Plans for a potential residential development on slightly more than 146 acres that once was home to Palmetto Country Club in Benton have been cancelled, and the issue has been returned to the Bossier City/Parish Metropolitan Planning Commission.
Members of the Bossier Parish Police Jury heard Wednesday that the developers, Southern Lifestyle Development, LLC, determined the numbers simply weren’t good enough to continue.
Sam Marsiglia, director of the MPC, told the police jury the developer had moved far enough into the process to lock in the plan that has been presented to the planning commission.
“They have proceeded far enough with us with the master plan and the timetable preliminary plan unit development to lock in that particular plan for any future development of that particular property without public hearings going on again at the zoning board level,” he said.
Remanding the issue to the MPC can hold the application until a potential new developer comes along, Marsiglia said. But, he pointed out, if a group wanted to reopen the property as a golf course, the process would not be necessary.
“Now, the owner is limited to trying to market that property under a plan that basically was unworkable. It was not going to dollar out for the developer, which is why he had to resign from that development,” Marsiglia said. “It’s very limiting to the property owner to try to sell with that plan still in place.
By a unanimous vote, police jurors remanded the issue to the planning commission.
