Mandeville Councilman Dennis Bechac, one of the main backers of the plan, said that if the city were to provide free parking spaces to businesses it would encourage commercial growth in the area.    

“For every parking space you actually build on the street in Old Mandeville, it generates $25,000 in gross retail sales per year,” Bechac said. “I look at it as an investment and the city should be investing in trying to culvert the ditches, put the drainage in and put parking over that.”

Bechac said the current B3 laws force newly established businesses, with no parking on their lots, to pay several thousand dollars to establish street parking, which is an unneeded expense that is costing the city new business.

Bechac believes the simple solution is to provide those businesses with lots that will save them money. He said the current laws have been in effect since 1992 and it is time for a change.

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