§1704. Acquisition of private property for levees and drainage

A. In order to construct, extend, improve, maintain and operate storm tide protection levees, and appurtenant levees and drainage facilities, the board shall have power to acquire by donation, purchase, exchange, expropriation, or appropriation and include in any of its developments and improvements any private property within the following described boundaries, to wit:

(1) That certain area situated in the parish of St. Bernard, Louisiana, lying between the 1500 foot permanent Mississippi River--Gulf Outlet right of way on the north and a parallel line extending 300 feet south of said Gulf Outlet right of way, bounded on the west by Bayou Bienvenue and on the east by Chandeleur Sound; that certain area in the parish of St. Bernard lying between the south or outside base line of the present hydraulic fill retaining levee and a parallel line extending 300 feet north of said south or outside base line of the present hydraulic fill retaining levee, bounded on the west by Bayou Bienvenue and on the east by Chandeleur Sound; and strips or tracts of land not more than 50 feet in width located approximately 1,000 feet apart extending north and south between the two certain areas above described for the purpose of excavating lateral drainage ditches or canals as structures appurtenant to levee drainage, provided that such strips or tracts of land shall be acquired and the drainage ditches or canals shall be excavated on the boundary line of adjoining properties wherever practical.

B. Lands and improvements thereon within the above described area actually used or destroyed and appropriated by the district for the purpose of constructing, acquiring, extending, improving, maintaining or operating the district's levees or appurtenant levees or drainage facilities, shall be paid for at a price not to exceed the assessed value of the preceding year, provided that this shall not apply to property the control of which is vested in the state or any subdivision thereof. This Subsection shall not be construed to prevent the appropriation of such lands and improvements before payment therefor.

C. Any owner, from whom the board acquires any portion of the above described tracts for levees, drainage or other purposes authorized herein, shall continue to have a nonexclusive right to use such property acquired from said owner for the purpose of laying, using and maintaining walkways, roadways and pipelines to and from any adjacent lands which said owner might also own or to and from the said Gulf Outlet subject to such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the board.

D. The provisions of this Section shall be subject to the limitations of R.S. 34:361.

Added by Acts 1960, No. 228, §1. Amended by Acts 1962, No. 109, §2; Acts 1982, No. 839, §1.