[BR Today]

Don't push the panic button, Parish President Mike Grimmer told about 90 homeowners who met Monday night to discuss the proposed Baton Rouge Loop.
"If the Loop proves to be unworkable, then we'll walk out," Grimmer said. "But at this point, I don't believe it will come to that."
Grimmer spoke to the Hunstock Hills Homeowners Association at Boscareno's Bistro, a large restaurant in Watson not yet open for business.
Residents are concerned because the state Legislature passed a law giving Loop builders the authority to force a property owner to sell.
Grimmer pledged to do everything he can to find a route through Livingston Parish that minimizes the impact on private citizens.
"If it means displacing as many homes as you see in that yellow corridor (on the Loop website), then I won't vote for it," Grimmer said. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't care about you."
Grimmer also said there was no reason to renounce the Loop as long as routes are still being discussed.
When it comes to a Loop route through Livingston Parish north of U.S. 190, Grimmer said he has been pushing for a corridor east of Walker, on undeveloped Weyerhaeuser property.
Weyerhaeuser is one of the world's largest companies dealing in forest products, with sales of $22.6 billion in 2005, according to the company website.
Weyerhaeuser owns about 130,000 acres in Livingston Parish, and making a highway through that land "displaces nobody," Grimmer said.
Grimmer said he would support the Loop, but only if it means minimum collateral damage.
"It makes no sense to wipe out a subdivision," Grimmer said.
Grimmer estimated that as many as 90 new subdivisions could be missing from the maps Loop engineers are using now.
The parish has a federal grant to pay for aerial mapping with digital Geographic Information System equipment. New digital maps made with this technology will show Loop engineers see the reality of subdivision development in western Livingston Parish, Grimmer said.
Grimmer said he and the other parish presidents on the Loop executive committee are sitting in the "hot seat," between residents who want the Loop and those who do not.
"If this was a popularity contest, there would be no way to win," Grimmer said. "The point is to do the best thing for the most people. We want routes that will be a tremendous long-term benefit to many with minimal losses for as few as possible."
The Loop will likely open up new areas to residential development, increasing land values south of the Interstate and helping to preserve what is left of a rural atmosphere north of the Interstate.
Grimmer said Monday there is truth to the rumor that Disney is seriously considering a theme park in Livingston Parish, but cautioned that no decisions have been made yet.
New development may bring greater prosperity and self-sufficiency, but it also means more traffic, Grimmer said.
Traffic on I-12 in Livingston Parish is expected to increase by 35 percent, just in the next two years, Grimmer said.
The Livingston Parish workforce depends on highways, with 72 percent leaving the parish to get to their jobs, Grimmer said.
Grimmer said he represented those commuters.
"We could just say the Loop is too much trouble and walk away, but we might wait another 20 years for the state to widen I-12 past Walker," Grimmer said.
Grimmer said the $100 million recently appropriated by the Legislature was a great step forward, but the traffic crisis on I-12 has already arrived.
Engineering design work has not started on a six-lane Amite River Bridge, partly it might be required to have an arch, or arches. A raised roadway would avoid the debris that now piles up against the bridges at flood stage, Grimmer said.
"In that case, the existing bridges would come down," Grimmer said.
Using the most optimistic timeframe, a new 6-lane Amite River Bridge could not open for at least six years. Construction, coupled with demolition of the old bridges, might take much longer, Grimmer said.
"This bridge replacement is going to be very expensive," Grimmer said. "If they do build an arch over the Amite, we'll be lucky if that $100 million widens I-12 as far as Denham Springs."
Replacing the Pete's Highway overpass, which is too narrow to accommodate a 6-lane highway, will also be costly.
Three municipalities (Walker, Port Vincent and French Settlement) have passed resolutions against the Loop within their boundaries. Grimmer said parish officials have to take a broader view.
"Ignoring the traffic would be like putting my head in the sand," Grimmer said.
"We get an average of 86,000 cars a day passing Juban Road on I-12, and I'm sure another 20,000 are on U.S. 190 and smaller roads," Grimmer said.
Some audience members questioned the feasibility of the Loop when it comes to helping local residents reach destinations inside the capital city.
Traffic engineers will be hired to make the final evaluation, determining which routes will attract enough toll traffic to justify an estimated $4 billion price tag.
If that much traffic is diverted to the Loop, then I-12 traffic would be significantly reduced, Grimmer said.
Spurs and extensions not shown on preliminary maps could connect the Loop with destinations inside the city, Grimmer said.
Questions were also asked about the relationship between depressed property values and uncertainty over the final Loop route.
Grimmer said local conditions may not be to blame for slower sales because the housing market is in a slump nationally.
The housing market should recover before appraisals are done on property that needs to be purchased for the Loop. Grimmer also said he understood that two appraisals are made on each property, and the Loop must pay the higher figure.
Grimmer recently visited toll roads in Texas with Ascension Parish President Tommy Martinez, Baton Rouge mayor-president Kip Holden, and Riley Berthelot from West Baton Rouge.
One advantage about toll roads is that toll revenue is only used to pay off bonds and improve the road.
"There's no possibility of state officials putting that toll money to any other use," Grimmer said.
The parish presidents visited a toll road in Texas that takes in an average of over $1 million per day.
Property values around major interchanges in Texas soared, in one place from 50 cents per square foot to $12 and even $18 per square foot, Grimmer said.
The economic impact of a Loop is hard to predict because it can make a big change in traffic patterns, greatly reducing the time it takes to travel from one place to another.
By providing greater access to the parish, a Loop would attract physicians to the area, which in turn would accelerate the building of hospitals on land already purchased by Our Lady of the Lake and North Oaks, Grimmer said after the meeting.
The parish presidents saw parks and landscaping along Texas toll roads, and sound walls where the road came near pre-existing development.
Grimmer said that private Loop investors do not want to pay high prices for developed property, or alienate a community. A toll road must serve local commuters as well as interstate travelers.
Grimmer said he encourages public participation in the Loop corridor selection process.
Engineers put proposed corridors on the brloop.com website in the hope that residents will give feedback concerning construction problems and expenses, Grimmer said.
Grimmer said he averages about 75 e-mails a day concerning the Loop, and had another speaking engagement Wednesday.
"I welcome community input, and I am glad to see Livingston Parish residents keeping up with this," the Parish President said. "But anybody who thinks the Loop is a Mike Grimmer production is mistaken."
Grimmer said he understands the resentment people feel when highways appear in their back yards.
"I-12 came through my family's land in Walker," Grimmer said, and economic development fostered by that interstate brought fast food restaurants within a stone's throw of his home.
Audience members asked why highway officials do not simply improve existing routes.
"Money," Grimmer said. "Out of the 40 cents sales tax on gas, half goes to the federal government and four cents goes to the TIMED program. That leaves 16 cents to pay for everything else. The state has a $12 billion to $15 billion backlog just in highway maintenance work."
The big attraction of the Loop is that it would be financed with mostly private funds and repaid with toll revenue.
In Texas, the parish presidents saw practical limitations to widening inner city routes. Interstate 35 in Austin, which is now six to eight lanes, would need 22 lanes to carry rush hour traffic, local officials were told.
Martinez, like Grimmer, is personally investigating the least invasive Loop corridors and, like Grimmer, tells constituents that no matter what they hear, no route is set in stone.

Source: Livingston Parish News