Abbeville City Council approves CPEX to help make ordinance modifications for nuisance codes

Abbeville officials are looking to make ordinance modifications to nuisance codes to allow those to work more effectively and efficiently.
It’s a time-consuming process that will be made easier with the help of the Center For Planning Excellence (CPEX). During a special meeting on Tuesday, the Abbeville City Council approved hiring the Baton Rouge-based group to create a plan. The council approved $20,000 for the work.
“The nuisance regulations for Abbeville are kind of scattered throughout different places in your code,” Kim Marousek, director of planning for CPEX, said during Tuesday’s meeting. “You could really benefit from consolidating those into a unified nuisance regulation, which would be a little bit easier for the citizens to understand the regulations, as well as for you all to administer.”
Marousek said CPEX focused on the nuisance codes regarding blighted and abandoned structures, grass, weeds, accumulations of trash, abandoned and inoperable vehicles and all the processes associated with abating those types of nuisances.
“Those were primarily the things we focused in the code review,” Marousek said. “These are the more traditional nuisance regulations.”
Mayor Roslyn White, who took office in July of 2022, said she had worked closely with City Attorney Bart Broussard, who came on part-time last September, to review many of the ordinances.
“One thing we have struggled with,” White said, “is interpreting, deciphering and figuring out how to go about handling these nuisances. We are taking a more aggressive approach because there hasn’t been much enforcement in the past 10 years. We want to make sure we’re up to date.”
White said that will take a great deal of work.
“It’s a heavy lift,” White said. “It’s far more burdensome on our team than you could imagine. We don’t have the internal resources to do it. That’s why I think it’s a good choice for us to work with CPEX. They are very knowledgeable about best practices.
“I’m thankful to have them working with us on this.”
Bart Broussard said the move is cost-effective as well.
“Part-time, there’s no way I could undertake what they’re doing,” Bart Broussard said, “and still do what I’m doing on behalf of the mayor and council. To get this done I think the only way to do it is through them. A lawyer could do it, but it would be twice as costly.”
David Ashley, who sits on the city’s planning and zoning commission, said he favors making appropriate adjustments to simplify the nuisance ordinances.
“There have been issues at times,” Ashley said during the meeting. “I can see where if you put it all together in one, consolidated thing, it would make a big difference.
“I think it’s well worth the money spent.”
Councilman Brady Broussard Jr. also strongly offered his support.
“I want to thank the CPEX team and the mayor’s vision,” Councilman Broussard said. “What means most to me is best practices. We’re not inventing the wheel. We’re using what works in other places. We are streamlining and aligning with state statutes.
“It’s a cleanup that is long overdue.”
During the next few months, CPEX will draft a nuisance code and provide a review for the public and city council members. The group will also provide staff training, templates and procedure guidance.
“We’re hiring them to be the workhorse,” White said. “They’re going to look at other best practices. They’re going to draft something and continuously meet with us. At some point, it will come to council for final approval.”