the definition of the word. We’ll explore all our options, including our legal options.”

Matherne’s nephew, Paul Hogan, added, “It’s selective enforcement of the rules and regulations.”

The discussion was the sole agenda item on the Planning Commission’s special meeting, tabled from the regular May 1 meeting. Planning director Robert Lambert said the railroad crossing “was not a part of the application,” but acknowledged to commissioner Steve Wilson that commissioners can take it under consideration when making a decision on the road to Highway 3127.

Commissioner Blaine Babineaux said, “If we modify this plat, the railroad crossing has a lot to do with it. He should have applied for it (the road to Highway 3127) sooner.”

Lambert emphasized the railroad crossing had been part of the plans for each segment of the subdivision, with acreage donated beyond the tracks to fulfill parish requirements of developers to either provide such space for recreation or compensate the parish.

“In every vote, the commission had the crossing as part of the application,” Lambert said.

Wilson asked how Matherne could begin construction on the road without approval of the amended plat, and Lambert responded any such construction would be at Matherne’s own risk.

“This work doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling,” Wilson said.

Lambert continued, speaking of Matherne, “He has every right to build on his own property,” and emphasized if it were not up to parish standards, it would have to be replaced or removed at the developer’s expense.

He gave as example Pony Lane in Lasseigne Estates in St. Rose. The road was built as a private road but was not up to parish standards. When the subdivision was being accepted, the road (originally built in the 1960s) had to be rebuilt.

Public hearing was opened, and Matherne asserted he always planned a through street to the highway, calculating the layout of Phase One would slow down traffic. As to the construction in progress, he said he has cleared the trees and preparing to install the road, as he has the proper state wetlands permit. He was supported by Terrebonne Parish resident Craig Howat, who said he desired two entries into Phase Two, to River Road and to Highway 3127.

“I do have concerns about it being landlocked,” Howat explained, and he said to do otherwise would hamper emergency vehicles, trash trucks and school buses.

Hogan claimed that despite the through-street nature, “It will not become another Barton Avenue,” drawing catcalls from the audience.

Opponents lined up to take verbal shots at the Matherne application.

Jeff Benefils angrily demanded to know who, if anyone, would benefit from connecting phases one and two, and shouted in Matherne’s face, “Answer my question!”

Steve Meyers also looked at the plan for a new east-west highway which would bisect the Matherne property beyond the tracks, to connect it with Louisiana Highway 3160, just beyond Home Place Plantation, and adding even more traffic.

“This is major traffic on a minor road,” Meyers said.

His wife, Rose, recalled a recent incident where a low-boy trailer carrying a backhoe to the Matherne property got stuck on the tracks and had to be dragged off before a train came along.

Kelly Gervais suggested opening the rail crossing to emergency vehicles only.

Commissioner Marilyn Richoux said the Matherne plan to open his property to 3127 could have been posted better, with a sign at the current subdivision entrance. Lambert tersely responded the property had been correctly and legally posted, and added, “I think you’re totally out of order.”

Richoux later said she had seen nothing in minutes, meeting tapes or documents which stated Matherne’s intentions to connect to 3127 all along.

At the end, Wilson commented of the Matherne plans, “I don’t see how this is arranged to discourage through traffic,” and moved to deny the application.