May 1, 2024 • 41 mins
Ever wondered about the myth of a cougar in Rouse's parking lot or chuckled at the thought of a city inspector doubling as a stand-up comic? Join us as Bryant Dixon, the Zachary City Planning and Zoning Director, brings lightness to the serious world of city planning. We bust myths, laugh at Scott Masterson's dad jokes, and unpack the complexities of infrastructure that affect our daily lives, proving that city planning isn't all about maps and regulations.
Bringing Bryant's background in Environmental Affairs to the conversation, we explore the exciting new software from Forerunner that's revolutionizing flood risk assessment in Zachary. He also shares insights from my time with the New Orleans Sewage and Water Board, drawing parallels to the current challenges in our city. Together with Bryant, we reveal how these technological advancements are not just simplifying our processes but could also lead to significant savings for our residents on flood insurance.
Wrapping up this enlightening episode, we turn our focus to Zachary's growth and economic development. We tackle the careful balance between supporting local businesses and attracting bigger franchises, and discuss the smart growth strategies propelling our community into the future. From enhancing property information access to celebrating our emergency services, we cover the myriad ways in which digital tools and community efforts are keeping Zachary safe, competitive, and thriving.
God, doubt, and proof walk into a podcast... it goes better than you’d expect!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bryant Dixon (00:04):
Hello, I'm Brian Dixon and you're listening to
Porch and Parish, the podcast.
Mike Gennaro (00:09):
What's up, zachary ?
We're back with one of ourfavorite guests today, and he's
making important decisions forthe city of Zachary every day,
collaboratively, of course, notunilaterally.
Unilaterally.
Zachary City Planning andZoning Director, bryant Dixon,
is in the booth today to explainan important announcement about
a new tool for Zacharyresidents to quickly determine
(00:31):
their floodplain and gain accessto elevation certificates for
free, just like this podcast,thanks to our sponsors.
Hopefully, that means no morewaiting around for weeks for
someone to tell you theseimportant facts about a property
and you know what, if I'm wrongabout any of that, bryant for
someone to tell you theseimportant facts about a property
, and you know what, if I'mwrong about any of that, brian's
going to tell us all about it.
I'm Mike G, publisher of Porchand Parish.
(00:51):
We bring you the best ofZachary and the Development
North region through CandyConversations every Monday from
our headquarters right here onVirginia Street in downtown
Zachary.
Bryant Dixon (01:02):
This is.
Mike Gennaro (01:03):
Porch and Parish the podcast.
All right, we're going to jumpinto the lightning round.
You know I quit giving peoplelightning round questions to
make this more fun, so I gotthree questions for you.
Number one please dispel onemyth that is going around,
zachary.
Bryant Dixon (01:20):
I hear so many things every day that I'm like
where did this come from, whomade this up and how did this
rumor get started?
Oh man, that's crazy.
I'll take one, okay.
Mike Gennaro (01:30):
And hopefully it's not the one you're thinking
about.
So there is a myth.
It might be true, I don't know,but I think it's a myth that
there is a cougar, a mountainlion, that actually patrols the
parking lot over at rouses.
Did you ever hear that one?
Bryant Dixon (01:51):
I have not heard that one yet we even called out
to it.
Mike Gennaro (01:53):
We did it.
We did a uh tell all articledispelling the myth of the the
rouses panther, or whatever yeah, no, I haven't heard that one
yet.
Bryant Dixon (02:02):
Where did that come from some?
Mike Gennaro (02:03):
people don't shop at rouse's because they think
they're gonna get attacked by acougar.
I swear you?
Bryant Dixon (02:09):
yeah, they could have won dixie.
Mike Gennaro (02:11):
This came up in rants and raves before oh see, I
don't have social media that'sgood.
That's why you're, you know,such a peaceful guy it keeps my
mind free and clear.
Bryant Dixon (02:20):
Uh, I'm not.
I never get too distracted onlike what's going on in the
world or what people think aboutme.
Mike Gennaro (02:25):
Possibly so that also gives me a chance to you
know look at, look at one of ourold covers, uh, the illustrated
one of the city of zachary, andthere's a little panther um
holding a rouse's sign that'swhy we did that because I keep
calling it a panther.
Bryant Dixon (02:40):
It's a cougar.
Yeah, all right.
Should I be concerned now?
Mike Gennaro (02:46):
No, 90%.
Sure there's not a cougar.
(03:31):
Please explain one term youthink we should all know about
planning and zoning.
Bryant Dixon (03:37):
Man, these are really good questions, mike.
You got me thinking.
Today I say a lot of things ona regular, on a regular basis,
that I never truly think about,like how people understand them,
because I'm used to speaking toplanners to a certain degree,
or like engineers in certainterms.
um, I would say infrastructureis a word that we throw around a
(03:57):
lot, yeah, and it can mean alot of different things
depending on who you're talkingto.
So, um, infrastructure in insome capacities could be like
your roads, or infrastructurecould also be your drainage,
your sewer lines, your powerlines, so putting in different
infrastructure in differentplaces.
So infrastructure can have avaried number of meetings
(04:19):
depending on who you're speakingwith and depending on the
context in which you're using it.
So I would say infrastructureis probably one of the words I
use the most, talking to bothprofessionals and lay people,
and sometimes I have to go backand break that down and say,
well, this is a specific type ofinfrastructure that I'm talking
about because it encompasses somuch.
Mike Gennaro (04:40):
altogether, Right, right, okay, awesome, and I
could stay on that one, like wecould just have a definition day
, and that's a podcast by itself.
Yeah, it really is all right.
This one's gonna be the hardestone where it might be easy.
Please tell us one funny storythat happened in the course of
daily business.
Bryant Dixon (04:59):
Bonus points if it involves scott masterson, city
inspector well, I think I'vesaid this before, but if scott
were not the uh, the city'sofficial building official, uh,
I'm pretty sure scott's jobwould be a comedian.
Um, and on some days when wehave like a little lax time, at
the end of the day we'll likesit down and just kind of like
(05:20):
debrief about things that arehappening.
And he loves to tell jokes,yeah, and he loves his, his
knock knock jokes or quote,unquote his dad jokes that he
will tell.
Actually, right before I leftthe office, he, he pulled
another one out of the, out ofthe box that I was not quite
expecting.
Uh, um, I would say, like itwas the one day he did the
(05:44):
because joke and I can't thinkabout how it goes right now.
Mike Gennaro (05:48):
Okay, yeah.
Bryant Dixon (05:49):
It had something to do with the chicken and it
was.
I remember.
Mike Gennaro (05:53):
Yeah, like maybe why did the chicken cross the
road?
Bryant Dixon (05:57):
Because I don't know that would make sense.
Mike Gennaro (05:59):
And it's not funny All right, he has his moments.
Bryant Dixon (06:04):
I love Scott Scott's amazing.
Mike Gennaro (06:06):
All right, look, you did great.
Let's move on to the seriousstuff.
So we've got the Flood FactFinder tool.
Is that what it's called?
Bryant Dixon (06:13):
Yes, the Flood Fact Finder.
Mike Gennaro (06:16):
So what motivated the city of Zachary to introduce
the Flood Fact Finder tool toits residents?
Bryant Dixon (06:21):
Okay, so my background.
Previously, before I got here,I actually worked with the city
of New Orleans.
Well, specifically, I workedwith the Sewage and Water Board.
And my job there?
I worked in a department calledEnvironmental Affairs.
Mike Gennaro (06:36):
Pulling Mardi Gras beads out of the sewer all day.
Basically, yes, yes, yes.
Bryant Dixon (06:40):
I work with people that did that on a regular
basis, and it's tons of them.
I just want people to know thatit is tons of beads yeah that
make their way into thosedrainage pipes.
Wow, it's crazy, yeah, um.
But one of the jobs I used to dowas work with green
infrastructure and, um, kind oflike storm water management and
(07:00):
like where water would go, whatwater is moving, how's water is
moving, yeah, where water issettling in the ways that we can
naturally find ways to to dealwith stormwater during rain
events.
So that's kind of where mybackground was.
Because of that, some of theemails I still get as we're
working here in Zachary, peoplesend me all the time just
(07:21):
talking about, like stormwaterconferences or drainage
conferences, or do you want toapply for this program?
Do you want to come getcertified in this?
So one day I did receive anemail, uh, from a company called
forerunner and they have aweb-based program that allows
you to uh get things for, like,uh, flood risk, personalized
flood risk or elevationcertificates, which pretty much
(07:45):
everyone needs in the city tobuild anything.
Yeah, um.
And so I actually really paidattention to that email.
It was really catchy, um.
I read through it and I waslike well, you know, zachary, I
working with scott.
I get to see people that comein and ask for like flood
certificates all the time sayyou want to put a trailer
somewhere, for instance.
Mike Gennaro (08:03):
Uh, how you ever think about this Like, how high
are you going to put that oncinder blocks?
Bryant Dixon (08:08):
How do you actually have to build Like how
far, what flood zone are yougoing to need?
Flood zone X, A, E, Uh, so it'sX is the good one.
X is the good one.
Uh, so hearing thoseconversations and kind of having
to have those conversationswith people all the time, when
this email popped up, it caughtmy eye and I was like, well,
this seems like a pretty neatsoftware.
(08:29):
So I did some research, uh,looked at their website, went
through and saw some places thatthey work with and was like
kind of interested.
They reached out to me again,yeah, and I was like, well, let
me actually like contact themback and see if I can like talk
with them and see what's goingon with this.
So we set up a meeting and whenthey told me that they were
working with jefferson parish, Iwas like, oh wow, like
(08:52):
jefferson parish is really goodwith their flood, with their
floodplain management yeahthey've got to be huh, they have
to be, and so I was like, ifjefferson parish is looking and
doing this, like I really doneed to pay attention because
there's some real benefits tothis.
And then I also deal with a lotof our floodplain management
issues in the city as well.
I'm not the floodplain manager,I would say I'm more like a
(09:14):
floodplain coordinator.
So we work with our floodplainmanager I'm the in-office
contact but we do have someonethat we will send some
specialized information to if weneed to get something
officially signed.
Mike Gennaro (09:25):
Y'all outsourced that one.
Bryant Dixon (09:26):
Yes, so we have.
His name is Jim Ferguson.
He's our official consultantfloodplain manager.
Okay, I'm not certified as acertified floodplain manager.
Yeah, you have to be to docertain things and he is so in
(09:47):
office I handle things to acertain point and then he
handles things once they get toa point where I can't handle
them anymore.
