[StBernard] Judge rules in Provident's favor

[Westley Annis]

Judge rules in Provident's favor
Dallas Business Journal - by By Katherine Cromer Brock Staff Writer
Dallas-based Provident Realty Advisors Inc. has won another victory on the
road to building $60 million worth of mixed-income housing in St. Bernard
Parish, La.

A U.S. district court judge Friday found the parish in contempt of court -
for the third time - in its efforts to "thwart, delay and derail the
proposed developments."

As previously reported by the Dallas Business Journal, Provident has built
or started construction on more than $200 million worth of affordable
housing in and around New Orleans. The four 72-unit apartment buildings
proposed in neighboring St. Bernard Parish would include affordable housing
and market-rate housing.

In court documents, the parish is accused of imposing a racially motivated
moratorium on apartment building to block Provident's developments. The
parish, whose resident base is about 90 percent white, has claimed that it
has not yet rebuilt adequate infrastructure to support the apartments, but a
judge has ruled that the parish is in violation of the federal Fair Housing
Act and must lift the moratorium to allow the apartment project to move
forward.

Parish leaders have continued to stymie the developments, according to court
documents.

Construction of each apartment building will cost about $15 million, much of
the money coming from federal low-income housing tax credits. If
construction doesn't begin by mid-October, the developments likely won't be
finished by the end of 2010, at which time, the low-income housing tax
credits are lost, according to Provident officials.

Since March, Eastern District of Louisiana Judge Helen G. Berrigan has twice
found St. Bernard Parish in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

Provident's attorney, Bob Voelker, with Dallas-based Munsch Hardt Kopf &
Harr PC, filed a motion on Aug. 28 asking that the parish again be held in
contempt, fined and forced to issue building permits for the apartments by
Oct. 1.

Berrigan on Friday ordered that St. Bernard Parish approve a procedural
subdivision application that has been held up by the parish planning
commission. She also issued a series of deadlines, some as early as 5 p.m.
Monday, to force the parish and Provident to move forward in addressing
remaining questions about parking, landscaping, drainage and access.

If the parish fails to meet the deadlines, Berrigan has imposed a daily fine
of $5,000 for the first day after the deadline, and $10,000 each day
thereafter.

"Defendants are not free to defy this court simply because they think they
know better," Berrigan wrote in her ruling. "This court has repeatedly found
the stated justifications given by these officials to be unsound, contrived,
pretextual and racially discriminatory."