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Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple says building code enhancements for the state’s coastal regions should be on the agenda when lawmakers eventually meet in a regular or special session in 2025, the USA Today network reports.
“We need to have it in the mix,” Temple says on the “LaPolitics Report” podcast released Monday on Apple and Spotify. “If you look at our neighboring states … they have higher requirements for coastal parishes, [or] coastal counties.”
Temple told host Jeremy Alford that locations with ocean views have been swamped with new residents over the past couple of decades and that enhancing building techniques to weather Gulf storms could mean the difference between staying where they are or migrating north.
Balancing new regulations and listening to the concerns of those who have to carry them out will be key to passage and implementation, he says.
“It’s the right thing to do, you know?” the commissioner says on the podcast. “If you’re going to live in a coastal parish in Louisiana that is going to be exposed to hurricane-force winds, we need to make sure those homes are built to withstand those the best we can without overly burdening the builder with excessive costs. You have to afford the house, but you also have to afford the insurance.”