Uh, so me and jim were kind oflike talking about it.
We went over it and it seemedlike a really good idea, uh, and
I thought that it would begreat to get a software that we
can use internally to help ustrack some things that we were
doing yeah kind of be a base forresidents to be able to go and
find some information on theirown, as well as be a resource
for businesses that were lookingto move to the city.
Uh, because we get calls fromthem all the time just asking
(10:09):
general questions.
Yeah, um, and so I was likethis would be a great
opportunity, and on top of that,I also deal with the community
rating system, which we arecurrently in the process of
renewal.
At this point, and for thosethat don't know, you often hear
me say CRS, but the communityrating system allows us to, as a
(10:31):
city, submit in certaindocuments yearly about all the
things that we're building, allthe floodplain ordinances that
we have, the procedures that wedo in office.
We have to submit, sign off andsubmit all that stuff into FEMA
and DEQ every year.
Once we meet a certain standard, you're able to apply for these
programs and it gives us adiscount on our national flood
(10:54):
insurance program.
It gives us a discount basedupon our rating on.
It can go from like 5, 10, 15,20, 25% on your actual flood
insurance.
Mike Gennaro (11:02):
Yeah.
Bryant Dixon (11:03):
So the more strenuous, I would say, our
standards are and the morethings we're doing to actually
advertise for our floodplainmanagement awareness, we're
actually getting credit for that, and that credit can allow us
to basically get lower insurancerates.
Mike Gennaro (11:17):
So this tool could actually help us to make a
higher grade for lack of abetter term.
Yes, this tool is going to beessential, I would say, in
actually help us to make ahigher grade for lack of a
better term.
Bryant Dixon (11:22):
Yes, this tool is going to be essential, I would
say, in definitely getting us togo up at least a point or two.
Mike Gennaro (11:27):
Credit rating yeah , like a credit rating.
Bryant Dixon (11:30):
So the way it's scored is 10 is the lowest.
Well, first you have to beaccepted into the program.
The program is going from 10 to1.
1 is the best.
Zachary is currently now at an8.
It is, it's the best um zacharyis currently now at an eight.
Uh, it is my plan, my goal andmy dream.
That ain't too good.
Mike Gennaro (11:47):
No, it is really good because there's some wait,
what there are some cities thatare not even in the program at
all okay, okay so step one, wegot accepted into the okay.
Bryant Dixon (11:54):
Okay, this is new, we just got accepted yeah well,
we've been in this program, Iwant to say for about eight or
ten years.
Okay, another eight another.
Mike Gennaro (12:05):
Dig yourself out of this hole.
Bryant Dixon (12:06):
Brian's no we've been in the program for a while
now, but, uh, one of the my, oneof the things that I really do,
we want to do is get us up toat least a six and it's just
like the standards are.
I think it'll be a good standardfor us to have and when I say
that and the reason I'm notsaying oh, I want to shoot this
up to a one Like right now wehave a base flood elevation,
(12:27):
which is where we havedocumented that that is the
lowest point that you can buildwithout flooding.
One of the requirements to bein that program is to have a
higher standard.
So, if you're buildingsomething in Zachary, you have
to build at least one foot abovebase flood elevation I've heard
that before.
Mike Gennaro (12:44):
Yeah, so this can be sometimes problematic when
you have a neighbor who was kindof built prior to this rule.
Right, yes, we get ourneighbors building up one foot
higher than us and that's notfun.
Yes, but there are ways, sowith that we have a.
Bryant Dixon (13:04):
We have a net zero .
We have a net zero procedurethat we have to follow as well
and that's put in place.
That says basically, whatever'sbeing built on a property, you
have to maintain all of your ownstormwater so you're not in.
Like when Scott goes out anddoes his inspections, that's one
thing that he looks at is tomake sure that you're building
swells and ditches, to make surethat you're holding and
(13:25):
maintaining your stormwater onyour property.
Mike Gennaro (13:27):
Yeah.
And it's not being displacedonto other people's property
because that would be Basicallylike a gutter on your property
that goes below your one footheight.
Bryant Dixon (13:37):
Yeah, we include those swells or ditches on
properties to make sure that thewater is not only being
maintained on your individualproperty but you're not
displacing on somebody else'sproperty and also it's making it
safely from your property tosome type of like drainage way.
So that's one thing.
But to go up higher would meanto get a higher number.
In some places you may want tohave like a two foot or three
(14:03):
foot above base level, which youknow, maybe a little, a lot for
some people is that allowed?
Mike Gennaro (14:07):
it?
Can somebody just go crazy andbuild um like a castle up in the
sky, as long as they have adeep enough swale, or you know
that anything is possible.
Bryant Dixon (14:17):
Okay, if you meet the right requirements, anything
is possible.
Love that.
Mike Gennaro (14:22):
You've used that before, I'm sure.
Bryant Dixon (14:25):
I get some interesting questions, so I'll
probably have said that to a fewpeople.
Mike Gennaro (14:28):
My favorite one is always with enough time or
money, you can do anything youwant to.
I say that to a lot of peoplein my day-to-day.
Bryant Dixon (14:39):
You know, and that is very true, with enough time
and money, yeah, almost anything, yeah so it is not untrue.
Mike Gennaro (14:48):
Um, all right, all right.
Um, so we've got the benefitsof this thing.
Um, I mean, I've got one morefollow-up.
Okay, what is jeffersonparish's grade?
Bryant Dixon (14:59):
uh, I'm not sure right now.
I haven't looked it up in awhile.
Mike Gennaro (15:01):
Um, but the reason I working in new orleans, and
then being right next tojefferson, parish, we yeah it's
like they always get like theseamazing products and these
amazing things like incorporatethat, incorporates metairie and
some of grand isle right, and soI mean they're just like
inundated constantly with that.
They have a need to be good.
Bryant Dixon (15:23):
They have a real need because I think they get
like over 62 inches, or onaverage, 62 inches a year.
Mike Gennaro (15:29):
That's where I grew up.
It's like if you don't see acanal, you're not looking,
you're not living right.
Yeah, canals everywhere.
Bryant Dixon (15:37):
So I like working in New Orleans and then looking
at them.
There are some things that wewould as with Sewage and Water
Board at the time, we would kindof like look and work with them
on certain projects and thenjust knowing, like the efforts
they put into getting products,the effort they put into making
sure that their residents aresafe and all of these other
things that they work on, theywere.
(15:57):
They're just a really goodmodel for things that we can do
to move forward within the stateof Louisiana, specifically
looking at floodplain managementregulations.
So when I knew that they wereworking with them, that was what
really caught my eye and I waslike, oh, this is good.
They were, I think, the firstto adopt or start using
Forerunner, which is thesoftware and that's just free to
(16:19):
everyone now.
Mike Gennaro (16:20):
Yes, and now it's free to everyone yeah, um, and
that's just free to everyone.
Now, yes, and now it's free toeveryone.
So you know, um, before this Ihaven't gone to use the software
.
I need to, but I would go ifsomebody had a question about a
piece of property or whatever,like, all right, you know where
are we on the floodplain?
I think I could usually answerthat using lsu flood maps, but
it's not.
It's not an elevationcertificate, it's just, uh, you
(16:40):
know what, this elevationcertificate?
It's just a you know what.
This is probably what you got.
That's nothing you can take tothe bank.
Bryant Dixon (16:46):
Yeah, that's the most of the software that you'll
see that you can use for free.
It's just very base level.
It'll show you like if yourhouse is in a flood zone to
maybe see what flood zone thehouse is in.
But when it comes to building,there needs to be a little bit
more concrete work done.
Mike Gennaro (16:59):
Yeah, absolutely so, to be a little bit more
concrete work.
Bryant Dixon (17:01):
Yeah, absolutely, uh.
So that's when you have to getinto hiring an engineer or
someone our surveyor to come outand survey the property, to get
your exact elevation, soexactly where you are, where the
house is going to be, and thenwhere that elevation is for the
house to put you at least atyour base and then what that one
foot area would be.
Um, not to toot my own horn,but when I first first got here,
we were kind of still usingsome.
(17:22):
We were still using paper mapsfor zoning.
So one of my first major changeswas to get a GIS system for
like the zoning stuff.
Mike Gennaro (17:30):
Oh, it's been great.
Bryant Dixon (17:31):
But in doing that there are layers that you can
add on there.
So I actually added a floodzone layer so you can actually
go on our zoning map and clickon the layer and it'll show you
like if your property itself isin a flood zone area zoning map
and click on the layer and it'llshow you like if your property
itself is in the flood zone area.
Yeah, it doesn't give you theexact height or the specifics,
but it'll show you like thisarea of the city is in the flood
zone.
This area is not, yes, and sothat was one of the things I did
, and this is kind of like anext step forward, and now
(17:54):
you're able to go to another appthat we have on the website, um
, and you can now seespecifically like what's been
done.
It allows you to pull up, uh,any fema documents that have
been submitted in for your house.
Mike Gennaro (18:07):
What about um, like flood delineation and
determination certificates?
That's one that holds up peoplefor months.
On development, yes, is thatnow just available, or so?
Bryant Dixon (18:18):
we, we're kind of limited at this point because we
were only able to put into thesystem per properties that we've
had in office and that havebeen submitted in yeah we did
lose a lot of documents and aflooding event that we had here
one time.
So oddly enough yeah yeah, so,uh, this is like a great way for
us to back it up on a digitalplatform and so while you can go
to a property and see if thereare documents available, those
(18:41):
documents are still private andyou would have to specifically
request them for the property.
Mike Gennaro (18:45):
Okay.
Bryant Dixon (18:45):
But we were able to kind of like go in and add in
um proposed flood elevationcertificates, the official flood
elevation certificates, andwe're working on now adding in
some of the more advanced FEMAdocuments for like things for
claims that people make on theirproperties and so when we get
all of that information and wecan add them in to properties to
(19:06):
see where they are, what hasbeen done, and so for your
current home, or maybe someonemoving in the future, you can
see what has been done to thehouse, if there have been any
renovations or changes that weredone, based upon commercial, to
write commercial as well.
This isn't just limited toresidential.
This is for everybody, yeah,but it's going to be a
(19:26):
constantly moving and evolvingproduct.
Uh, based upon the moreinformation we have, the more
information we can put in andthe better it would be for for
residents.
Mike Gennaro (19:34):
Yeah that's awesome.
Um, just another little headsup.
