Last year the Faubourg Marigny Improvement Association sued the city as an attempt to stop a provision in the city’s new comprehensive zoning ordinance, which would allow buildings up to 80 feet tall in Marigny and other riverfront neighborhoods.
In August 2015 Civil District Court Judge Kern Reese denied a preliminary injunction that would have exempted Marigny from the new zoning district, and this week a state appellate court has upheld that decision.
The provision allows buildings in the "riverfront overlay district," which includes Marigny, Bywater, Holy Cross and Algiers Point neighborhoods, a 25-foot "height bonus"—bringing the maximum allowable height to 80 feet.
The lawsuit cites "severe changes" the provision would cause, and asks it be nullified because it did not go through a hearing process before the City Planning Commission.
While the appeals court agrees that the provision should have gone before the Planning Commission, the judges said "residents could not provide proof that taller developments would adversely affect their quality of life."
• Marigny residents’ challenge to zoning law change is rejected by appeals court [The Advocate]