Zachary: It's a slam dunk!

ZACHARY: It’s a Slam Dunk!

Put yourself in the shoes of a young couple in the Greater Baton Rouge Area who are trying to buy a home and raise a couple of children and you will decide to move to Zachary in a heart beat.

First of all a lot will cost you 30 to 35 percent more in South Baton Rouge than the same size lot sells for in Zachary. And Zachary is growing fast, so chances are if you buy or build a home in Zachary today you will be able to sell it in four or five years for 20 to 30 percent more than you paid for it. That can still happen in South Baton Rouge, but in Zachary it’s a slam dunk!

And then there is the quality of Zachary’s public schools. If you want to send your two or three kids to the best college preparatory middle school or high school in South Baton Rouge you’re looking at the equivalent of a second house note every month. But that’s not necessary in a city whose public schools are rated number one in the state.

You want a college savings plan for your children? Move to Zachary. It’s a slam dunk!

But look, the secret is out. Just drive around and check how many houses you see being built in and around Zachary. And what about all the new commercial office buildings, shops, doctors offices and strip malls? As the young families move into Zachary the restaurants, dress shops, dentist offices and attorneys are right behind them. And as soon as they finish a new strip mall you drive by and the parking lot is filled with cars.

And that is important because successful, growing businesses add a lot to the tax base. If you have to get all of your tax dollars from home owners pretty soon the advantage of low prices up front can be lost because of high property taxes. Moving forward, the commercial establishments provide the tax dollars needed for the infrastructure improvements it takes to keep the ball rolling as more and more people move in.

So what is happening right now in Zachary is that you have a good mix of new subdivisions and new shopping centers. And you want to maintain that balance while controlling your growth so you’re not building in problems that can come back later to haunt a community. The key to success is a good set of sensible, carefully-balanced, planning and zoning rules that are strictly enforced. Nothing will turn a city with great potential into a traffic clogged quagmire of stagnant growth faster than poor planning or no planning such as we experienced in New Orleans and Baton Rouge in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

No, Zachary really is the place where it’s going on right now. If the people of Zachary can just keep things headed in the right direction the folks in Baton Rouge won’t have to travel all the way to Austin, Texas or Portland, Oregon to see how a great city works. They can just come on up to Zachary. It’s a SLAM DUNK!!