Um, you know, I'm actually abig fan of what the assessor has
been doing too.
Um that, that, um, if you go toEast Baton Rouge assessor, you
can find all these these digitalmaps that are, you know,
helpful in other ways, Like ifyou want to know what the sale
price was on a piece of propertythey've got.
(19:54):
They've gotten most of that onthe assessor's website.
So this is just anotherincredible tool to do your due
diligence on.
If you're trying to develop, ifyou're getting mad at somebody
somewhere out there because it'staking too long, like now we've
got the tools yes, yes, andit's free.
I'm sure you pay somehow yourtax dollars, but yeah, nothing's
(20:16):
really free and it's free yeah.
All right, okay, so apparentlythere was a demonstration at the
city council meeting.
Yes, yes, so what were some keyfeatures highlighted about the
flood fact finder then thatmaybe we didn't cover just yet?
Bryant Dixon (20:34):
Okay, so at the council meeting I just wanted to
kind of give a brief overviewof what the program was, what it
kind of of looked like and howeasy it was to maneuver.
So, on the website itself, Ijust showed you where it was
located.
We have it in two specificlocations I have it under
floodplain management and I alsohave it under planning and
zoning.
Yeah, uh, under there is goingto be located under the name
(20:55):
flood fact finder um and we alsohave a location where you can
request your base floodelevations where you can request
information.
You can see specificinformation about drainage
systems throughout the citywhere they're located.
Mike Gennaro (21:12):
No way Wait.
So if I want to know I just hadthis come up this week we want
to put in a new plumbing line onthe property for a grease trap,
right?
Not that, oh not that, oh okaywhen I say like but it's at the
street level.
Right, I was gonna say we hadto tie something into the street
.
We didn't know where thestreets, uh sewage line was yeah
(21:34):
, that's.
Bryant Dixon (21:35):
That's a different type of that's one of those
infrastructure maps that we havein the office got it okay shows
your gas, water and sewer linesyeah, we have we have maps for
that in the office too, but uh,all of those aren't available
for the, for the public got itso I also hit a gas line a
couple weeks ago, and jen madeit public that I was um shame
that I did that I mean, it'sgood content, I don't know.
Mike Gennaro (21:57):
I just you know what serious props, though, to
the fire department.
They, they were here, it seemedlike in less than 10 minutes,
even though they were across thestreet.
I was expecting some level ofred tape to all of that, and
it's just like 9-1-1, firedepartment, boom, they were here
, they're quick.
Yeah, it was awesome.
I mean I hit this line with ashovel and it made a noise,
(22:22):
noise and there was that smellthat they add to the gas and all
that and I was just likewatching the dollars float into
the mist.
Bryant Dixon (22:28):
But you know I always say they're number one
for a reason.
I love our fire department.
Mike Gennaro (22:32):
Yeah, yeah yeah, what, what's the joke?
Bryant Dixon (22:36):
there, is that a joke?
There is no joke?
Mike Gennaro (22:38):
oh okay, I love our fire oh, I thought you're
making a joke about like, aren'tthey class one?
Bryant Dixon (22:43):
Yeah, they are class one.
They're one for a reasonthey're quick.
Mike Gennaro (22:47):
No, we don't joke around about that.
Bryant Dixon (22:49):
I was like no, we need them.
Mike Gennaro (22:53):
They saved me.
When I first got here toZachary as well, I had a.
I was having family over and Iwanted to impress them with a
country fire pit.
Bryant Dixon (23:04):
I thought you were going to say you were frying a
turkey.
Mike Gennaro (23:06):
No, no, no.
It wasn't a turkey-relatedaccident.
I've never had one of those,thank goodness.
I was living over in the plainsand my family was coming over
from Metairie in New Orleans.
I was like I'm going to showthem how we can have a nice fire
out here, so I lit the littlefire.
Know how we can have a nicefire out here?
And so I lit the little fire.
It was actually some a lot ofpecan sticks and stuff into a
(23:27):
small bonfire okay, unregulatedwindy day, you know, total
novice error.
And that sucker.
The wind started kicking up andit blew into the grass and
before we know it, one acre wason fire, two acres.
Coming towards the house, I waswatching my kids toys get
burned up in the lawn like likethomas the tank engine.
You know, like I have a pictureof percy the the little engine.
(23:50):
He yeah, he's just likecompletely lit on fire, and it
was in the aftermath of the firedepartment got there just in
time when this fire was about 20feet away from my house,
because, you know, think about agrass fire, that's what it was,
yeah, and it just spreads inall directions and I'm like I'm
catching a whole neighborhood onfire.
(24:11):
What?
am I supposed to do.
Yeah, but the neighbors, um,they were calmly sitting there
with a broom sweeping the fireso that it wouldn't go to their
house.
I was like, wow, they're reallycalm right now.
And the fire department cameout with broomsticks of all
things and they swept it andcontained it and they had water
on four-wheelers.
(24:32):
They deployed four-wheelers outthere and contained everything
and it was just like, yeah, nobig deal, see you later.
And I was.
I don't.
Until you experience a fire ofthat magnitude personally and
you're not prepared for it, allI was doing was like running to
the house and then back, like Ijust kept running everywhere.
(24:53):
I was completely out of breathfrom running trying to find
water.
Like, oh, here's a Kirklandpurified water.
Let's just stop it.
Stop a one square foot area ofit, just anything.
Bryant Dixon (25:05):
See, that's why they're number one.
Mike Gennaro (25:07):
It is See, gotta love fire department yeah and
always have a hose available ifyou light something on fire,
that could have contained itright there if I just had a hose
.
Bryant Dixon (25:17):
Was this summertime.
Mike Gennaro (25:19):
The grass was brown.
I think it was in like October.
Okay yeah, windy um.
The grass was brown.
I think it was in in likeoctober.
Okay yeah, windy, cool, dry.
Not a good idea, yeah.
So anyway, um, that was a hugedigression, but hey, it might
have saved somebody you havegreat stories.
Bryant Dixon (25:35):
That that's what that means.
Mike Gennaro (25:36):
You just have really good stories I have so
many stories of things that Iactually accidentally did um
without thinking.
You know they were not likecool stories, like I did this on
purpose and it was cool see, Ialways say no matter what
happens after you finish, youhave a story to tell you're
right you have a story withenough time and money, you can
(25:57):
get out of almost anything but afire and if you have enough
money, apparently you can getout of a fire too I don't know
oh so, um, I was like that maybe an off-air conversation,
because I remember they weresaying some stuff about hawaii
yeah, we're having oh yeah thatwas people were hiring like yeah
, their own private uh wateremergency facilities to come
(26:21):
through and put waters out onpeople's properties, yeah.
Well, I mean, you know it, itdoes speak to an economic factor
as well, of um of development.
I mean with, if you look onsome of our maps this is where
I'm going, I'll get therequickly Uh, you know, you look
at what's developing, what's not, and you see that some of the
new um poverty is being in injust a consistent state of.
(26:46):
Are we going to flood, right,like our, our?
Our wetlands areas don'tdevelop and you can see a lot of
that on the east mount pleasantarea.
Um, like, that's why it's.
It's always this green space.
It's almost like a swamp overthere, right, yeah, but uh, yeah
, so I mean, high and dry is theway to go into the future, and
the better you're able to buyhigh and dry, that that is a
(27:09):
factor and I'm really happy tolike.
Bryant Dixon (27:12):
I think zachary is literally like sitting in like
one of the best places becausewe are so close to baton rouge,
but yet at the same time, we'realso a little bit higher than
baton rouge at the same time, uh, and then we're also getting a
diversion canal project, whichis really going to help us out
too, when it comes to likestrong water management it's
just a large French drain,that's all it is.
Mike Gennaro (27:33):
No.
Bryant Dixon (27:34):
Yeah, uh, and I I know that, like, once that
project is completed, it'sreally going to help us out a
lot and know, like a lot ofpeople well, I know I get a lot
of comments about the flood of2016 yeah and I know a lot of
people are still kind of likeweary, of like raining rain now
and how much are we going to getuh?
so I I really hope that this,that this uh platform is a way
(27:56):
for them, or the flood factfinder yeah it's a great way to
kind of like ease some of thosethose tensions sure or ease
their minds about potentialflooding in the future, because
we are actively working as acity, as a parish and as a state
to like kind of remedy a lot ofthe flooding issues that we
have had in the past yeah beingproactive instead of reactive,
oh I I couldn't uh agree morefully that that's the way to go
(28:20):
my goodness yeah, I actuallysold a property after the the
flood of 2016 that hadn'tflooded since the flood of 1983.
here I think it was 83.
Yeah, it was Okay.
Mike Gennaro (28:32):
And yeah, I I probably could have gone a long
time with that property.
It was a beautiful littleproperty on frontage, but I just
kind of got spooked from it.
Bryant Dixon (28:41):
So, um, yeah, it's good not to flood, it is
amazing not not to flood.
Mike Gennaro (28:47):
but yeah that, that was a real newbie error
that I, you know, I I didn'teven ask if it flooded when I
bought it because I I thought itwas such a no-brainer.
Yeah that, wow, this is abeautiful piece of property,
it's cheap, it's by amenities.
Why not buy it?
And you know, had I known more?
So, all this stuff, the themore information out there that
we can access quickly withoutspending money for due diligence
(29:10):
, it's a huge benefit toeverybody.
So, yes, um, yeah, I mean, isthere anything else that you
would like to talk about today?
We, we did a good job ofstaying pretty much on topic,
except for my little sidestories, but is there anything
on your mind?
Bryant Dixon (29:26):
I wouldn't say necessarily on my mind.
I do just want to remindeverybody that Zachary is open
for business.
We are looking for businessesto come here.
Mike Gennaro (29:34):
The franchises y'all were talking about.
Bryant Dixon (29:37):
Yeah, our economic development director, Ashley
McHugh, is doing a great job.
Mike Gennaro (29:41):
She's killing it.
She's great, she's killing it.
Bryant Dixon (29:42):
She's great, she's killing it, she's doing her
like she's working really,really hard.
Mike Gennaro (29:46):
Yes.
Bryant Dixon (29:47):
And I feel so bad for her sometimes the amount of
phone calls that she gets or shehas to make on a regular basis.
Mike Gennaro (29:53):
She's doing a lot of push marketing for Zachary,
like getting out there andputting the word out.
Bryant Dixon (30:04):
Yeah because a lot of people like don't understand
, like what it takes to get abusiness or to bring a business
here.
