We won!!  – at least for now.

What has happened in the last couple of years in connection with this dispute.

As you probably know, developers (Lake Lots) wanted to fill in part of the Bayou Chinchuba watershed and beach to build houses just west of Lewisburg Estates. To do so, Lake Lots needed a permit from the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources. The proposed development would cause irrevocable harm to the watershed and would require bringing thousands of truckloads of dirt through Lewisburg for the development’s fill.

Over the past few years, as the Lake Lot developers pursued their permit request, the Lewisburg Civic Association filed many replies and expert reports responding to the various arguments offered by Lake Lot. The Department finally scheduled a public hearing  for July 2024.

In advance of the meeting, several of your board members and other neighborhood volunteers joined together and  prepared a position paper/powerpoint opposing the permit.  The powerpoint was very strong.  It was shown at the public hearing, discussed by several of the speakers, and was also filed with the Department at the time. 

 At the hearing, the neighborhood response was fantastic. The crowd overflowed the Koop drive hearing room, filling the hallways and stretching outside. Comments made by residents were strong and moving. One of the environmental advocates remarked afterwards that he had never seen such a one-sided hearing.

We can thank our public officials who showed up and spoke against the permit.  The Mandeville City Council had passed a unanimous resolution opposing the permit, and Mayor Madden, Councilman Kevin Vogeltanz and Councilman Scott Discon came personally and spoke against it. Bill Wheat, your state senator spoke against it; Kim Carver, your state representative, spoke against it; and Mo O’Brian, your parish representative, spoke against it.    The governor’s office had a representative who wrote a note opposing permit  The presence at the actual hearing of these public officials was very significant to the Department.

Several environmental organizations also voiced their opposition. The Pontchartrain Conservancy, Healthy Gulf of the Gulf Restoration Network, and the Sierra Club all had representatives that showed up and asked that the permit be denied.  Experts the Association had hired (Dr. John  Lopez, an expert in wetlands and coastal restoration, and hyrologist Dr. Alex Ameen ), spoke against the permit and submitted their detailed reports about the havoc this proposed development would cause to the Bayou Chinchuba habitat.  The Lewisburg  Civic Association, the Old Golden Shores Civic Association, the Lewisburg Estates Civic Association, and the Preserve Civic Association all had voted to oppose the development.

Three months after the hearing the Department issued its opinion, denying the permit request. See button below.

The Lewisburg  legal committee considered it unlikely Lake Lots would have any success appealing to the Secretary of the Department. In fact, Lake Lots avoided that route. As allowed by law, Lake Lots filed a lawsuit in the St. Tammany Parish District Court against the State (i.e. the Department), challenging the denial of the permit. A copy of that suit is attached.

The State of Louisiana filed answer, urging that the permit denial was proper.  The Civic Association sought to intervene in the suit, so that Lewisburg could participate in the defense of the State's denial of the permit request.  The Court dismissed the intervention, and Lewisburg has appealed

In the meantime, at the District Court level, the trial that had been set for October 2026 was postponed, without a new date.  The Court soon will hear motions on whether and how a 2026 change in the law by the legislature will affect the further type of review the Court will utilize when ruling on the Department's decision.

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