City of Zachary's Bryant Dixon and The Flood Fact Finder

Ever wondered about the myth of a cougar in Rouse's parking lot or chuckled at the thought of a city inspector doubling as a stand-up comic? Join us as Bryant Dixon, the Zachary City Planning and Zoning Director, brings lightness to the serious world of city planning. We bust myths, laugh at Scott Masterson's dad jokes, and unpack the complexities of infrastructure that affect our daily lives, proving that city planning isn't all about maps and regulations.

Bringing Bryant's background in Environmental Affairs to the conversation, we explore the exciting new software from Forerunner that's revolutionizing flood risk assessment in Zachary. He also shares insights from my time with the New Orleans Sewage and Water Board, drawing parallels to the current challenges in our city. Together with Bryant, we reveal how these technological advancements are not just simplifying our processes but could also lead to significant savings for our residents on flood insurance.

Wrapping up this enlightening episode, we turn our focus to Zachary's growth and economic development. We tackle the careful balance between supporting local businesses and attracting bigger franchises, and discuss the smart growth strategies propelling our community into the future. From enhancing property information access to celebrating our emergency services, we cover the myriad ways in which digital tools and community efforts are keeping Zachary safe, competitive, and thriving.

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Transcript

Bryant Dixon: 0:04

Hello, I'm Brian Dixon and you're listening to Porch and Parish, the podcast.

Mike Gennaro: 0:09

What's up, zachary? We're back with one of our favorite guests today, and he's making important decisions for the city of Zachary every day, collaboratively, of course, not unilaterally. Unilaterally. Zachary City Planning and Zoning Director, bryant Dixon, is in the booth today to explain an important announcement about a new tool for Zachary residents to quickly determine their floodplain and gain access to elevation certificates for free, just like this podcast, thanks to our sponsors. Hopefully, that means no more waiting around for weeks for someone to tell you these important facts about a property and you know what, if I'm wrong about any of that, bryant for someone to tell you these important facts about a property, and you know what, if I'm wrong about any of that, brian's going to tell us all about it. I'm Mike G, publisher of Porch and Parish. We bring you the best of Zachary and the Development North region through Candy Conversations every Monday from our headquarters right here on Virginia Street in downtown Zachary.

Bryant Dixon: 1:02

This is.

Mike Gennaro: 1:03

Porch and Parish the podcast. All right, we're going to jump into the lightning round. You know I quit giving people lightning round questions to make this more fun, so I got three questions for you. Number one please dispel one myth that is going around, zachary.

Bryant Dixon: 1:20

I hear so many things every day that I'm like where did this come from, who made this up and how did this rumor get started? Oh man, that's crazy. I'll take one, okay.

Mike Gennaro: 1:30

And hopefully it's not the one you're thinking about. So there is a myth. It might be true, I don't know, but I think it's a myth that there is a cougar, a mountain lion, that actually patrols the parking lot over at rouses. Did you ever hear that one?

Bryant Dixon: 1:51

I have not heard that one yet we even called out to it.

Mike Gennaro: 1:53

We did it. We did a uh tell all article dispelling the myth of the the rouses panther, or whatever yeah, no, I haven't heard that one yet.

Bryant Dixon: 2:02

Where did that come from some?

Mike Gennaro: 2:03

people don't shop at rouse's because they think they're gonna get attacked by a cougar. I swear you?

Bryant Dixon: 2:09

yeah, they could have won dixie.

Mike Gennaro: 2:11

This came up in rants and raves before oh see, I don't have social media that's good. That's why you're, you know, such a peaceful guy it keeps my mind free and clear.

Bryant Dixon: 2:20

Uh, I'm not. I never get too distracted on like what's going on in the world or what people think about me.

Mike Gennaro: 2:25

Possibly so that also gives me a chance to you know look at, look at one of our old covers, uh, the illustrated one of the city of zachary, and there's a little panther um holding a rouse's sign that's why we did that because I keep calling it a panther.

Bryant Dixon: 2:40

It's a cougar. Yeah, all right. Should I be concerned now?

Mike Gennaro: 2:46

No, 90%. Sure there's not a cougar.

Mike Gennaro: 3:31

Please explain one term you think we should all know about planning and zoning.

Bryant Dixon: 3:37

Man, these are really good questions, mike. You got me thinking. Today I say a lot of things on a regular, on a regular basis, that I never truly think about, like how people understand them, because I'm used to speaking to planners to a certain degree, or like engineers in certain terms.

Bryant Dixon: 3:54

um, I would say infrastructure is a word that we throw around a lot, yeah, and it can mean a lot of different things depending on who you're talking to. So, um, infrastructure in in some capacities could be like your roads, or infrastructure could also be your drainage, your sewer lines, your power lines, so putting in different infrastructure in different places. So infrastructure can have a varied number of meetings depending on who you're speaking with and depending on the context in which you're using it. So I would say infrastructure is probably one of the words I use the most, talking to both professionals and lay people, and sometimes I have to go back and break that down and say, well, this is a specific type of infrastructure that I'm talking about because it encompasses so much.

