A pending Ascension Parish rewrite would push subdivision rear-yard drainage onto private owners
A pending Ascension Parish rewrite would push subdivision rear-yard drainage onto private owners
2026-09-10 · Louisiana · Regulation · Proposed — not yet introduced
Proposed, not adopted. In Louisiana the water question for a community association is drainage, not conservation, and the most consequential drainage change we found in the window is a parish ordinance that has not passed. We flag it because the direction of travel matters more than the draft.
The instrument is an Ascension Parish draft ordinance amending the Unified Land Development Code — §§17-4044, 17-4045, 17-4050, 17-506, 17-506.1, adding 17-506.2, amending 17-507, 17-5012, 17-5013, 17-5014, repealing 17-5094, and amending 17-40100 and Attachment B. Its own citation lines read “<<insert ordinance #, date>>,” which is direct evidence it was not adopted when published. Whether it has since been adopted, and with what number, is not established.1
What it would do
“WHEREAS, the Parish of Ascension desires to prohibit open ditches, channels, and swales in rear years [sic] of major subdivisions and to require rear-yard drainage improvements to be privately owned and maintained; and”
“H. In the rear yards of lots in major subdivisions, the design of drainage improvements shall not require public maintenance of open ditches, swales, or channels within a public servitude. Such improvements shall be located underground and within enclosed pipes to the maximum extent practicable.”
“J. New subdivisions designed as open-ditch, without curb and gutter, shall remain as open-ditch subdivisions in perpetuity until and unless adequate drainage infrastructure is constructed to replace the ditch system as determined by the Parish Engineer.”
And on detention design:
“WHEREAS, the Parish of Ascension desires to require detention facilities to be designed to the 50-year storm, require post-development flow to be reduced by ten (10) percent, to increase the design of subsurface interior conveyance systems to the 25-year storm capacity design…”
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Related Louisiana HOA Topics
- Ascension Parish — draft ordinance amending the Unified Land Development Code (drainage), document library ↩
- La. R.S. 9:1141.34 — Adoption of budgets; special assessments, including the reserve-basis disclosure ↩
- Acts of the 2026 Regular Session — complete index (Act 575, HB 990) ↩
- Horton v. Savannah Place Homeowners’ Ass’n, No. 56,945-CA (La. App. 2 Cir. July 15, 2026) — applying La. R.S. 9:1141.33 ↩
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