It's difficult to know where, in New Orleans, Freddie King even wants people to be able to afford their rent. We already know he doesn't want them in the parts of the city he's reserved for tourists in their Airnbnbs. Now, come to find out, he doesn't want them moving to the outskirts either. At least, not too close to the gated community he lives in, anyway.
The intensifying fight has been brewing since the spring of 2022, when Zhang’s design team submitted its development proposal to the Planning Commission for the 17-acre wooded plot Zhang acquired the previous year. The land, while undeveloped, is already zoned to allow for multifamily development, but public hearings are still required as part of the permitting process.
English Turn residents, whose ranks include some notable names in politics and business, came out in force against the project at the first meeting in August 2022. King then moved to freeze the permitting process by introducing the interim zoning district, which is considered an emergency measure to strike zoning rules in any geographical area and replace them with temporary rules.
In this case, the measure prohibited multifamily development to allow the Planning Commission to study the impacts the development would have on drainage, roads and emergency services.
King removed his name from the motion and chose not to vote on it to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. However, he did vote to uphold the measure in subsequent votes and he drafted the final ordinance implementing the temporary construction ban, which was approved by the council in March 2023.
Also, speaking of the STR rules, we had been expecting an "imminent" ruling from the judge considering the most recent version of the regulations. (The version that Freddie already torpedoed with his loophole.) But that was in December. And still nothing. Maybe the judge is waiting until after Jazzfest.
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