Mike Gennaro: 4:40

altogether, Right, right, okay, awesome, and I could stay on that one, like we could just have a definition day, and that's a podcast by itself. Yeah, it really is all right. This one's gonna be the hardest one where it might be easy. Please tell us one funny story that happened in the course of daily business.

Bryant Dixon: 4:59

Bonus points if it involves scott masterson, city inspector well, I think I've said this before, but if scott were not the uh, the city's official building official, uh, I'm pretty sure scott's job would be a comedian. Um, and on some days when we have like a little lax time, at the end of the day we'll like sit down and just kind of like debrief about things that are happening. And he loves to tell jokes, yeah, and he loves his, his knock knock jokes or quote, unquote his dad jokes that he will tell. Actually, right before I left the office, he, he pulled another one out of the, out of the box that I was not quite expecting. Uh, um, I would say, like it was the one day he did the because joke and I can't think about how it goes right now.

Mike Gennaro: 5:48

Okay, yeah.

Bryant Dixon: 5:49

It had something to do with the chicken and it was. I remember.

Mike Gennaro: 5:53

Yeah, like maybe why did the chicken cross the road?

Bryant Dixon: 5:57

Because I don't know that would make sense.

Mike Gennaro: 5:59

And it's not funny All right, he has his moments.

Bryant Dixon: 6:04

I love Scott Scott's amazing.

Mike Gennaro: 6:06

All right, look, you did great. Let's move on to the serious stuff. So we've got the Flood Fact Finder tool. Is that what it's called?

Bryant Dixon: 6:13

Yes, the Flood Fact Finder.

Mike Gennaro: 6:16

So what motivated the city of Zachary to introduce the Flood Fact Finder tool to its residents?

Bryant Dixon: 6:21

Okay, so my background. Previously, before I got here, I actually worked with the city of New Orleans. Well, specifically, I worked with the Sewage and Water Board. And my job there? I worked in a department called Environmental Affairs.

Mike Gennaro: 6:36

Pulling Mardi Gras beads out of the sewer all day. Basically, yes, yes, yes.

Bryant Dixon: 6:40

I work with people that did that on a regular basis, and it's tons of them. I just want people to know that it is tons of beads yeah that make their way into those drainage pipes.

Bryant Dixon: 6:51

Wow, it's crazy, yeah, um.

Bryant Dixon: 6:54

But one of the jobs I used to do was work with green infrastructure and, um, kind of like storm water management and like where water would go, what water is moving, how's water is moving, yeah, where water is settling in the ways that we can naturally find ways to to deal with stormwater during rain events. So that's kind of where my background was. Because of that, some of the emails I still get as we're working here in Zachary, people send me all the time just talking about, like stormwater conferences or drainage conferences, or do you want to apply for this program? Do you want to come get certified in this? So one day I did receive an email, uh, from a company called forerunner and they have a web-based program that allows you to uh get things for, like, uh, flood risk, personalized flood risk or elevation certificates, which pretty much everyone needs in the city to build anything.

Bryant Dixon: 7:46

Yeah, um. And so I actually really paid attention to that email. It was really catchy, um. I read through it and I was like well, you know, zachary, I working with scott. I get to see people that come in and ask for like flood certificates all the time say you want to put a trailer somewhere, for instance.

Mike Gennaro: 8:03

Uh, how you ever think about this Like, how high are you going to put that on cinder blocks?

Bryant Dixon: 8:08

How do you actually have to build Like how far, what flood zone are you going to need? Flood zone X, A, E, Uh, so it's X is the good one.

Bryant Dixon: 8:17

X is the good one. Uh, so hearing those conversations and kind of having to have those conversations with people all the time, when this email popped up, it caught my eye and I was like, well, this seems like a pretty neat software. So I did some research, uh, looked at their website, went through and saw some places that they work with and was like kind of interested. They reached out to me again, yeah, and I was like, well, let me actually like contact them back and see if I can like talk with them and see what's going on with this. So we set up a meeting and when they told me that they were working with jefferson parish, I was like, oh wow, like jefferson parish is really good with their flood, with their floodplain management yeah they've got to be huh, they have to be, and so I was like, if jefferson parish is looking and doing this, like I really do need to pay attention because there's some real benefits to this.

Bryant Dixon: 9:06

And then I also deal with a lot of our floodplain management issues in the city as well. I'm not the floodplain manager, I would say I'm more like a floodplain coordinator. So we work with our floodplain manager I'm the in-office contact but we do have someone that we will send some specialized information to if we need to get something officially signed.

Mike Gennaro: 9:25

Y'all outsourced that one.