Sometimes, and especially withthose like bigger names, when
you're looking at numbers, andwhat we're doing, uh, daytime
numbers, nighttime numbers,traffic counts.
Uh, yeah, like it's, it can getup there.
So I like tip my hat to her forthe work that she'd be a great
commercial agent, but there'd bea huge conflict of interest.
Mike Gennaro (30:27):
She's doing a lot of the heavy lifting, though,
for us, so it's like when she'sgoing to ICSC and talking to
these big commercial businessesthat want to come in and occupy
property, develop here,redevelop here, half of the job
has already been done.
So I come in and just you know,there's always there's that
(30:49):
background that we already have,thanks to her, you, everything,
you know.
The, the mayor has, I think,done an excellent job of being,
of just stating that we are openfor business, we are a
business-friendly town.
We're not trying to runeverybody off and only have
local, which is great.
Bryant Dixon (31:10):
I love local but it's a mix.
Support your local businesses.
Mike Gennaro (31:13):
Yes yes, I'm a local business.
Right, we're local businesses.
Shop local Shop, local Totally.
But there can be certain thingsthat you you end up running off
certain amenities that do makezachary a valuable player in the
market and a great place tolive, you know I had one
developer actually talked to meone time.
Bryant Dixon (31:34):
He was like just presenting or looking at a piece
of property and like askingwhat could be done there.
Yeah and uh, he was like youknow, I just really like zachary
because you know, if you're notgrowing, you're dying yeah, and
I was like you know, that's agood way of like looking at it.
He said you know, as long asyour city's growing, that means
people are interested in beinghere.
People want to be here yeah andthat just kind of made me
(31:54):
excited to know like we're in2010 we were roughly like eight
to ten thousand people.
Now we've doubled in size.
We're probably going to haveanother like 10,000 people in
the next five to 10 years withthe growth that we're getting
and I can hear those phonesringing in the background to
city hall.
Mike Gennaro (32:13):
What, what we're getting out of here?
It just got too big mentallyyeah.
Bryant Dixon (32:18):
I always say that number, so if this is the first
time hearing it, yes, zachary isgrowing.
We're focusing on smart growth.
We're focusing on making surethat we're developing the city
in a way that is going to bebeneficial in the long run for
everybody that is here.
But we also have to remaincompetitive, and a part of
(32:38):
remaining competitive iscontinuing to grow, and growing
is definitely what we're goingto need to attract certain
businesses.
Yeah, um, I've I've had acouple people tell me to my face
like you guys are great, I loveyour numbers.
The only thing you're missingis like your daytime numbers are
too small.
Yes, we require bedroomcommunity.
Mike Gennaro (32:58):
Yeah, it's the kiss of death yeah, we require
30 000.
Bryant Dixon (33:01):
We require 30 000 daytime population.
We require 30,000 daytimepopulation.
Mike Gennaro (33:04):
You can't say this enough.
Yes, you can't say Costco, youwant Costco and Target.
If you don't have a daytimepopulation.
All this data is just right outthere.
I mean, even go on DOTD andyou'll see the things that
corporate America is looking at,and so you're not going to get
a total wine or a Costco or aTarget without certain numbers.
(33:27):
So if you like driving 30minutes or even 45 minutes in
traffic, then don't grow.
Bryant Dixon (33:34):
One of the ones.
I had never thought about.
That someone told me because Iwas like I know we have our
median and average householdincomes, or, on paper, all that
stuff is amazing, but they were.
They were like yeah, you guyshave a lot of like rooftops and
we love rooftops, but you needmore multi-family, we need more
density yeah, there's somethingto be said there.
Mike Gennaro (33:55):
I mean, look, I'm, I'm all I'm gonna get in
trouble, but you know what, Idon't really care, because I
think it is a good idea.
I think we need a downtown,classy multi-family development
so that single people andcollege-aged people can live
somewhere in zachary foreverybody, it wouldn't just be
single people.
Bryant Dixon (34:16):
Oh yeah, yeah, probably violated laws.
Mike Gennaro (34:19):
Yes, just an affordable price point downtown
would not mean that, like that,the whole thing's going to hell
in a handbasket.
Bryant Dixon (34:26):
That could be great are you looking or when
you say that, are you lookingfor something that's more so
like um retail on the bottom,apartments on the top, kind of
like they have at americana?
Mike Gennaro (34:37):
yeah, sure that's.
I mean that's a mixed use.
I love that.
I think that would absolutelyfly off the shelves.
It's still spec on the on theretail side, so I could never
promise that that would fly offthe shelves.
But yeah, I think there's atrue need.
I mean, if I just showed up inzachary and I, you know, was
just recently married orwhatever, or widow or anybody, I
(34:58):
need an affordable price point.
I want to live where everythingis going on and, um, I don't
want to have to drive you know,from baton rouge to be able to
enjoy zachary.
Bryant Dixon (35:10):
I wouldn't do that , it's just absurd, and I think
that's like a benefit too, likeyeah we do have areas here.
I know we have a lot ofsubdivisions, but we do have
areas like the plains that arenot as dense, and we do have
areas of the city that could bea lot denser, yeah, which we're
going to be seeing some densitycoming in, like by walmart where
there's afton oaks the townhomedevelopment that's going to be
(35:30):
over there yeah uh, so that'sgoing to be some density added
to the city.
Mike Gennaro (35:34):
That's really going to help us with some
numbers as well and a workingpopulation that can afford to
work for $10 to $15 an hour ifnecessary.
At all these amazing amenitiesthat we all want.
Yeah, I mean.
Bryant Dixon (35:51):
Think about who's going to be working there too,
so we still have to have apopulation of people that's
willing to come in and work ifwe don't have that ourselves.
But I will say I'm so happythat I get to work here in the
city itself because we have somany like great things.
Like I said, people move herefor a number of different
reasons.
I know the school is alwayslike number one reason that
(36:12):
people want to move to Zachary.
Mike Gennaro (36:13):
That got us here yeah.
Bryant Dixon (36:15):
And then you just think about, like all the other
things that we have as far aswhen we're looking at, like you
said said like a bedsidecommunity, we're still small
enough at this point and westill have some spaces in the
city that can still be thatlittle small small town.
Yeah, so have a small town vibe.
But you know, there are alsothings that will give us an
advantage too when we look atwhen we have the commercial
(36:36):
opportunities, when we got tj,maxx and bills and yeah harbor
freight below five, five belowuh, below uh, below five Uh.
But you know, like looking at,like bringing those things in, I
think that that's just reallygreat for us to do and it shows
that we are making progress andI hope that people do see that
we are moving forward.
Mike Gennaro (36:56):
Yeah, yeah, all right.
So if you're listening to allthis and you're just uh
contemplating when, not ifyou're going to call and
complain, to're just uhcontemplating when, not if
you're going to call andcomplain to the city of about
Brian Dixon or Mike Gennaro orwhatever Remember, I don't work
for the city.
I do.
Brian's email is alwaysavailable.
No, I'm just kidding.
No.
Bryant Dixon (37:17):
I was like, you're free to call into my office
anytime.
The number is 225-654-1935.
There you go um, you know.
Yeah, if you have any questions, definitely give me a call.
I'll feel free to ask me um Ilove talking to people.
Mike Gennaro (37:32):
Yeah, it's just.
I think what we're trying tocommunicate here is an openness
to, to growth and openness toideas.
That is the main word.
These are ideas.
Nothing gets done unless youknow the formal process takes
place and all this stuff isvoted upon and you know we wait
years and years for thedevelopment to happen.
(37:52):
So if you're thinking about acostco in 15 years and let's
start planning to be that citynow, you know you don't want
costco.
Don't have a Costco.
Bryant Dixon (38:02):
And wrapping around that, we're talking about
growth.
And with all this growth.
We want to make sure that we'rewatching out for how we're
developing this growth, and onething that we can do one benefit
of that is going to be ourflood fact finder.
Mike Gennaro (38:14):
Yeah, you don't want this water sloshing around
every place on all this concretewe just put down.
Bryant Dixon (38:18):
Yeah, we don't want to build one neighborhood
to flood another neighborhood,so we always need to be
conscious of what we'redeveloping, when we're
developing it and where we'repushing this water off to, and
so the Flood Fact Finder isgoing to be a really good
resource for people living inthe city to actually pull up
some flood information on theirproperty or some other things in
the city.
And, like I said, it's not justfor residential, it's also for
(38:38):
commercial businesses too, soit's marketed to everybody, so
this is a benefit to a lot ofpeople.
Mike Gennaro (38:44):
Yeah, awesome.
And if you're thinking aboutjust doing a trench in your yard
or just bringing in tons ofdirt to increase your elevation,
don't do that.
Bryant Dixon (38:52):
Don't do that.
Please contact us before you doany of that.
Please contact us before you doany of that All right, please,
we'll leave on that.
Mike Gennaro (39:02):
That's it for this week's episode of Portion
Parish, the podcast with BryantDixon.
It's been a pleasure to haveyou here today and I hope you
know you're always welcome backanytime.
And look, if you don't get thatnow, we've had you on like
three or four times and it'salways because you have the
cutting edge information that wereally need to know.
Get out there and, yeah, you do.
Um, you and ashley, all y'allmy gold star guests hit them up
(39:27):
at bryantdixon, atcityofzacharyorg.
That's b-r-y-a-n-t dotd-i-x-o-n.
At cityofzacharyorg.
Huge shout out to our communitypartners, like the city of
zachary, who stand with us inour mission to make Zachary a
place where every resident feelsheard and engaged.
That's every resident, everyone, no exceptions, thanks to the
(39:50):
generosity and support of ourcommunity partners the magazine,
podcast and everything you seeonline which is possible and
free because of them, to learnmore about Flood Fact Finder
where would they go?
Bryant Dixon (40:01):
To learn more about Flood Fact Finder, you can
they go.
To learn more about Flood FactFinder, you can go to the City
of Zachary's website.
It's going to be located in twodifferent sections.
It'll be located in the FloodPlane Management section, as
well as in Planning and Zoning,under the name Flood Fact Finder
, and there's also a little linkunderneath the Flood Fact
Finder section that allows youto read a little bit about what
it is, how to use it, and you'rewelcome to call us if you have
(40:24):
any questions about it or youneed any additional information.
Yeah, and I want to say thanks,mike, for inviting me back.
Yeah, it's always a pleasure.
Mike Gennaro (40:31):
Yeah, awesome man, all right, y'all go pick up
trash.
