BATON ROUGE – Carencro-based CC River District LLC recently filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana against the Baton Rouge Planning Commission, East Baton Rouge Parish and the City/Parish of Baton Rouge regarding a zoning dispute over a property development project.
In the complaint filed Oct. 12, CC River District said it believes that major zoning changes to a development project in Baton Rouge, where they owned part of the land, was proposed to the Planning Commission without their knowledge and without a public hearing.
CC River District further alleges that any major development changes call for a public hearing, which is required by the development code, according to the complaint. They claim a public hearing would allow for objections to be made and they never were provided the opportunity.
The CC River District LLC currently shares part of the development property with Goldman Sachs.
The complaint also asserts that Goldman Sachs' plans for development changes lowered the property value of the adjoining land that CC River District owns. The property that CC River District owns is zoned residential and Goldman Sachs applied to build a warehouse next to the residential buildings, which would decrease property value drastically.
The plaintiffs also believe that Goldman Sachs unfairly relabeled part of the zoned property to the Planning Commission without concern to CC River District, affecting their property protection rights by breaking the property up into two zones.
CC River District is asking the court to enforce the development code and for the Planning Commission to reconsider the proposed changes and hold a public hearing as the development code states. Additionally, the district asks that the Planning Commission submit Goldman Sachs' application to the city/parish for approval or rejection.
They are also asking for punitive damages, attorneys' fees, compensatory damages and any other relief that the court deems proper.