Bryant Dixon: 9:26

Yes, so we have. His name is Jim Ferguson. He's our official consultant floodplain manager. Okay, I'm not certified as a certified floodplain manager. Yeah, you have to be to do certain things and he is so in office I handle things to a certain point and then he handles things once they get to a point where I can't handle them anymore. Uh, so me and jim were kind of like talking about it. We went over it and it seemed like a really good idea, uh, and I thought that it would be great to get a software that we can use internally to help us track some things that we were doing yeah kind of be a base for residents to be able to go and find some information on their own, as well as be a resource for businesses that were looking to move to the city.

Bryant Dixon: 10:07

Uh, because we get calls from them all the time just asking general questions. Yeah, um, and so I was like this would be a great opportunity, and on top of that, I also deal with the community rating system, which we are currently in the process of renewal. At this point, and for those that don't know, you often hear me say CRS, but the community rating system allows us to, as a city, submit in certain documents yearly about all the things that we're building, all the floodplain ordinances that we have, the procedures that we do in office. We have to submit, sign off and submit all that stuff into FEMA and DEQ every year. Once we meet a certain standard, you're able to apply for these programs and it gives us a discount on our national flood insurance program. It gives us a discount based upon our rating on. It can go from like 5, 10, 15, 20, 25% on your actual flood insurance.

Mike Gennaro: 11:02

Yeah.

Bryant Dixon: 11:03

So the more strenuous, I would say, our standards are and the more things we're doing to actually advertise for our floodplain management awareness, we're actually getting credit for that, and that credit can allow us to basically get lower insurance rates.

Mike Gennaro: 11:17

So this tool could actually help us to make a higher grade for lack of a better term. Yes, this tool is going to be essential, I would say, in actually help us to make a higher grade for lack of a better term.

Bryant Dixon: 11:22

Yes, this tool is going to be essential, I would say, in definitely getting us to go up at least a point or two.

Mike Gennaro: 11:27

Credit rating yeah, like a credit rating.

Bryant Dixon: 11:30

So the way it's scored is 10 is the lowest. Well, first you have to be accepted into the program. The program is going from 10 to 1. 1 is the best. Zachary is currently now at an 8. It is, it's the best um zachary is currently now at an eight. Uh, it is my plan, my goal and my dream. That ain't too good.

Mike Gennaro: 11:47

No, it is really good because there's some wait, what there are some cities that are not even in the program at all okay, okay so step one, we got accepted into the okay.

Bryant Dixon: 11:54

Okay, this is new, we just got accepted yeah well, we've been in this program, I want to say for about eight or ten years. Okay, another eight another.

Mike Gennaro: 12:05

Dig yourself out of this hole.

Bryant Dixon: 12:06

Brian's no we've been in the program for a while now, but, uh, one of the my, one of the things that I really do, we want to do is get us up to at least a six and it's just like the standards are.

Bryant Dixon: 12:17

I think it'll be a good standard for us to have and when I say that and the reason I'm not saying oh, I want to shoot this up to a one Like right now we have a base flood elevation, which is where we have documented that that is the lowest point that you can build without flooding. One of the requirements to be in that program is to have a higher standard. So, if you're building something in Zachary, you have to build at least one foot above base flood elevation I've heard that before.

Mike Gennaro: 12:44

Yeah, so this can be sometimes problematic when you have a neighbor who was kind of built prior to this rule. Right, yes, we get our neighbors building up one foot higher than us and that's not fun. Yes, but there are ways, so with that we have a.

Bryant Dixon: 13:04

We have a net zero. We have a net zero procedure that we have to follow as well and that's put in place. That says basically, whatever's being built on a property, you have to maintain all of your own stormwater so you're not in. Like when Scott goes out and does his inspections, that's one thing that he looks at is to make sure that you're building swells and ditches, to make sure that you're holding and maintaining your stormwater on your property.

Mike Gennaro: 13:27

Yeah. And it's not being displaced onto other people's property because that would be Basically like a gutter on your property that goes below your one foot height.

Bryant Dixon: 13:37

Yeah, we include those swells or ditches on properties to make sure that the water is not only being maintained on your individual property but you're not displacing on somebody else's property and also it's making it safely from your property to some type of like drainage way. So that's one thing. But to go up higher would mean to get a higher number. In some places you may want to have like a two foot or three foot above base level, which you know, maybe a little, a lot for some people is that allowed?

Mike Gennaro: 14:07

it? Can somebody just go crazy and build um like a castle up in the sky, as long as they have a deep enough swale, or you know that anything is possible.

Bryant Dixon: 14:17

Okay, if you meet the right requirements, anything is possible. Love that.

Mike Gennaro: 14:22

You've used that before, I'm sure.

Bryant Dixon: 14:25

I get some interesting questions, so I'll probably have said that to a few people.

Mike Gennaro: 14:28

My favorite one is always with enough time or money, you can do anything you want to. I say that to a lot of people in my day-to-day.

Bryant Dixon: 14:39

You know, and that is very true, with enough time and money, yeah, almost anything, yeah so it is not untrue.

Mike Gennaro: 14:48

Um, all right, all right. Um, so we've got the benefits of this thing. Um, I mean, I've got one more follow-up. Okay, what is jefferson parish's grade?

