A St. Tammany Parish government planning and zoning notification sign on land north of Mandeville in 2013. (Robert Rhoden, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

In land-rich St. Tammany Parish, where construction of subdivisions and commercial developments is seemingly constant, squabbles over zoning and land-use are routine. Planning and Zoning Commission meetings often draw a crowd of citizens unhappy - or at least concerned - about what might be built next door, or down the street from their homes.

Sometimes their beef is about potential traffic problems. Sometimes it's drainage. Density, noise and quality of life are also repeated concerns.

And very often, citizens gripe about the lack of notification and the yellow signs the parish government places on sites to let the public know that zoning or land-use changes have been applied for. Among their grievances: the signs are too small; they don't contain adequate information; they're often obstructed; they get knocked down. Some even say they have no idea what the signs mean.

In response to the refrain about signs, parish officials are moving to increase the size of the corrugated plastic placards from 18 X 24 inches to 24 X 32 inches, Planning Director Sidney Fontenot said. He said the change is the result of citizens' complaints at public meetings.

told citizens some months back that her administration was looking into ways to improve the signage and come up with a method to notify property owners by mail when a zoning or planning case is filed in their area.

Fontenot said the parish still has about 250 of the current signs and will use all of those before implementing the larger placards, probably early next year.

The currently-used signs are actually larger than the 12 X 12-inch signs that are required by parish ordinance, Fontenot noted. They say: "PUBLIC NOTICE - An application has been made to the Planning or Zoning Commission for a zoning amendment or land use review." They display a case number, date of a scheduled public hearing on the case, and a phone number where citizens can obtain more information.

The new signs will maintain the same general format, he said.

Terri Lewis Stevens of the Mandeville area, who has been prodding parish officials for more than a year to improve the signs and implement a notification system, said larger signs will do little good unless they contain more information. She said the signs should at least include the current zoning classification of the property and the zoning change that is being sought.

"A big yellow sign that tells the public nothing is useless. It's a waste of signage," she said.

"The case number means nothing to the ordinary person. They need to tell people what the intent is."

She also questioned why a notification system has not yet been instituted. "It isn't a difficult process for them to put into place," Lewis said. "I'm really puzzled why they've made it more complicated than it has to be."

Brister said property owners within 500 feet of a rezoning or land-use case would be notified by mail under the new procedure.

The administration is currently working with the assessor's office to come up with a system that will allow the planning department to quickly and correctly identify the owners of property to be notified.

When it comes to signage, the parish's current placards are much better than what was once used, Fontenot said. At one time, the parish posted small, cardboard signs that would fall apart in the rain. "They would blow away in the wind," he said.

The government began using the sturdier, 18 X 24-inch corrugated plastic signs about 10 years ago, he said.

But even the use of larger signs is no guarantee that the complaints will cease altogether, Fontenot warned. When he worked in Lafayette, the government erected large, reflective street-sign type signs to announce potential zoning changes.

Even then, people often claimed to have not seen them or understood them, he said.

"You do what you can to get the most notice."

Meanwhile, the parish government plans to roll out some tweaks to its website,

, early next year to improve the design and functionality, parish government spokesman Ronnie Simpson said.

The improvements will include a map that will be marked with pins showing the locations of pending planning and zoning cases. The user will be able to hover over a pin to see information about each individual case, he said.

Fontenot said the administration also is planning to attach the details of each development case to the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting agendas located on the parish government website. Details of Parish Council agenda items already are placed on the website in advance of the council's meetings.

Sandra Slifer, president of the parish and state League of Women Voters, said the bigger signs are a good move and that she looks forward to the implementation of the mail notification system, something that is required in many jurisdictions.

"I think it's great that the parish is going to increase the size of the signs. Larger is better if they can get them to stand up."

Putting the details of all planning and zoning cases online also will be an immense improvement, she said.

"It doesn't make sense to force people to have to contact the planning staff in order to review the details regarding the specific requests. We've been urging the parish to change their procedures in this area for a long time."

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