[StBernard] St. Bernard residents get a chance to buy abandoned lots next...

[Westley Annis]

Neat. What if we want to keep the slab to build a garage and patio onto that? 
 
Gaby
“I don’t have time to be discouraged right now. I’m too busy fulfilling my life mission.” 






 
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	St. Bernard residents get a chance to buy abandoned lots next door
	
	09:25 PM CDT on Tuesday, July 8, 2008
	
	Bigad Shaban / Eyewitness News 
	
	During suppertime for Carolyn Little, she cooks in a kitchen that was once
	flooded with 16 feet of water in her St. Bernard home.  
	
	
	Little moved back to St. Bernard, and built bigger and taller, now she
	hoping to go wider, buying properties on either side of her through St.
	Bernard Parish's Lot Next Door Plan. 
	
	
	"I'm very happy to know we've actually been moving forward with this
	program," Little said. 
	
	
	
	"I tried yesterday and I tried today," Little said. 
	
	
	According to the parish, so have close to 400 residents. 
	
	
	"I haven't been able to get through," Little said.  "Actually I couldn't
	leave a message the last time I called the mailbox is full." 
	
	
	"It's encouraging that level of participation potentially is going to take
	place because this really is a key factor to our redevelopment," said Craig
	Taffaro, St. Bernard Parish President. 
	
	
	As of now, residents on the left and the right of an abandoned property
	would get first priority in buying it. If they both want it, the land gets
	split in half. Otherwise, those living in the back of the lot would get the
	next chance to purchase the land. 
	
	
	"It becomes usable space and not buildable space," said Taffaro. "In other
	words, they cannot build a separate housing structure." 
	
	
	But residents could build something like a detached garage or patio.  It is
	enough to make some wish they were actually living next to an abandoned
	property. 
	
	
	James Dobson, Arabi, said his family could use the room. "My backyard is not
	even big enough to park my boat in." 
	
	
	But what would come of those left over concrete slabs once a property is
	purchased? 
	
	
	"Will I have to remove that?" asks Little. 
	
	
	In the past, FEMA has paid for the demolition of thousands of homes in St.
	Bernard.  But it when it came to actually removing the slab, they opted not
	to foot the bill, saying that as opposed to a blighted home, slabs do not
	create a health risk. 
	
	
	So now parish officials are trying to get LRA to foot the bill, so the Lot
	Next Door participants don't have to. 
	
	
	"That's the way you're going to get people to come back home," Little said.