Bryant Dixon: 14:59

uh, I'm not sure right now. I haven't looked it up in a while.

Mike Gennaro: 15:01

Um, but the reason I working in new orleans, and then being right next to jefferson, parish, we yeah it's like they always get like these amazing products and these amazing things like incorporate that, incorporates metairie and some of grand isle right, and so I mean they're just like inundated constantly with that. They have a need to be good.

Bryant Dixon: 15:23

They have a real need because I think they get like over 62 inches, or on average, 62 inches a year.

Mike Gennaro: 15:29

That's where I grew up. It's like if you don't see a canal, you're not looking, you're not living right. Yeah, canals everywhere.

Bryant Dixon: 15:37

So I like working in New Orleans and then looking at them.

Bryant Dixon: 15:46

There are some things that we would as with Sewage and Water Board at the time, we would kind of like look and work with them on certain projects and then just knowing, like the efforts they put into getting products, the effort they put into making sure that their residents are safe and all of these other things that they work on, they were. They're just a really good model for things that we can do to move forward within the state of Louisiana, specifically looking at floodplain management regulations. So when I knew that they were working with them, that was what really caught my eye and I was like, oh, this is good. They were, I think, the first to adopt or start using Forerunner, which is the software and that's just free to everyone now.

Mike Gennaro: 16:20

Yes, and now it's free to everyone yeah, um, and that's just free to everyone. Now, yes, and now it's free to everyone. So you know, um, before this I haven't gone to use the software. I need to, but I would go if somebody had a question about a piece of property or whatever, like, all right, you know where are we on the floodplain? I think I could usually answer that using lsu flood maps, but it's not. It's not an elevation certificate, it's just, uh, you know what, this elevation certificate? It's just a you know what. This is probably what you got.

Mike Gennaro: 16:44

That's nothing you can take to the bank.

Bryant Dixon: 16:46

Yeah, that's the most of the software that you'll see that you can use for free. It's just very base level. It'll show you like if your house is in a flood zone to maybe see what flood zone the house is in. But when it comes to building, there needs to be a little bit more concrete work done.

Mike Gennaro: 16:59

Yeah, absolutely so, to be a little bit more concrete work.

Bryant Dixon: 17:01

Yeah, absolutely, uh. So that's when you have to get into hiring an engineer or someone our surveyor to come out and survey the property, to get your exact elevation, so exactly where you are, where the house is going to be, and then where that elevation is for the house to put you at least at your base and then what that one foot area would be. Um, not to toot my own horn, but when I first first got here, we were kind of still using some. We were still using paper maps for zoning.

Bryant Dixon: 17:25

So one of my first major changes was to get a GIS system for like the zoning stuff.

Mike Gennaro: 17:30

Oh, it's been great.

Bryant Dixon: 17:31

But in doing that there are layers that you can add on there. So I actually added a flood zone layer so you can actually go on our zoning map and click on the layer and it'll show you like if your property itself is in a flood zone area zoning map and click on the layer and it'll show you like if your property itself is in the flood zone area.

Bryant Dixon: 17:44

Yeah, it doesn't give you the exact height or the specifics, but it'll show you like this area of the city is in the flood zone. This area is not, yes, and so that was one of the things I did, and this is kind of like a next step forward, and now you're able to go to another app that we have on the website, um, and you can now see specifically like what's been done. It allows you to pull up, uh, any fema documents that have been submitted in for your house.

Mike Gennaro: 18:07

What about um, like flood delineation and determination certificates? That's one that holds up people for months. On development, yes, is that now just available, or so?

Bryant Dixon: 18:18

we, we're kind of limited at this point because we were only able to put into the system per properties that we've had in office and that have been submitted in yeah we did lose a lot of documents and a flooding event that we had here one time.

Bryant Dixon: 18:31

So oddly enough yeah yeah, so, uh, this is like a great way for us to back it up on a digital platform and so while you can go to a property and see if there are documents available, those documents are still private and you would have to specifically request them for the property.

Mike Gennaro: 18:45

Okay.

Bryant Dixon: 18:45

But we were able to kind of like go in and add in um proposed flood elevation certificates, the official flood elevation certificates, and we're working on now adding in some of the more advanced FEMA documents for like things for claims that people make on their properties and so when we get all of that information and we can add them in to properties to see where they are, what has been done, and so for your current home, or maybe someone moving in the future, you can see what has been done to the house, if there have been any renovations or changes that were done, based upon commercial, to write commercial as well.

Bryant Dixon: 19:21

This isn't just limited to residential. This is for everybody, yeah, but it's going to be a constantly moving and evolving product. Uh, based upon the more information we have, the more information we can put in and the better it would be for for residents.