When you see it, Fostertechnology at any expense and
embrace an attitude of tolerancefor diverse voices.
You know tolerance for diversevoices.
You know they are the creativeengines that will drive the
success of this economy forward.
Uh, you know you don't want todo any of that.
Just go plant a tree, get apermit to do it, though take
care, exactly beautiful yeah, ohyeah, you're wearing the love
(40:54):
the boot.
Bryant Dixon (40:55):
Keep louisiana beautiful today, yeah, we did,
picking up some trash.
Mike Gennaro (40:58):
We did a cleanup today yeah, you got to get
credit for that man.
See y'all next time.
Hello, I'm Brian Dixon and you're listening to
Porch and Parish, the podcast.
Mike Gennaro (00:09):
What's up, zachary ?
We're back with one of ourfavorite guests today, and he's
making important decisions forthe city of Zachary every day,
collaboratively, of course, notunilaterally.
Unilaterally.
Zachary City Planning andZoning Director, bryant Dixon,
is in the booth today to explainan important announcement about
a new tool for Zacharyresidents to quickly determine
(00:31):
their floodplain and gain accessto elevation certificates for
free, just like this podcast,thanks to our sponsors.
Hopefully, that means no morewaiting around for weeks for
someone to tell you theseimportant facts about a property
and you know what, if I'm wrongabout any of that, bryant for
someone to tell you theseimportant facts about a property
, and you know what, if I'mwrong about any of that, brian's
going to tell us all about it.
I'm Mike G, publisher of Porchand Parish.
(00:51):
We bring you the best ofZachary and the Development
North region through CandyConversations every Monday from
our headquarters right here onVirginia Street in downtown
Zachary.
Bryant Dixon (01:02):
This is.
Mike Gennaro (01:03):
Porch and Parish the podcast.
All right, we're going to jumpinto the lightning round.
You know I quit giving peoplelightning round questions to
make this more fun, so I gotthree questions for you.
Number one please dispel onemyth that is going around,
zachary.
Bryant Dixon (01:20):
I hear so many things every day that I'm like
where did this come from, whomade this up and how did this
rumor get started?
Oh man, that's crazy.
I'll take one, okay.
Mike Gennaro (01:30):
And hopefully it's not the one you're thinking
about.
So there is a myth.
It might be true, I don't know,but I think it's a myth that
there is a cougar, a mountainlion, that actually patrols the
parking lot over at rouses.
Did you ever hear that one?
Bryant Dixon (01:51):
I have not heard that one yet we even called out
to it.
Mike Gennaro (01:53):
We did it.
We did a uh tell all articledispelling the myth of the the
rouses panther, or whatever yeah, no, I haven't heard that one
yet.
Bryant Dixon (02:02):
Where did that come from some?
Mike Gennaro (02:03):
people don't shop at rouse's because they think
they're gonna get attacked by acougar.
I swear you?
Bryant Dixon (02:09):
yeah, they could have won dixie.
Mike Gennaro (02:11):
This came up in rants and raves before oh see, I
don't have social media that'sgood.
That's why you're, you know,such a peaceful guy it keeps my
mind free and clear.
Bryant Dixon (02:20):
Uh, I'm not.
I never get too distracted onlike what's going on in the
world or what people think aboutme.
Mike Gennaro (02:25):
Possibly so that also gives me a chance to you
know look at, look at one of ourold covers, uh, the illustrated
one of the city of zachary, andthere's a little panther um
holding a rouse's sign that'swhy we did that because I keep
calling it a panther.
Bryant Dixon (02:40):
It's a cougar.
Yeah, all right.
Should I be concerned now?
Mike Gennaro (02:46):
No, 90%.
Sure there's not a cougar.
(03:31):
Please explain one term youthink we should all know about
planning and zoning.
Bryant Dixon (03:37):
Man, these are really good questions, mike.
You got me thinking.
Today I say a lot of things ona regular, on a regular basis,
that I never truly think about,like how people understand them,
because I'm used to speaking toplanners to a certain degree,
or like engineers in certainterms.
um, I would say infrastructureis a word that we throw around a
(03:57):
lot, yeah, and it can mean alot of different things
depending on who you're talkingto.
So, um, infrastructure in insome capacities could be like
your roads, or infrastructurecould also be your drainage,
your sewer lines, your powerlines, so putting in different
infrastructure in differentplaces.
So infrastructure can have avaried number of meetings
(04:19):
depending on who you're speakingwith and depending on the
context in which you're using it.
So I would say infrastructureis probably one of the words I
use the most, talking to bothprofessionals and lay people,
and sometimes I have to go backand break that down and say,
well, this is a specific type ofinfrastructure that I'm talking
about because it encompasses somuch.
Mike Gennaro (04:40):
altogether, Right, right, okay, awesome, and I
could stay on that one, like wecould just have a definition day
, and that's a podcast by itself.
Yeah, it really is all right.
This one's gonna be the hardestone where it might be easy.
Please tell us one funny storythat happened in the course of
daily business.
Bryant Dixon (04:59):
Bonus points if it involves scott masterson, city
inspector well, I think I'vesaid this before, but if scott
were not the uh, the city'sofficial building official, uh,
I'm pretty sure scott's jobwould be a comedian.
Um, and on some days when wehave like a little lax time, at
the end of the day we'll likesit down and just kind of like
(05:20):
debrief about things that arehappening.
And he loves to tell jokes,yeah, and he loves his, his
knock knock jokes or quote,unquote his dad jokes that he
will tell.
Actually, right before I leftthe office, he, he pulled
another one out of the, out ofthe box that I was not quite
expecting.
Uh, um, I would say, like itwas the one day he did the
(05:44):
because joke and I can't thinkabout how it goes right now.
Mike Gennaro (05:48):
Okay, yeah.
Bryant Dixon (05:49):
It had something to do with the chicken and it
was.
I remember.
Mike Gennaro (05:53):
Yeah, like maybe why did the chicken cross the
road?
Bryant Dixon (05:57):
Because I don't know that would make sense.
Mike Gennaro (05:59):
And it's not funny All right, he has his moments.
Bryant Dixon (06:04):
I love Scott Scott's amazing.
Mike Gennaro (06:06):
All right, look, you did great.
Let's move on to the seriousstuff.
So we've got the Flood FactFinder tool.
Is that what it's called?
Bryant Dixon (06:13):
Yes, the Flood Fact Finder.
Mike Gennaro (06:16):
So what motivated the city of Zachary to introduce
the Flood Fact Finder tool toits residents?
Bryant Dixon (06:21):
Okay, so my background.
Previously, before I got here,I actually worked with the city
of New Orleans.
Well, specifically, I workedwith the Sewage and Water Board.
And my job there?
I worked in a department calledEnvironmental Affairs.
Mike Gennaro (06:36):
Pulling Mardi Gras beads out of the sewer all day.
Basically, yes, yes, yes.
Bryant Dixon (06:40):
I work with people that did that on a regular
basis, and it's tons of them.
I just want people to know thatit is tons of beads yeah that
make their way into thosedrainage pipes.
Wow, it's crazy, yeah, um.
But one of the jobs I used to dowas work with green
infrastructure and, um, kind oflike storm water management and
(07:00):
like where water would go, whatwater is moving, how's water is
moving, yeah, where water issettling in the ways that we can
naturally find ways to to dealwith stormwater during rain
events.
So that's kind of where mybackground was.
Because of that, some of theemails I still get as we're
working here in Zachary, peoplesend me all the time just
(07:21):
talking about, like stormwaterconferences or drainage
conferences, or do you want toapply for this program?
Do you want to come getcertified in this?
So one day I did receive anemail, uh, from a company called
forerunner and they have aweb-based program that allows
you to uh get things for, like,uh, flood risk, personalized
flood risk or elevationcertificates, which pretty much
(07:45):
everyone needs in the city tobuild anything.
Yeah, um.
And so I actually really paidattention to that email.
It was really catchy, um.
I read through it and I waslike well, you know, zachary, I
working with scott.
I get to see people that comein and ask for like flood
certificates all the time sayyou want to put a trailer
somewhere, for instance.
Mike Gennaro (08:03):
Uh, how you ever think about this Like, how high
are you going to put that oncinder blocks?
Bryant Dixon (08:08):
How do you actually have to build Like how
far, what flood zone are yougoing to need?
Flood zone X, A, E, Uh, so it'sX is the good one.
X is the good one.
Uh, so hearing thoseconversations and kind of having
to have those conversationswith people all the time, when
this email popped up, it caughtmy eye and I was like, well,
this seems like a pretty neatsoftware.
(08:29):
So I did some research, uh,looked at their website, went
through and saw some places thatthey work with and was like
kind of interested.
They reached out to me again,yeah, and I was like, well, let
me actually like contact themback and see if I can like talk
with them and see what's goingon with this.
So we set up a meeting and whenthey told me that they were
working with jefferson parish, Iwas like, oh wow, like
(08:52):
jefferson parish is really goodwith their flood, with their
floodplain management yeahthey've got to be huh, they have
to be, and so I was like, ifjefferson parish is looking and
doing this, like I really doneed to pay attention because
there's some real benefits tothis.
And then I also deal with a lotof our floodplain management
issues in the city as well.
I'm not the floodplain manager,I would say I'm more like a
(09:14):
floodplain coordinator.
So we work with our floodplainmanager I'm the in-office
contact but we do have someonethat we will send some
specialized information to if weneed to get something
officially signed.
Mike Gennaro (09:25):
Y'all outsourced that one.
Bryant Dixon (09:26):
Yes, so we have.
His name is Jim Ferguson.
He's our official consultantfloodplain manager.
Okay, I'm not certified as acertified floodplain manager.
Yeah, you have to be to docertain things and he is so in
(09:47):
office I handle things to acertain point and then he
handles things once they get toa point where I can't handle
them anymore.
Uh, so me and jim were kind oflike talking about it.
We went over it and it seemedlike a really good idea, uh, and
I thought that it would begreat to get a software that we
can use internally to help ustrack some things that we were
doing yeah kind of be a base forresidents to be able to go and
find some information on theirown, as well as be a resource
for businesses that were lookingto move to the city.
Uh, because we get calls fromthem all the time just asking
(10:09):
general questions.
Yeah, um, and so I was likethis would be a great
opportunity, and on top of that,I also deal with the community
rating system, which we arecurrently in the process of
renewal.
