Despite opposition from residents, the Jeff Davis Parish Police Jury voted 11-1 Wednesday to approve a rezoning request for a laydown storage yard on La. 101 just west of Woodlawn.

The decision will allow property owner Robert “Bobby” Miller and business partners James Walker Jr. and Marshall Walker to rezone nearly 20 acres from agriculture to light industrial for the laydown storage yard. Miller is trying to obtain a two-year contract to use the property to store valves and control boxes for construction of a refinery in Cameron Parish.

The rezoning approval includes stipulations requiring a privacy fence, dust control and that the property will revert back to agriculture if it is ever sold.

Police Juror Byron Buller, who cast the only vote to deny the rezoning, said he has nothing against Miller and considers him a good guy who would help anyone. He said he voted no to support his constituents.

“I had to back my people,” Buller said. “When I ran, I ran to represent the people of my district. I had to stick with them.”

Miller said the property has been used as a construction yard and as a commercial site since before most of the residents moved into a nearby subdivision.

“It’s comparable to what I am doing,” Miller said. “Most of the people brought their property or built their homes knowing it was there, It wasn’t a problem then.”

Miller said there have been no complaints from the previous owner and he plans to continue to be a good neighbor.

“I have the opportunity to possibly have the storage for the valves for a plant being built in Cameron Parish,” Miller said. “They can’t store them in Cameron Parish because of the storm surge. They can’t get insurance on their storage material in that parish and were looking for high ground north of the interstate. They googled one of my other properties and that didn’t work out so I showed them this one and they loved it.”

He said control boxes and anything electric will be stored inside a building on the property. Parts stored outside will be on pallets.

Miller said he would also like to use a shop on the property for a mechanic, welding or a lawn mower shop if he does not get a laydown shop.

Jim Walker said the property owners do not plan to change anything that has not already been done on the property in the past, The property has been used by Janco Directional Drilling to store pipes and pumps for 30 years and was previously used for an airplane hangar. Despite the rumors, Walker said there are no plans to install solar panels or a wind farm on the property.

During a nearly two hours public hearing, police jurors heard from nearly a dozen nearby homeowners who expressed concerns about property values, traffic and dust.

Tammy Ardoin spoke on behalf of her mother-in-law who lives next door to the property and other residents of Mesa Verdie Lane, said residents are concerned about the impact the yard will have on property values.

“Anytime you have, especially an extremely nice subdivision, where all the houses are $380,000 and above, and you put in an industrial site next to it, it substantially decreases the value of the properties,” she said. “People do not want to live next door or purchase next door to an industrial site.”

Kari Cook, who lives on Mesa Verdie Lane, asked the police jurors to put themselves in the position of the residents who have invested their time and money in establishing their homes near the site.

“I am adamantly against rezoning of this property on Hwy. 101, which is directly behind our neighborhood,” Cook said. “I have concerns that rezoning the property to industrial will have catastrophic, negative consequences on our property values, neighborhood safety, traffic concerns on a state highway, as well as a major source of dust and debris on our property.”

An emotional Ronnie Clark, who lives on Mesa Verdie Lane, begged police jurors to postpone voting on the rezoning issue until they can answer all the residents’ concerns and clarify the definitions of the parish’s zoning ordinance.

“If you allow it to go through, you are not representing the people of Jeff Davis Parish and this district,” Clark said.

Glenn Baccigalopi, who lives close to the property, said residents are concerned about what will happen with the property in the future.

“We just don’t know what is going to happen after it is approved and they move on to something else or they sell it to someone else,” he said.

He said residents have concerns about the future impact on road conditions, traffic, drainage, environmental issues and monitoring of the property. He also questioned why the laydown yard could not be located in the industrial park off I-10 in Lacassine.

Mesa Verdie resident Dwayne Daigle said he wants to see businesses do well and thrive, but said residents have invested to live in the country with open views, peace and tranquility.

“Everyone I talked to the in the neighborhood is in agreement,” he said. “We want this company to do well, but we are concerned about what if they close up just like the former company did and decide to sell. What is to stop anybody else from building whatever they want right there next to our neighborhood?”

Michael Davis, a resident of Mesa Verdie Lane, said the property will likely not be a significant industrial or economic growth for the parish. Positions will likely be filed by employees of the previous tenant, he said.

“At the bottom line, you have to think how much revenue is this going to help with the roads,” Davis said. “I know everything helps, but at the same time you have to think about the impact of the people of Mesa Verdie.”

Davis asked the police jury to defer the decision until it could study the cost analysis of what the parish can get versus what it could lose.