Mike Gennaro: 19:34

Yeah that's awesome. Um, just another little heads up. Um, you know, I'm actually a big fan of what the assessor has been doing too. Um that, that, um, if you go to East Baton Rouge assessor, you can find all these these digital maps that are, you know, helpful in other ways, Like if you want to know what the sale price was on a piece of property they've got. They've gotten most of that on the assessor's website. So this is just another incredible tool to do your due diligence on. If you're trying to develop, if you're getting mad at somebody somewhere out there because it's taking too long, like now we've got the tools yes, yes, and it's free.

Mike Gennaro: 20:12

I'm sure you pay somehow your tax dollars, but yeah, nothing's really free and it's free yeah. All right, okay, so apparently there was a demonstration at the city council meeting. Yes, yes, so what were some key features highlighted about the flood fact finder then that maybe we didn't cover just yet?

Bryant Dixon: 21:08

Okay, so at the council meeting I just wanted to kind of give a brief overview of what the program was, what it kind of of looked like and how easy it was to maneuver. So, on the website itself, I just showed you where it was located. We have it in two specific locations I have it under floodplain management and I also have it under planning and zoning.

Bryant Dixon: 21:25

Yeah, uh, under there is going to be located under the name flood fact finder um and we also have a location where you can request your base flood elevations where you can request information. You can see specific information about drainage systems throughout the city where they're located.

Mike Gennaro: 21:46

No way Wait. So if I want to know I just had this come up this week we want to put in a new plumbing line on the property for a grease trap, right? Not that, oh not that, oh okay when I say like but it's at the street level. Right, I was gonna say we had to tie something into the street. We didn't know where the streets, uh sewage line was yeah, that's.

Bryant Dixon: 22:08

That's a different type of that's one of those infrastructure maps that we have in the office got it okay shows your gas, water and sewer lines yeah, we have we have maps for that in the office too, but uh, all of those aren't available for the, for the public got it so I also hit a gas line a couple weeks ago, and jen made it public that I was um shame that I did that I mean, it's good content, I don't know.

Mike Gennaro: 22:31

I just you know what serious props, though, to the fire department. They, they were here, it seemed like in less than 10 minutes, even though they were across the street. I was expecting some level of red tape to all of that, and it's just like 9-1-1, fire department, boom, they were here, they're quick.

Mike Gennaro: 22:47

Yeah, it was awesome. I mean I hit this line with a shovel and it made a noise, noise and there was that smell that they add to the gas and all that and I was just like watching the dollars float into the mist.

Bryant Dixon: 23:01

But you know I always say they're number one for a reason. I love our fire department.

Mike Gennaro: 23:06

Yeah, yeah yeah, what, what's the joke?

Bryant Dixon: 23:10

there, is that a joke? There is no joke?

Mike Gennaro: 23:11

oh okay, I love our fire oh, I thought you're making a joke about like, aren't they class one?

Bryant Dixon: 23:17

Yeah, they are class one. They're one for a reason they're quick.

Mike Gennaro: 23:21

No, we don't joke around about that.

Bryant Dixon: 23:23

I was like no, we need them.

Mike Gennaro: 23:27

They saved me. When I first got here to Zachary as well, I had a. I was having family over and I wanted to impress them with a country fire pit.

Bryant Dixon: 23:38

I thought you were going to say you were frying a turkey.

Mike Gennaro: 23:40

No, no, no. It wasn't a turkey-related accident. I've never had one of those, thank goodness. I was living over in the plains and my family was coming over from Metairie in New Orleans. I was like I'm going to show them how we can have a nice fire out here, so I lit the little fire. Know how we can have a nice fire out here? And so I lit the little fire. It was actually some a lot of pecan sticks and stuff into a small bonfire okay, unregulated windy day, you know, total novice error.

Mike Gennaro: 24:05

And that sucker. The wind started kicking up and it blew into the grass and before we know it, one acre was on fire, two acres. Coming towards the house, I was watching my kids toys get burned up in the lawn like like thomas the tank engine. You know, like I have a picture of percy the the little engine.

Mike Gennaro: 24:24

He yeah, he's just like completely lit on fire, and it was in the aftermath of the fire department got there just in time when this fire was about 20 feet away from my house, because, you know, think about a grass fire, that's what it was, yeah, and it just spreads in all directions and I'm like I'm catching a whole neighborhood on fire. What?

Mike Gennaro: 24:45

am I supposed to do. Yeah, but the neighbors, um, they were calmly sitting there with a broom sweeping the fire so that it wouldn't go to their house. I was like, wow, they're really calm right now. And the fire department came out with broomsticks of all things and they swept it and contained it and they had water on four-wheelers. They deployed four-wheelers out there and contained everything and it was just like, yeah, no big deal, see you later. And I was. I don't. Until you experience a fire of that magnitude personally and you're not prepared for it, all I was doing was like running to the house and then back, like I just kept running everywhere. I was completely out of breath from running trying to find water. Like, oh, here's a Kirkland purified water. Let's just stop it. Stop a one square foot area of it, just anything.

Bryant Dixon: 25:38

See, that's why they're number one.

Mike Gennaro: 25:40

It is See, gotta love fire department yeah and always have a hose available if you light something on fire, that could have contained it right there if I just had a hose.

