LIVINGSTON - On Thursday, the Livingston Parish Council passed an ordinance reenacting and amending zoning within the parish.

"This is monumental, no other council has done what you've just done," Livingston Parish President Randy Delatte said.

The last time the parish council created a master plan was in 2013.

"The key to zoning and doing a zoning plan and having it stick is to base it off the master plan," Zoning Counsel for Livingston Parish Steve Irving said.

Livingston Parish Council Chairman Billy Taylor said there were also amendments to the ordinance. Some of the amendments changed language and definitions in the ordinance as well as assigned zoning to hundreds of properties that did not have zoning.

"It was clean up on the amendments for chapter 117, which gives better definitions," Taylor said. "This is exactly what you can put in these types of areas."

Livingston Parish Councilmember Dean Coates said the interim zoning helps the parish pump the brakes when it comes to large development projects.

"We've been overdeveloped for far too long in Livingston Parish, this is an attempt to put zoning in place to stabilize," Coates said.

Coates also had concerns development outpaced public services and utilities. Irving said the ordinance helps with that.

"You want the uses of land around where you live and sometimes where you have your business should be compatible with the land around you, that's what zoning is all about," Irving said.

Prior to the ordinance passing, not all of the districts in Livingston Parish were completely zoned. Irving said districts 1,7 and 8 had zoning maps under the previous system. District 5 also had a zoning map, but it was thrown out in federal court because of an inconsistency between the then-master plan and the zoning that was assigned to it with the Deer Run development project.

"We were sued in the Deer Run case because of the process that went into putting zoning in place. District 5 was thrown out. I want to make sure everything that is being done is in the proper order," Coates said.

Irving said this ordinance and its amendments helps to make sure there is no procedural argument to throw out maps for districts that do have zoning in the future.

Irving said the master plan could be complete by July at the earliest.