The St. Tammany Parish Council agreed this month to deny a zoning request for an 80-acre subdivision in Goodbee despite facing a lawsuit from developers.

The vote denied rezoning the southeast side of Tantella Ranch Road, north of Louisiana Highway 1077, from Suburban Agricultural to a Planned Unit Development.

“We were elated,” said Dr. John Foster, one of a dozen or so Goodbee residents who rallied against the development in the Parish Council chambers. ”We were real proud of the board for taking the stand that they did.” The denial comes after Aymond Development LLC, developers for the 900-home project, filed suit against the parish’s original Zoning Commission’s denial for the project.

Aymond filed an appeal and Parish Council members, the ultimate authority on zoning changes, were asked to reconsider or face suit.

But after a closed-door executive session, the council concurred with the Zoning Commission’s denial.

Goodbee Civic Association President John Martin said in a letter to the council there were and are a number of good reasons that the zoning board denied this PUD.

“It was not a capricious action. This PUD is different then the others in the area,” he wrote.

Martin and Foster argued existing roads don’t support added traffic, at least 100 vehicles that come with the subdivision.

In addition, the parish’s longterm plans calls for one house every five acres. The development proposed one house every one acre.

“There are strong grounds to fight this and not be held captive by suit happy people,” Martin wrote. “We asked the council to stand up for the people that have to live in this area, not for a single developer that wants to make a buck.”