Bryant Dixon: 25:50

Was this summertime.

Mike Gennaro: 25:53

The grass was brown. I think it was in like October. Okay yeah, windy um. The grass was brown. I think it was in in like october. Okay yeah, windy, cool, dry. Not a good idea, yeah. So anyway, um, that was a huge digression, but hey, it might have saved somebody you have great stories.

Bryant Dixon: 26:09

That that's what that means.

Mike Gennaro: 26:10

You just have really good stories I have so many stories of things that I actually accidentally did um without thinking. You know they were not like cool stories, like I did this on purpose and it was cool see, I always say no matter what happens after you finish, you have a story to tell you're right you have a story with enough time and money, you can get out of almost anything but a fire and if you have enough money, apparently you can get out of a fire too I don't know oh so, um, I was like that may be an off-air conversation, because I remember they were saying some stuff about hawaii yeah, we're having oh yeah that was people were hiring like yeah, their own private uh water emergency facilities to come through and put waters out on people's properties, yeah.

Mike Gennaro: 26:59

Well, I mean, you know it, it does speak to an economic factor as well, of um of development. I mean with, if you look on some of our maps this is where I'm going, I'll get there quickly Uh, you know, you look at what's developing, what's not, and you see that some of the new um poverty is being in in just a consistent state of. Are we going to flood, right, like our, our? Our wetlands areas don't develop and you can see a lot of that on the east mount pleasant area. Um, like, that's why it's. It's always this green space. It's almost like a swamp over there, right, yeah, but uh, yeah, so I mean, high and dry is the way to go into the future, and the better you're able to buy high and dry, that that is a factor and I'm really happy to like.

Bryant Dixon: 27:46

I think zachary is literally like sitting in like one of the best places because we are so close to baton rouge, but yet at the same time, we're also a little bit higher than baton rouge at the same time, uh, and then we're also getting a diversion canal project, which is really going to help us out too, when it comes to like strong water management it's just a large French drain, that's all it is.

Mike Gennaro: 28:06

No.

Bryant Dixon: 28:08

Yeah, uh, and I I know that, like, once that project is completed, it's really going to help us out a lot and know, like a lot of people well, I know I get a lot of comments about the flood of 2016 yeah and I know a lot of people are still kind of like weary, of like raining rain now and how much are we going to get uh?

Bryant Dixon: 28:26

so I I really hope that this, that this uh platform is a way for them, or the flood fact finder yeah it's a great way to kind of like ease some of those those tensions sure or ease their minds about potential flooding in the future, because we are actively working as a city, as a parish and as a state to like kind of remedy a lot of the flooding issues that we have had in the past yeah being proactive instead of reactive, oh I I couldn't uh agree more fully that that's the way to go my goodness yeah, I actually sold a property after the the flood of 2016 that hadn't flooded since the flood of 1983.

Bryant Dixon: 29:02

here I think it was 83. Yeah, it was Okay.

Mike Gennaro: 29:06

And yeah, I I probably could have gone a long time with that property. It was a beautiful little property on frontage, but I just kind of got spooked from it.

Bryant Dixon: 29:14

So, um, yeah, it's good not to flood, it is amazing not not to flood.

Mike Gennaro: 29:20

but yeah that, that was a real newbie error that I, you know, I I didn't even ask if it flooded when I bought it because I I thought it was such a no-brainer. Yeah that, wow, this is a beautiful piece of property, it's cheap, it's by amenities. Why not buy it? And you know, had I known more? So, all this stuff, the the more information out there that we can access quickly without spending money for due diligence, it's a huge benefit to everybody. So, yes, um, yeah, I mean, is there anything else that you would like to talk about today? We, we did a good job of staying pretty much on topic, except for my little side stories, but is there anything on your mind?

Bryant Dixon: 30:00

I wouldn't say necessarily on my mind. I do just want to remind everybody that Zachary is open for business. We are looking for businesses to come here.

Mike Gennaro: 30:08

The franchises y'all were talking about.

Bryant Dixon: 30:11

Yeah, our economic development director, Ashley McHugh, is doing a great job.

Mike Gennaro: 30:15

She's killing it. She's great, she's killing it.

Bryant Dixon: 30:16

She's great, she's killing it, she's doing her like she's working really, really hard.

Mike Gennaro: 30:20

Yes.

Bryant Dixon: 30:20

And I feel so bad for her sometimes the amount of phone calls that she gets or she has to make on a regular basis.

Mike Gennaro: 30:27

She's doing a lot of push marketing for Zachary, like getting out there and putting the word out.

Bryant Dixon: 30:38

Yeah because a lot of people like don't understand, like what it takes to get a business or to bring a business here. Sometimes, and especially with those like bigger names, when you're looking at numbers, and what we're doing, uh, daytime numbers, nighttime numbers, traffic counts. Uh, yeah, like it's, it can get up there. So I like tip my hat to her for the work that she'd be a great commercial agent, but there'd be a huge conflict of interest.