At this point, and for thosethat don't know, you often hear
me say CRS, but the communityrating system allows us to, as a
(10:31):
city, submit in certaindocuments yearly about all the
things that we're building, allthe floodplain ordinances that
we have, the procedures that wedo in office.
We have to submit, sign off andsubmit all that stuff into FEMA
and DEQ every year.
Once we meet a certain standard, you're able to apply for these
programs and it gives us adiscount on our national flood
(10:54):
insurance program.
It gives us a discount basedupon our rating on.
It can go from like 5, 10, 15,20, 25% on your actual flood
insurance.
Mike Gennaro (11:02):
Yeah.
Bryant Dixon (11:03):
So the more strenuous, I would say, our
standards are and the morethings we're doing to actually
advertise for our floodplainmanagement awareness, we're
actually getting credit for that, and that credit can allow us
to basically get lower insurancerates.
Mike Gennaro (11:17):
So this tool could actually help us to make a
higher grade for lack of abetter term.
Yes, this tool is going to beessential, I would say, in
actually help us to make ahigher grade for lack of a
better term.
Bryant Dixon (11:22):
Yes, this tool is going to be essential, I would
say, in definitely getting us togo up at least a point or two.
Mike Gennaro (11:27):
Credit rating yeah , like a credit rating.
Bryant Dixon (11:30):
So the way it's scored is 10 is the lowest.
Well, first you have to beaccepted into the program.
The program is going from 10 to1.
1 is the best.
Zachary is currently now at an8.
It is, it's the best um zacharyis currently now at an eight.
Uh, it is my plan, my goal andmy dream.
That ain't too good.
Mike Gennaro (11:47):
No, it is really good because there's some wait,
what there are some cities thatare not even in the program at
all okay, okay so step one, wegot accepted into the okay.
Bryant Dixon (11:54):
Okay, this is new, we just got accepted yeah well,
we've been in this program, Iwant to say for about eight or
ten years.
Okay, another eight another.
Mike Gennaro (12:05):
Dig yourself out of this hole.
Bryant Dixon (12:06):
Brian's no we've been in the program for a while
now, but, uh, one of the my, oneof the things that I really do,
we want to do is get us up toat least a six and it's just
like the standards are.
I think it'll be a good standardfor us to have and when I say
that and the reason I'm notsaying oh, I want to shoot this
up to a one Like right now wehave a base flood elevation,
(12:27):
which is where we havedocumented that that is the
lowest point that you can buildwithout flooding.
One of the requirements to bein that program is to have a
higher standard.
So, if you're buildingsomething in Zachary, you have
to build at least one foot abovebase flood elevation I've heard
that before.
Mike Gennaro (12:44):
Yeah, so this can be sometimes problematic when
you have a neighbor who was kindof built prior to this rule.
Right, yes, we get ourneighbors building up one foot
higher than us and that's notfun.
Yes, but there are ways, sowith that we have a.
Bryant Dixon (13:04):
We have a net zero .
We have a net zero procedurethat we have to follow as well
and that's put in place.
That says basically, whatever'sbeing built on a property, you
have to maintain all of your ownstormwater so you're not in.
Like when Scott goes out anddoes his inspections, that's one
thing that he looks at is tomake sure that you're building
swells and ditches, to make surethat you're holding and
(13:25):
maintaining your stormwater onyour property.
Mike Gennaro (13:27):
Yeah.
And it's not being displacedonto other people's property
because that would be Basicallylike a gutter on your property
that goes below your one footheight.
Bryant Dixon (13:37):
Yeah, we include those swells or ditches on
properties to make sure that thewater is not only being
maintained on your individualproperty but you're not
displacing on somebody else'sproperty and also it's making it
safely from your property tosome type of like drainage way.
So that's one thing.
But to go up higher would meanto get a higher number.
In some places you may want tohave like a two foot or three
(14:03):
foot above base level, which youknow, maybe a little, a lot for
some people is that allowed?
Mike Gennaro (14:07):
it?
Can somebody just go crazy andbuild um like a castle up in the
sky, as long as they have adeep enough swale, or you know
that anything is possible.
Bryant Dixon (14:17):
Okay, if you meet the right requirements, anything
is possible.
Love that.
Mike Gennaro (14:22):
You've used that before, I'm sure.
Bryant Dixon (14:25):
I get some interesting questions, so I'll
probably have said that to a fewpeople.
Mike Gennaro (14:28):
My favorite one is always with enough time or
money, you can do anything youwant to.
I say that to a lot of peoplein my day-to-day.
Bryant Dixon (14:39):
You know, and that is very true, with enough time
and money, yeah, almost anything, yeah so it is not untrue.
Mike Gennaro (14:48):
Um, all right, all right.
Um, so we've got the benefitsof this thing.
Um, I mean, I've got one morefollow-up.
Okay, what is jeffersonparish's grade?
Bryant Dixon (14:59):
uh, I'm not sure right now.
I haven't looked it up in awhile.
Mike Gennaro (15:01):
Um, but the reason I working in new orleans, and
then being right next tojefferson, parish, we yeah it's
like they always get like theseamazing products and these
amazing things like incorporatethat, incorporates metairie and
some of grand isle right, and soI mean they're just like
inundated constantly with that.
They have a need to be good.
Bryant Dixon (15:23):
They have a real need because I think they get
like over 62 inches, or onaverage, 62 inches a year.
Mike Gennaro (15:29):
That's where I grew up.
It's like if you don't see acanal, you're not looking,
you're not living right.
Yeah, canals everywhere.
Bryant Dixon (15:37):
So I like working in New Orleans and then looking
at them.
There are some things that wewould as with Sewage and Water
Board at the time, we would kindof like look and work with them
on certain projects and thenjust knowing, like the efforts
they put into getting products,the effort they put into making
sure that their residents aresafe and all of these other
things that they work on, theywere.
(15:57):
They're just a really goodmodel for things that we can do
to move forward within the stateof Louisiana, specifically
looking at floodplain managementregulations.
So when I knew that they wereworking with them, that was what
really caught my eye and I waslike, oh, this is good.
They were, I think, the firstto adopt or start using
Forerunner, which is thesoftware and that's just free to
(16:19):
everyone now.
Mike Gennaro (16:20):
Yes, and now it's free to everyone yeah, um, and
that's just free to everyone.
Now, yes, and now it's free toeveryone.
So you know, um, before this Ihaven't gone to use the software
.
I need to, but I would go ifsomebody had a question about a
piece of property or whatever,like, all right, you know where
are we on the floodplain?
I think I could usually answerthat using lsu flood maps, but
it's not.
It's not an elevationcertificate, it's just, uh, you
(16:40):
know what, this elevationcertificate?
It's just a you know what.
This is probably what you got.
That's nothing you can take tothe bank.
Bryant Dixon (16:46):
Yeah, that's the most of the software that you'll
see that you can use for free.
It's just very base level.
It'll show you like if yourhouse is in a flood zone to
maybe see what flood zone thehouse is in.
But when it comes to building,there needs to be a little bit
more concrete work done.
Mike Gennaro (16:59):
Yeah, absolutely so, to be a little bit more
concrete work.
Bryant Dixon (17:01):
Yeah, absolutely, uh.
So that's when you have to getinto hiring an engineer or
someone our surveyor to come outand survey the property, to get
your exact elevation, soexactly where you are, where the
house is going to be, and thenwhere that elevation is for the
house to put you at least atyour base and then what that one
foot area would be.
Um, not to toot my own horn,but when I first first got here,
we were kind of still usingsome.
(17:22):
We were still using paper mapsfor zoning.
So one of my first major changeswas to get a GIS system for
like the zoning stuff.
Mike Gennaro (17:30):
Oh, it's been great.
Bryant Dixon (17:31):
But in doing that there are layers that you can
add on there.
So I actually added a floodzone layer so you can actually
go on our zoning map and clickon the layer and it'll show you
like if your property itself isin a flood zone area zoning map
and click on the layer and it'llshow you like if your property
itself is in the flood zone area.
Yeah, it doesn't give you theexact height or the specifics,
but it'll show you like thisarea of the city is in the flood
zone.
This area is not, yes, and sothat was one of the things I did
, and this is kind of like anext step forward, and now
(17:54):
you're able to go to another appthat we have on the website, um
, and you can now seespecifically like what's been
done.
It allows you to pull up, uh,any fema documents that have
been submitted in for your house.
Mike Gennaro (18:07):
What about um, like flood delineation and
determination certificates?
That's one that holds up peoplefor months.
On development, yes, is thatnow just available, or so?
Bryant Dixon (18:18):
we, we're kind of limited at this point because we
were only able to put into thesystem per properties that we've
had in office and that havebeen submitted in yeah we did
lose a lot of documents and aflooding event that we had here
one time.
So oddly enough yeah yeah, so,uh, this is like a great way for
us to back it up on a digitalplatform and so while you can go
to a property and see if thereare documents available, those
(18:41):
documents are still private andyou would have to specifically
request them for the property.
Mike Gennaro (18:45):
Okay.
Bryant Dixon (18:45):
But we were able to kind of like go in and add in
um proposed flood elevationcertificates, the official flood
elevation certificates, andwe're working on now adding in
some of the more advanced FEMAdocuments for like things for
claims that people make on theirproperties and so when we get
all of that information and wecan add them in to properties to
(19:06):
see where they are, what hasbeen done, and so for your
current home, or maybe someonemoving in the future, you can
see what has been done to thehouse, if there have been any
renovations or changes that weredone, based upon commercial, to
write commercial as well.
This isn't just limited toresidential.
This is for everybody, yeah,but it's going to be a
(19:26):
constantly moving and evolvingproduct.
Uh, based upon the moreinformation we have, the more
information we can put in andthe better it would be for for
residents.
Mike Gennaro (19:34):
Yeah that's awesome.
Um, just another little headsup.
Um, you know, I'm actually abig fan of what the assessor has
been doing too.
Um that, that, um, if you go toEast Baton Rouge assessor, you
can find all these these digitalmaps that are, you know,
helpful in other ways, Like ifyou want to know what the sale
price was on a piece of propertythey've got.
(19:54):
They've gotten most of that onthe assessor's website.
So this is just anotherincredible tool to do your due
diligence on.
If you're trying to develop, ifyou're getting mad at somebody
somewhere out there because it'staking too long, like now we've
got the tools yes, yes, andit's free.
I'm sure you pay somehow yourtax dollars, but yeah, nothing's
(20:16):
really free and it's free yeah.
