Sucette Harbor Comes to Mandeville Lakefront
The LSU Health Foundation wants to build an age-restricted community along the Mandeville Lakefront. Sucette Harbor would be located on land that was donated by Al Copeland’s family. Many residents are not thrilled about the proposed development because they feel it will create traffic problems.
Although the development is planned to be for tenants 55 and over, it has to be 80% filled with tenants that are 55 and older in order for the age restriction to be enforced. Many Mandeville leaders and residents are afraid they will not be able to draw in that many tenants that are 55 and older. If this happens, then the development will go back to a regular multi-family complex.
Woodward Interest, the developer that will be leasing the land from LSU Health Foundation, believes that traffic will not be an issue. If the development did lose its age restriction, and younger people were to live in the complex, Mandeville’s land use regulations will still hold for the traffic standards.
The chair of the planning commission, Brian Rhinehart, still feels this could be a problem because older tenants are expected to have fewer vehicles but they still might not draw enough older tenants. Rhinehart wants Woodward Interest to do a study showing traffic that would be generated by a non-age-restricted multi-family complex.
“There’s always a level of mistrust when the developer hires a consultant. Citizens need that to have confidence that this isn’t a big snow job,” says Kevin Vogeltanz.