Mike Gennaro: 31:00

She's doing a lot of the heavy lifting, though, for us, so it's like when she's going to ICSC and talking to these big commercial businesses that want to come in and occupy property, develop here, redevelop here, half of the job has already been done. So I come in and just you know, there's always there's that background that we already have, thanks to her, you, everything, you know. The, the mayor has, I think, done an excellent job of being, of just stating that we are open for business, we are a business-friendly town.

Mike Gennaro: 31:38

We're not trying to run everybody off and only have local, which is great.

Bryant Dixon: 31:43

I love local but it's a mix. Support your local businesses.

Mike Gennaro: 31:47

Yes yes, I'm a local business. Right, we're local businesses. Shop local Shop, local Totally. But there can be certain things that you you end up running off certain amenities that do make zachary a valuable player in the market and a great place to live, you know I had one developer actually talked to me one time.

Bryant Dixon: 32:08

He was like just presenting or looking at a piece of property and like asking what could be done there. Yeah and uh, he was like you know, I just really like zachary because you know, if you're not growing, you're dying yeah, and I was like you know, that's a good way of like looking at it. He said you know, as long as your city's growing, that means people are interested in being here. People want to be here yeah and that just kind of made me excited to know like we're in 2010 we were roughly like eight to ten thousand people.

Bryant Dixon: 32:34

Now we've doubled in size. We're probably going to have another like 10,000 people in the next five to 10 years with the growth that we're getting and I can hear those phones ringing in the background to city hall.

Mike Gennaro: 32:47

What, what we're getting out of here? It just got too big mentally yeah.

Bryant Dixon: 32:52

I always say that number, so if this is the first time hearing it, yes, zachary is growing. We're focusing on smart growth. We're focusing on making sure that we're developing the city in a way that is going to be beneficial in the long run for everybody that is here. But we also have to remain competitive, and a part of remaining competitive is continuing to grow, and growing is definitely what we're going to need to attract certain businesses. Yeah, um, I've I've had a couple people tell me to my face like you guys are great, I love your numbers. The only thing you're missing is like your daytime numbers are too small. Yes, we require bedroom community.

Mike Gennaro: 33:32

Yeah, it's the kiss of death yeah, we require 30 000.

Bryant Dixon: 33:34

We require 30 000 daytime population. We require 30,000 daytime population.

Mike Gennaro: 33:38

You can't say this enough. Yes, you can't say Costco, you want Costco and Target. If you don't have a daytime population. All this data is just right out there. I mean, even go on DOTD and you'll see the things that corporate America is looking at, and so you're not going to get a total wine or a Costco or a Target without certain numbers. So if you like driving 30 minutes or even 45 minutes in traffic, then don't grow.

Bryant Dixon: 34:07

One of the ones. I had never thought about. That someone told me because I was like I know we have our median and average household incomes, or, on paper, all that stuff is amazing, but they were. They were like yeah, you guys have a lot of like rooftops and we love rooftops, but you need more multi-family, we need more density yeah, there's something to be said there.

Mike Gennaro: 34:29

I mean, look, I'm, I'm all I'm gonna get in trouble, but you know what, I don't really care, because I think it is a good idea. I think we need a downtown, classy multi-family development so that single people and college-aged people can live somewhere in zachary for everybody, it wouldn't just be single people.

Bryant Dixon: 34:49

Oh yeah, yeah, probably violated laws.

Mike Gennaro: 34:52

Yes, just an affordable price point downtown would not mean that, like that, the whole thing's going to hell in a handbasket.

Bryant Dixon: 35:00

That could be great are you looking or when you say that, are you looking for something that's more so like um retail on the bottom, apartments on the top, kind of like they have at americana?

Mike Gennaro: 35:10

yeah, sure that's. I mean that's a mixed use. I love that. I think that would absolutely fly off the shelves. It's still spec on the on the retail side, so I could never promise that that would fly off the shelves. But yeah, I think there's a true need. I mean, if I just showed up in zachary and I, you know, was just recently married or whatever, or widow or anybody, I need an affordable price point. I want to live where everything is going on and, um, I don't want to have to drive you know, from baton rouge to be able to enjoy zachary.

Bryant Dixon: 35:43

I wouldn't do that, it's just absurd, and I think that's like a benefit too, like yeah we do have areas here. I know we have a lot of subdivisions, but we do have areas like the plains that are not as dense, and we do have areas of the city that could be a lot denser, yeah, which we're going to be seeing some density coming in, like by walmart where there's afton oaks the townhome development that's going to be over there yeah uh, so that's going to be some density added to the city.

Mike Gennaro: 36:07

That's really going to help us with some numbers as well and a working population that can afford to work for $10 to $15 an hour if necessary. At all these amazing amenities that we all want. Yeah, I mean.