All right, okay, so apparentlythere was a demonstration at the
city council meeting.
Yes, yes, so what were some keyfeatures highlighted about the
flood fact finder then thatmaybe we didn't cover just yet?
Bryant Dixon (20:34):
Okay, so at the council meeting I just wanted to
kind of give a brief overviewof what the program was, what it
kind of of looked like and howeasy it was to maneuver.
So, on the website itself, Ijust showed you where it was
located.
We have it in two specificlocations I have it under
floodplain management and I alsohave it under planning and
zoning.
Yeah, uh, under there is goingto be located under the name
(20:55):
flood fact finder um and we alsohave a location where you can
request your base floodelevations where you can request
information.
You can see specificinformation about drainage
systems throughout the citywhere they're located.
Mike Gennaro (21:12):
No way Wait.
So if I want to know I just hadthis come up this week we want
to put in a new plumbing line onthe property for a grease trap,
right?
Not that, oh not that, oh okaywhen I say like but it's at the
street level.
Right, I was gonna say we hadto tie something into the street
.
We didn't know where thestreets, uh sewage line was yeah
(21:34):
, that's.
Bryant Dixon (21:35):
That's a different type of that's one of those
infrastructure maps that we havein the office got it okay shows
your gas, water and sewer linesyeah, we have we have maps for
that in the office too, but uh,all of those aren't available
for the, for the public got itso I also hit a gas line a
couple weeks ago, and jen madeit public that I was um shame
that I did that I mean, it'sgood content, I don't know.
Mike Gennaro (21:57):
I just you know what serious props, though, to
the fire department.
They, they were here, it seemedlike in less than 10 minutes,
even though they were across thestreet.
I was expecting some level ofred tape to all of that, and
it's just like 9-1-1, firedepartment, boom, they were here
, they're quick.
Yeah, it was awesome.
I mean I hit this line with ashovel and it made a noise,
(22:22):
noise and there was that smellthat they add to the gas and all
that and I was just likewatching the dollars float into
the mist.
Bryant Dixon (22:28):
But you know I always say they're number one
for a reason.
I love our fire department.
Mike Gennaro (22:32):
Yeah, yeah yeah, what, what's the joke?
Bryant Dixon (22:36):
there, is that a joke?
There is no joke?
Mike Gennaro (22:38):
oh okay, I love our fire oh, I thought you're
making a joke about like, aren'tthey class one?
Bryant Dixon (22:43):
Yeah, they are class one.
They're one for a reasonthey're quick.
Mike Gennaro (22:47):
No, we don't joke around about that.
Bryant Dixon (22:49):
I was like no, we need them.
Mike Gennaro (22:53):
They saved me.
When I first got here toZachary as well, I had a.
I was having family over and Iwanted to impress them with a
country fire pit.
Bryant Dixon (23:04):
I thought you were going to say you were frying a
turkey.
Mike Gennaro (23:06):
No, no, no.
It wasn't a turkey-relatedaccident.
I've never had one of those,thank goodness.
I was living over in the plainsand my family was coming over
from Metairie in New Orleans.
I was like I'm going to showthem how we can have a nice fire
out here, so I lit the littlefire.
Know how we can have a nicefire out here?
And so I lit the little fire.
It was actually some a lot ofpecan sticks and stuff into a
(23:27):
small bonfire okay, unregulatedwindy day, you know, total
novice error.
And that sucker.
The wind started kicking up andit blew into the grass and
before we know it, one acre wason fire, two acres.
Coming towards the house, I waswatching my kids toys get
burned up in the lawn like likethomas the tank engine.
You know, like I have a pictureof percy the the little engine.
(23:50):
He yeah, he's just likecompletely lit on fire, and it
was in the aftermath of the firedepartment got there just in
time when this fire was about 20feet away from my house,
because, you know, think about agrass fire, that's what it was,
yeah, and it just spreads inall directions and I'm like I'm
catching a whole neighborhood onfire.
(24:11):
What?
am I supposed to do.
Yeah, but the neighbors, um,they were calmly sitting there
with a broom sweeping the fireso that it wouldn't go to their
house.
I was like, wow, they're reallycalm right now.
And the fire department cameout with broomsticks of all
things and they swept it andcontained it and they had water
on four-wheelers.
(24:32):
They deployed four-wheelers outthere and contained everything
and it was just like, yeah, nobig deal, see you later.
And I was.
I don't.
Until you experience a fire ofthat magnitude personally and
you're not prepared for it, allI was doing was like running to
the house and then back, like Ijust kept running everywhere.
(24:53):
I was completely out of breathfrom running trying to find
water.
Like, oh, here's a Kirklandpurified water.
Let's just stop it.
Stop a one square foot area ofit, just anything.
Bryant Dixon (25:05):
See, that's why they're number one.
Mike Gennaro (25:07):
It is See, gotta love fire department yeah and
always have a hose available ifyou light something on fire,
that could have contained itright there if I just had a hose
.
Bryant Dixon (25:17):
Was this summertime.
Mike Gennaro (25:19):
The grass was brown.
I think it was in like October.
Okay yeah, windy um.
The grass was brown.
I think it was in in likeoctober.
Okay yeah, windy, cool, dry.
Not a good idea, yeah.
So anyway, um, that was a hugedigression, but hey, it might
have saved somebody you havegreat stories.
Bryant Dixon (25:35):
That that's what that means.
Mike Gennaro (25:36):
You just have really good stories I have so
many stories of things that Iactually accidentally did um
without thinking.
You know they were not likecool stories, like I did this on
purpose and it was cool see, Ialways say no matter what
happens after you finish, youhave a story to tell you're
right you have a story withenough time and money, you can
(25:57):
get out of almost anything but afire and if you have enough
money, apparently you can getout of a fire too I don't know
oh so, um, I was like that maybe an off-air conversation,
because I remember they weresaying some stuff about hawaii
yeah, we're having oh yeah thatwas people were hiring like yeah
, their own private uh wateremergency facilities to come
(26:21):
through and put waters out onpeople's properties, yeah.
Well, I mean, you know it, itdoes speak to an economic factor
as well, of um of development.
I mean with, if you look onsome of our maps this is where
I'm going, I'll get therequickly Uh, you know, you look
at what's developing, what's not, and you see that some of the
new um poverty is being in injust a consistent state of.
(26:46):
Are we going to flood, right,like our, our?
Our wetlands areas don'tdevelop and you can see a lot of
that on the east mount pleasantarea.
Um, like, that's why it's.
It's always this green space.
It's almost like a swamp overthere, right, yeah, but uh, yeah
, so I mean, high and dry is theway to go into the future, and
the better you're able to buyhigh and dry, that that is a
(27:09):
factor and I'm really happy tolike.
Bryant Dixon (27:12):
I think zachary is literally like sitting in like
one of the best places becausewe are so close to baton rouge,
but yet at the same time, we'realso a little bit higher than
baton rouge at the same time, uh, and then we're also getting a
diversion canal project, whichis really going to help us out
too, when it comes to likestrong water management it's
just a large French drain,that's all it is.
Mike Gennaro (27:33):
No.
Bryant Dixon (27:34):
Yeah, uh, and I I know that, like, once that
project is completed, it'sreally going to help us out a
lot and know, like a lot ofpeople well, I know I get a lot
of comments about the flood of2016 yeah and I know a lot of
people are still kind of likeweary, of like raining rain now
and how much are we going to getuh?
so I I really hope that this,that this uh platform is a way
(27:56):
for them, or the flood factfinder yeah it's a great way to
kind of like ease some of thosethose tensions sure or ease
their minds about potentialflooding in the future, because
we are actively working as acity, as a parish and as a state
to like kind of remedy a lot ofthe flooding issues that we
have had in the past yeah beingproactive instead of reactive,
oh I I couldn't uh agree morefully that that's the way to go
(28:20):
my goodness yeah, I actuallysold a property after the the
flood of 2016 that hadn'tflooded since the flood of 1983.
here I think it was 83.
Yeah, it was Okay.
Mike Gennaro (28:32):
And yeah, I I probably could have gone a long
time with that property.
It was a beautiful littleproperty on frontage, but I just
kind of got spooked from it.
Bryant Dixon (28:41):
So, um, yeah, it's good not to flood, it is
amazing not not to flood.
Mike Gennaro (28:47):
but yeah that, that was a real newbie error
that I, you know, I I didn'teven ask if it flooded when I
bought it because I I thought itwas such a no-brainer.
Yeah that, wow, this is abeautiful piece of property,
it's cheap, it's by amenities.
Why not buy it?
And you know, had I known more?
So, all this stuff, the themore information out there that
we can access quickly withoutspending money for due diligence
(29:10):
, it's a huge benefit toeverybody.
So, yes, um, yeah, I mean, isthere anything else that you
would like to talk about today?
We, we did a good job ofstaying pretty much on topic,
except for my little sidestories, but is there anything
on your mind?
Bryant Dixon (29:26):
I wouldn't say necessarily on my mind.
I do just want to remindeverybody that Zachary is open
for business.
We are looking for businessesto come here.
Mike Gennaro (29:34):
The franchises y'all were talking about.
Bryant Dixon (29:37):
Yeah, our economic development director, Ashley
McHugh, is doing a great job.
Mike Gennaro (29:41):
She's killing it.
She's great, she's killing it.
Bryant Dixon (29:42):
She's great, she's killing it, she's doing her
like she's working really,really hard.
Mike Gennaro (29:46):
Yes.
Bryant Dixon (29:47):
And I feel so bad for her sometimes the amount of
phone calls that she gets or shehas to make on a regular basis.
Mike Gennaro (29:53):
She's doing a lot of push marketing for Zachary,
like getting out there andputting the word out.
Bryant Dixon (30:04):
Yeah because a lot of people like don't understand
, like what it takes to get abusiness or to bring a business
here.
Sometimes, and especially withthose like bigger names, when
you're looking at numbers, andwhat we're doing, uh, daytime
numbers, nighttime numbers,traffic counts.
Uh, yeah, like it's, it can getup there.
So I like tip my hat to her forthe work that she'd be a great
commercial agent, but there'd bea huge conflict of interest.
Mike Gennaro (30:27):
She's doing a lot of the heavy lifting, though,
for us, so it's like when she'sgoing to ICSC and talking to
these big commercial businessesthat want to come in and occupy
property, develop here,redevelop here, half of the job
has already been done.
So I come in and just you know,there's always there's that
(30:49):
background that we already have,thanks to her, you, everything,
you know.
