Apartment Projects & Hospital Update,and Planning Comm Meeting, 12 noon Tuesday Sept 29

There is no major news out about the apartments. Seems the Parish is moving forward trying to appeal the last court decision, but we are not expecting any big news for a while. On the other hand, they have not started construction yet. Whether they have not started because of action the parish is taking, or because of other reasons, is not known ( at least it's not known to us!! )...............The hospital is moving forward nicely, the schematics are done, and the final design isn't far behind. As to it's location, that is not finalized yet. Some people want it to go on the Meraux Foundation land, but no final decision was made at the last meeting. Seems there are a couple of schools of thought about the land around the hospital. Some people want the Meraux Foundation to retain as much control as possible for future expansion, or for Labs and Doctor office buildings, by only giving the hospital a short term option on any more land. These out buildings could be a good profit center, so of course the hospital wants a long term option to buy the land and expand when the time is right. It could take a couple of years to build the hospital, and at least a few more years to make any profit, so that's why some people want the hospital to have a long term option to buy more land for expansion. Anyway, there seems to be some disagreement. But just the fact that the plans are as good as done is great news. The reality is that there has been remarkable progress in the last few months, and hopefully they will break ground soon.........................................Planning Commission Meeting set for Tuesday, Sept 29 at 12:00....there are 31 Permissive Use Permit Requests ( people/ investors looking to rent out a house that was not a rental before katrina )........the Commission will make a recommendation on each one and the Council will make the final decision. Every month there are a whole lot of these permits issued, and in light of the apartment situation, maybe the Parish should slow down on these rentals.