After hearing concerns from residents, the Jeff Davis Parish Police Jury failed Wednesday to rezone a former church north of Jennings to to allow for a funeral home. Police jurors did approve a separate request to rezone property on Hines Road to relocate a gun repair and refinishing shop.

Police Juror Melvin Adams motioned to approve a request from Red Mark Investment to rezone the former church at 16388 La. 26 from agriculture to commercial for the proposed funeral home, but the motion died for lack of a second, effectively denying the request.

Several nearby residents said the funeral home would cause traffic issues and would lower property values.

Gerald Bertrand, who lives near the property, is among those opposed to the commercialization of the property.

“In my opinion it is a dangerous intersection, right at the end of that curve, to have a lot of traffic in and out of there,” Bertrand said. “It is a blind curve when you come out of there.”

The rezoning would also affect property value in the area, he said.

“Any time you put a commercial piece of property within a residential area it is going to devalue your property,”

Bertrand told police jurors.

Greg Boudreaux, who lives closest to the property, said he and other neighbors strongly oppose a funeral home next door to their homes.

“We brought that property 25 years ago with the understanding that it was a residential area only and that there were restrictions,” Boudreaux said. “That is why we bought it, as everybody else in the area. I don’t think it’s the place to have a funeral home.”

Local realtor Joe Tupper said the property owner is trying to sell his property and that zoning may affect the sale in many ways. The property owner bought the property intending to use it for commercial use, he said.

“It’s been zoned commercial in the past,“ Tupper said. “I think he ought to be allowed to have a funeral home here and sell his property to the people who want to have a funeral home here. I don’t see that it would be a major impediment to any of the residents who live here because we have funeral homes located in town with houses around there and it doesn’t seem to affect them as much either.”

Not rezoning the property as commercial will make it unmarketable, he said.

Local mortician Chaisity Paddio said she is trying to buy the property for a funeral home.

“I think it is a great location and I understand there are homes on each sides,” Paddio said. “If I have to fence the sides up, I will do that.”

Paddio said she did not see the difference of changing it from a church to a funeral home.

“A church has church every Sunday,” she said. “A funeral home may have a funeral once a week there and they have police escorts which would stop traffic for us to leave out if I have to have a funeral at the church.”

Most funerals are held in churches and not in funeral homes, so there would not be a lot of traffic or people in and out, she said.

Paddio said she also has to have privacy when she brings in a deceased, so no one would even see that.

In a separate rezoning issue, police jurors granted a request from Stephen and Evelyn Stagg to rezone property at 2253 Hines Road southeast of Jennings from agricultural to commercial for a gun repair and refinishing shop.

Stephen Stagg, who has done gun repair and refinishing work at another address in Jennings, said the zoning change is needed to obtain his federal firearm license at a different location. Stagg has maintained a federal firearm license since 1988 at the previous address where zoning was not required.

The new address requires a change in zoning to satisfy the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm (ATF) requirements to maintain the license, Stagg said.

“I plan on doing repair and refinishing work by appointment only,” Stagg said. “It will not be an open public shop.”

No one spoke for or against the rezoning during a public hearing.