The, the mayor has, I think,done an excellent job of being,
of just stating that we are openfor business, we are a
business-friendly town.
We're not trying to runeverybody off and only have
local, which is great.
Bryant Dixon (31:10):
I love local but it's a mix.
Support your local businesses.
Mike Gennaro (31:13):
Yes yes, I'm a local business.
Right, we're local businesses.
Shop local Shop, local Totally.
But there can be certain thingsthat you you end up running off
certain amenities that do makezachary a valuable player in the
market and a great place tolive, you know I had one
developer actually talked to meone time.
Bryant Dixon (31:34):
He was like just presenting or looking at a piece
of property and like askingwhat could be done there.
Yeah and uh, he was like youknow, I just really like zachary
because you know, if you're notgrowing, you're dying yeah, and
I was like you know, that's agood way of like looking at it.
He said you know, as long asyour city's growing, that means
people are interested in beinghere.
People want to be here yeah andthat just kind of made me
(31:54):
excited to know like we're in2010 we were roughly like eight
to ten thousand people.
Now we've doubled in size.
We're probably going to haveanother like 10,000 people in
the next five to 10 years withthe growth that we're getting
and I can hear those phonesringing in the background to
city hall.
Mike Gennaro (32:13):
What, what we're getting out of here?
It just got too big mentallyyeah.
Bryant Dixon (32:18):
I always say that number, so if this is the first
time hearing it, yes, zachary isgrowing.
We're focusing on smart growth.
We're focusing on making surethat we're developing the city
in a way that is going to bebeneficial in the long run for
everybody that is here.
But we also have to remaincompetitive, and a part of
(32:38):
remaining competitive iscontinuing to grow, and growing
is definitely what we're goingto need to attract certain
businesses.
Yeah, um, I've I've had acouple people tell me to my face
like you guys are great, I loveyour numbers.
The only thing you're missingis like your daytime numbers are
too small.
Yes, we require bedroomcommunity.
Mike Gennaro (32:58):
Yeah, it's the kiss of death yeah, we require
30 000.
Bryant Dixon (33:01):
We require 30 000 daytime population.
We require 30,000 daytimepopulation.
Mike Gennaro (33:04):
You can't say this enough.
Yes, you can't say Costco, youwant Costco and Target.
If you don't have a daytimepopulation.
All this data is just right outthere.
I mean, even go on DOTD andyou'll see the things that
corporate America is looking at,and so you're not going to get
a total wine or a Costco or aTarget without certain numbers.
(33:27):
So if you like driving 30minutes or even 45 minutes in
traffic, then don't grow.
Bryant Dixon (33:34):
One of the ones.
I had never thought about.
That someone told me because Iwas like I know we have our
median and average householdincomes, or, on paper, all that
stuff is amazing, but they were.
They were like yeah, you guyshave a lot of like rooftops and
we love rooftops, but you needmore multi-family, we need more
density yeah, there's somethingto be said there.
Mike Gennaro (33:55):
I mean, look, I'm, I'm all I'm gonna get in
trouble, but you know what, Idon't really care, because I
think it is a good idea.
I think we need a downtown,classy multi-family development
so that single people andcollege-aged people can live
somewhere in zachary foreverybody, it wouldn't just be
single people.
Bryant Dixon (34:16):
Oh yeah, yeah, probably violated laws.
Mike Gennaro (34:19):
Yes, just an affordable price point downtown
would not mean that, like that,the whole thing's going to hell
in a handbasket.
Bryant Dixon (34:26):
That could be great are you looking or when
you say that, are you lookingfor something that's more so
like um retail on the bottom,apartments on the top, kind of
like they have at americana?
Mike Gennaro (34:37):
yeah, sure that's.
I mean that's a mixed use.
I love that.
I think that would absolutelyfly off the shelves.
It's still spec on the on theretail side, so I could never
promise that that would fly offthe shelves.
But yeah, I think there's atrue need.
I mean, if I just showed up inzachary and I, you know, was
just recently married orwhatever, or widow or anybody, I
(34:58):
need an affordable price point.
I want to live where everythingis going on and, um, I don't
want to have to drive you know,from baton rouge to be able to
enjoy zachary.
Bryant Dixon (35:10):
I wouldn't do that , it's just absurd, and I think
that's like a benefit too, likeyeah we do have areas here.
I know we have a lot ofsubdivisions, but we do have
areas like the plains that arenot as dense, and we do have
areas of the city that could bea lot denser, yeah, which we're
going to be seeing some densitycoming in, like by walmart where
there's afton oaks the townhomedevelopment that's going to be
(35:30):
over there yeah uh, so that'sgoing to be some density added
to the city.
Mike Gennaro (35:34):
That's really going to help us with some
numbers as well and a workingpopulation that can afford to
work for $10 to $15 an hour ifnecessary.
At all these amazing amenitiesthat we all want.
Yeah, I mean.
Bryant Dixon (35:51):
Think about who's going to be working there too,
so we still have to have apopulation of people that's
willing to come in and work ifwe don't have that ourselves.
But I will say I'm so happythat I get to work here in the
city itself because we have somany like great things.
Like I said, people move herefor a number of different
reasons.
I know the school is alwayslike number one reason that
(36:12):
people want to move to Zachary.
Mike Gennaro (36:13):
That got us here yeah.
Bryant Dixon (36:15):
And then you just think about, like all the other
things that we have as far aswhen we're looking at, like you
said said like a bedsidecommunity, we're still small
enough at this point and westill have some spaces in the
city that can still be thatlittle small small town.
Yeah, so have a small town vibe.
But you know, there are alsothings that will give us an
advantage too when we look atwhen we have the commercial
(36:36):
opportunities, when we got tj,maxx and bills and yeah harbor
freight below five, five belowuh, below uh, below five Uh.
But you know, like looking at,like bringing those things in, I
think that that's just reallygreat for us to do and it shows
that we are making progress andI hope that people do see that
we are moving forward.
Mike Gennaro (36:56):
Yeah, yeah, all right.
So if you're listening to allthis and you're just uh
contemplating when, not ifyou're going to call and
complain, to're just uhcontemplating when, not if
you're going to call andcomplain to the city of about
Brian Dixon or Mike Gennaro orwhatever Remember, I don't work
for the city.
I do.
Brian's email is alwaysavailable.
No, I'm just kidding.
No.
Bryant Dixon (37:17):
I was like, you're free to call into my office
anytime.
The number is 225-654-1935.
There you go um, you know.
Yeah, if you have any questions, definitely give me a call.
I'll feel free to ask me um Ilove talking to people.
Mike Gennaro (37:32):
Yeah, it's just.
I think what we're trying tocommunicate here is an openness
to, to growth and openness toideas.
That is the main word.
These are ideas.
Nothing gets done unless youknow the formal process takes
place and all this stuff isvoted upon and you know we wait
years and years for thedevelopment to happen.
(37:52):
So if you're thinking about acostco in 15 years and let's
start planning to be that citynow, you know you don't want
costco.
Don't have a Costco.
Bryant Dixon (38:02):
And wrapping around that, we're talking about
growth.
And with all this growth.
We want to make sure that we'rewatching out for how we're
developing this growth, and onething that we can do one benefit
of that is going to be ourflood fact finder.
Mike Gennaro (38:14):
Yeah, you don't want this water sloshing around
every place on all this concretewe just put down.
Bryant Dixon (38:18):
Yeah, we don't want to build one neighborhood
to flood another neighborhood,so we always need to be
conscious of what we'redeveloping, when we're
developing it and where we'repushing this water off to, and
so the Flood Fact Finder isgoing to be a really good
resource for people living inthe city to actually pull up
some flood information on theirproperty or some other things in
the city.
And, like I said, it's not justfor residential, it's also for
(38:38):
commercial businesses too, soit's marketed to everybody, so
this is a benefit to a lot ofpeople.
Mike Gennaro (38:44):
Yeah, awesome.
And if you're thinking aboutjust doing a trench in your yard
or just bringing in tons ofdirt to increase your elevation,
don't do that.
Bryant Dixon (38:52):
Don't do that.
Please contact us before you doany of that.
Please contact us before you doany of that All right, please,
we'll leave on that.
Mike Gennaro (39:02):
That's it for this week's episode of Portion
Parish, the podcast with BryantDixon.
It's been a pleasure to haveyou here today and I hope you
know you're always welcome backanytime.
And look, if you don't get thatnow, we've had you on like
three or four times and it'salways because you have the
cutting edge information that wereally need to know.
Get out there and, yeah, you do.
Um, you and ashley, all y'allmy gold star guests hit them up
(39:27):
at bryantdixon, atcityofzacharyorg.
That's b-r-y-a-n-t dotd-i-x-o-n.
At cityofzacharyorg.
Huge shout out to our communitypartners, like the city of
zachary, who stand with us inour mission to make Zachary a
place where every resident feelsheard and engaged.
That's every resident, everyone, no exceptions, thanks to the
(39:50):
generosity and support of ourcommunity partners the magazine,
podcast and everything you seeonline which is possible and
free because of them, to learnmore about Flood Fact Finder
where would they go?
Bryant Dixon (40:01):
To learn more about Flood Fact Finder, you can
they go.
To learn more about Flood FactFinder, you can go to the City
of Zachary's website.
It's going to be located in twodifferent sections.
It'll be located in the FloodPlane Management section, as
well as in Planning and Zoning,under the name Flood Fact Finder
, and there's also a little linkunderneath the Flood Fact
Finder section that allows youto read a little bit about what
it is, how to use it, and you'rewelcome to call us if you have
(40:24):
any questions about it or youneed any additional information.
Yeah, and I want to say thanks,mike, for inviting me back.
Yeah, it's always a pleasure.
Mike Gennaro (40:31):
Yeah, awesome man, all right, y'all go pick up
trash.
When you see it, Fostertechnology at any expense and
embrace an attitude of tolerancefor diverse voices.
You know tolerance for diversevoices.
You know they are the creativeengines that will drive the
success of this economy forward.
Uh, you know you don't want todo any of that.
Just go plant a tree, get apermit to do it, though take
care, exactly beautiful yeah, ohyeah, you're wearing the love
(40:54):
the boot.
Bryant Dixon (40:55):
Keep louisiana beautiful today, yeah, we did,
picking up some trash.
Mike Gennaro (40:58):
We did a cleanup today yeah, you got to get
credit for that man.
See y'all next time.
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