Bryant Dixon: 36:25

Think about who's going to be working there too, so we still have to have a population of people that's willing to come in and work if we don't have that ourselves. But I will say I'm so happy that I get to work here in the city itself because we have so many like great things. Like I said, people move here for a number of different reasons. I know the school is always like number one reason that people want to move to Zachary.

Mike Gennaro: 36:47

That got us here yeah.

Bryant Dixon: 36:48

And then you just think about, like all the other things that we have as far as when we're looking at, like you said said like a bedside community, we're still small enough at this point and we still have some spaces in the city that can still be that little small small town. Yeah, so have a small town vibe. But you know, there are also things that will give us an advantage too when we look at when we have the commercial opportunities, when we got tj, maxx and bills and yeah harbor freight below five, five below uh, below uh, below five Uh.

Bryant Dixon: 37:19

But you know, like looking at, like bringing those things in, I think that that's just really great for us to do and it shows that we are making progress and I hope that people do see that we are moving forward.

Mike Gennaro: 37:30

Yeah, yeah, all right. So if you're listening to all this and you're just uh contemplating when, not if you're going to call and complain, to're just uh contemplating when, not if you're going to call and complain to the city of about Brian Dixon or Mike Gennaro or whatever Remember, I don't work for the city. I do. Brian's email is always available. No, I'm just kidding. No.

Bryant Dixon: 37:50

I was like, you're free to call into my office anytime. The number is 225-654-1935. There you go um, you know. Yeah, if you have any questions, definitely give me a call. I'll feel free to ask me um I love talking to people.

Mike Gennaro: 38:06

Yeah, it's just. I think what we're trying to communicate here is an openness to, to growth and openness to ideas. That is the main word. These are ideas. Nothing gets done unless you know the formal process takes place and all this stuff is voted upon and you know we wait years and years for the development to happen. So if you're thinking about a costco in 15 years and let's start planning to be that city now, you know you don't want costco. Don't have a Costco.

Bryant Dixon: 38:36

And wrapping around that, we're talking about growth. And with all this growth. We want to make sure that we're watching out for how we're developing this growth, and one thing that we can do one benefit of that is going to be our flood fact finder.

Mike Gennaro: 38:48

Yeah, you don't want this water sloshing around every place on all this concrete we just put down.

Bryant Dixon: 38:52

Yeah, we don't want to build one neighborhood to flood another neighborhood, so we always need to be conscious of what we're developing, when we're developing it and where we're pushing this water off to, and so the Flood Fact Finder is going to be a really good resource for people living in the city to actually pull up some flood information on their property or some other things in the city. And, like I said, it's not just for residential, it's also for commercial businesses too, so it's marketed to everybody, so this is a benefit to a lot of people.

Mike Gennaro: 39:17

Yeah, awesome. And if you're thinking about just doing a trench in your yard or just bringing in tons of dirt to increase your elevation, don't do that.

Bryant Dixon: 39:26

Don't do that. Please contact us before you do any of that. Please contact us before you do any of that All right, please, we'll leave on that.

Mike Gennaro: 39:36

That's it for this week's episode of Portion Parish, the podcast with Bryant Dixon. It's been a pleasure to have you here today and I hope you know you're always welcome back anytime. And look, if you don't get that now, we've had you on like three or four times and it's always because you have the cutting edge information that we really need to know. Get out there and, yeah, you do. Um, you and ashley, all y'all my gold star guests hit them up at bryantdixon, at cityofzacharyorg. That's b-r-y-a-n-t dot d-i-x-o-n. At cityofzacharyorg. Huge shout out to our community partners, like the city of zachary, who stand with us in our mission to make Zachary a place where every resident feels heard and engaged. That's every resident, everyone, no exceptions, thanks to the generosity and support of our community partners the magazine, podcast and everything you see online which is possible and free because of them, to learn more about Flood Fact Finder where would they go?

Bryant Dixon: 40:35

To learn more about Flood Fact Finder, you can they go. To learn more about Flood Fact Finder, you can go to the City of Zachary's website. It's going to be located in two different sections. It'll be located in the Flood Plane Management section, as well as in Planning and Zoning, under the name Flood Fact Finder, and there's also a little link underneath the Flood Fact Finder section that allows you to read a little bit about what it is, how to use it, and you're welcome to call us if you have any questions about it or you need any additional information. Yeah, and I want to say thanks, mike, for inviting me back. Yeah, it's always a pleasure.

Mike Gennaro: 41:05

Yeah, awesome man, all right, y'all go pick up trash. When you see it, Foster technology at any expense and embrace an attitude of tolerance for diverse voices. You know tolerance for diverse voices. You know they are the creative engines that will drive the success of this economy forward. Uh, you know you don't want to do any of that. Just go plant a tree, get a permit to do it, though take care, exactly beautiful yeah, oh yeah, you're wearing the love the boot.

Bryant Dixon: 41:28

Keep louisiana beautiful today, yeah, we did, picking up some trash.

Mike Gennaro: 41:31

We did a cleanup today yeah, you got to get credit for that man. See y'all next time.