Southdowns rezoning case deferred until October

Published Aug 20, 2012 at 9:00 am (Updated Aug 20, 2012)

Ben Skillman has decided to take a couple of more months to work on refining a plan for his home at Stuart Avenue at Perkins Road that will both appease his Southdowns neighbors and allow for the property to house a psychiatric office. On Friday, Skillman sent a letter to the city-parish Planning Commission to defer his application for the rezoning of his home from single-family residential to ISPUD, or Infill/Mixed Use Small Planned Unit Development, until Oct. 15. The commission had been set to hear the case today. "I hope some people can see there are a lot of misconceptions out there," Skillman says. For 20 years Skillman has run Skill Real Estate out of his Southdowns home without a problem. His home occupation is permissible without special zoning as long as he doesn't put up signage or hire unrelated employees. Now Skillman wants to sell to a married couple that wants to run it primarily as an office for a psychiatric practice. That requires rezoning. The Southside Civic Association fears a rezoning approval for Skillman's home will have a domino effect on the neighborhood, and could set a precedent for future rezoning applications. "We just are opposed to that property being changed to something else other than residential," says Carole Anne Brown, vice president of the Southside Civic Association. St. Aloysius Catholic Church is also publicly opposing Skillman's application. —Adam Pearson