VERMILION PARISH, La. ( KLFY ) — A property developer says Kaplan city officials must pay up after violating its property rights.
In a lawsuit recently moved to federal court, the developer claims the city wrongfully rezoned property the developer had purchased and prevented it from creating a mobile home community.
LECO Properties LLC said in the lawsuit that it purchased the property — Legion Park Subdivision — in September 2022. At that time, the property was zoned as an R-2 Residential District, meaning it could be used for mobile homes as long as those homes complied with certain requirements, the developer said.
The developer claims that city officials were aware of its plans to create a mobile home community on the property and that Kaplan Mayor Michael Kloesel was initially supportive of the project. However, things changed once the mobile homes were moved onto the property.
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“Shortly after LECO lawfully moved the first three homes to the site, defendant Kloesel expressed his opinion to LECO that he did not like the way these homes looked and that LECO needed to remedy their appearance to ‘Kaplan City Standards,’” the developer said.