On September 3, 2026 the Livingston Parish Planning and Zoning Commission met for their regularly scheduled meeting wherein they endorsed an ordinance setting regulations and special use permits for new power plants in the parish and approved several rezoning requests.
Planning
The planning part of the meeting began with a public hearing on an ordinance to amend the Unified Land Development Code (UDC) to establish power plant (electricity generation plant) regulations and to require special use permits for all power plants in the parish of Livingston.
Livingston Parish Councilmember Erin Sandefur brought the ordinance before the commission, noting that “the purpose of this ordinance is really about being proactive.”
“Our parish is growing, technology is changing, and we’re seeing new types of large-scale industrial development that our current regulations were not designed for,” Sandefur told the commissioners.
“I believe we need to put reasonable protections in place before one of these projects comes before us rather than waiting until the application is filed and then trying to determine what protections we should have had,” Sandefur added.
Sandefur further explained that, under this ordinance, power plants and electric generating facilities will be limited to I-2 (heavy industrial) zoning, and will require a special use permit. Additionally, the ordinance will seek to establish standards for set backs, vegetative buffers, noise, drainage, road protection, public safety, public notification, abandonment, and decommissioning.
“It also provides an opportunity for the planning commission, the parish council, and the public to review these projects and their potential impacts before they are approved,” Sandefur continued.
Sandefur made sure to emphasize that the ordinance does not seek to regulate electricity, utility rates, or anything that falls under the regulatory authority of the Louisiana Public Service Commission.
“We are regulating the land use and the local impacts these facilities have within Livingston Parish,” Sandefur clarified. “Ultimately, this is about responsible planning. If facilities are going to locate in Livingston Parish I believe we should know where they can locate, what standards they must meet, how surrounding property owners will be protected, and what happens when the facility eventually reaches the end of its useful life.”
“This was done to, as much as possible, avoid anything jurisdictional for the public service commission,” attorney Steve Irving with the Land Development Council added, noting that “there is a provision that is put in it that allows for stand-by generators, roof-top solar, those sort of things.”
“I do think this is important, to get this in place so we have something to turn to,” Commissioner Kathy Long noted.
Commissioner David Danna expressed his concerns that the 500 feet listed in the ordinance may not be enough distance to combat noise pollution from the stations.
“The further away you get, the sound drops off immensely and a few feet makes a tremendous difference. If we mandate the green space and [the property owners] grow a few pine trees on the perimeter and give us 500 feet, that’d be plenty,” Commissioner Brian Clemmons assured.
“I think, more importantly… there’s a lot of power hungry utilities coming down the pipe. We’ve talked about data centers and other things, they are coming whether we want them to or not and we gonna have to be proactive at getting controls put in place before those things happen,” Clemmons continued.
Commissioner Norman Engler stated that the ordinance “looks like a contract that never will go through because we can’t police it,” highlighting that the required regulations will add many new responsibilities that the parish administration will be responsible for keeping up on and dealing with if violated.
“The alternative, if we’re not going to put something in, is to put nothing… then they don’t have to do anything just because we say we have no way to police it,” Commissioner Kathy Long said.
Ultimately, the commission voted their endorsement of the ordinance, which will go before the full council for final approval, with only Commissioner Gerald Burns voting against it.
Zoning
The zoning portion of the meeting focused on several rezoning requests.
The first of which was a request to rezone two tracts on Buddy Ellis Road from C-1 (Commercial) to R-2 (Residential). No one from the public stepped forward to discuss this item, but several commissioners expressed their concerns with the request.
Commissioner Jacob Erdey noted that “both parcels do butt directly up to heavy industrial [zoned properties] and… in the UDC I think the intention is not to put a lot of houses directly next to heavy industrial.”
“When we were setting up zoning and the UDC… part of the plan was that we were going to start to segregate businesses, commercial activity, and residential areas,” Commissioner Clemmons noted, “but if we give away all the land in these economic zones for housing there’ll be nothing available for any business.”
Commissioner Burns added that the area “probably should be left as C-1” due to its proximity to other similarly zoned properties.
In light of these comments, the commissioners voted unanimously to deny the request.
Following this, there was a request to rezone a parcel at 26767 Hwy 42 from SNB (small neighborhood business) to R-1.5.
Livingston Parish Councilman Joe Erdey spoke on the request, noting that he has “pretty much been against R-1.5 most of the time since [he’s] been in office,” however he also added that the parcel “should have never been SNB, it was zoned wrong to begin with.”
Erdey also expressed his concerns that granting the request may open the possibility for multiple structures being built on the property.
The engineering department answered that the zoning minimum lot size is half an acre and this parcel falls within the amount that will allow the owners to “only get one structure on it.”
Berkeley Hasen, owner of the property, also explained that the rezoning request was submitted so that a single small house for her family can be built on the property.
The commission unanimously voted to approve the request.
Another request was made for a parcel on La Hwy 441 to be rezoned from SNB to R-1.
With no public comment, Scooter Keen addressed the commission to note that “both sides of the road from the interstate to 42 were zoned as SNB” meaning that several of the property owners “can’t put a mobile home, a house, anything on it unless we change it” which Keen said will most likely lead to the commission needing to address these rezoning requests “probably every month.”
The commission also unanimously approved the request.
Finally, the commission heard another request to rezone two tracts on La Hwy 441, located across the street from the previous request, from SNB to R-1.
With a unanimous vote, the commission approved the request and the meeting was adjourned.
