(The Center Square) - Caddo Parish officials say the $60 million sports complex could still move forward despite voters rejecting it Tuesday. However, they plan to review residents' concerns before deciding what to do next.
Parish Administrator Erica Bryant said the parish was disappointed by the results but recognized that residents had concerns about the proposal.
"We don't consider this a failure," Bryant said. "We consider this an opportunity to hear from our citizens."
Bryant said the parish wants to take the opportunity to address voters' concerns, assess those concerns, analyze and determine what their next steps will be.
Some residents and groups like the Caddo Parish Republican Party opposed the measure, questioning the amount and whether the parish should prioritize roads, public safety and infrastructure instead of a sports complex.
Roughly 58% of Caddo Parish voters, or 39,156, opposed the bond proposal, while 42%, or 28,355, supported it. The measure failed by 10,801 votes.
Parish officials maintained that the sports complex would attract visitors, support businesses and generate additional tax revenue to help fund parish services.
"We recognize that our roads and our bridges and our streets are important but we also have those other issues that we have to address," Bryant said. "We believed that this would have been an investment in our future, an economic development driver."
Bryant said the $60 million cannot be used for other projects because the bonds were never approved or issued and that there is no money available to redirect.
Caddo Parish Commission President Gregory Young acknowledged that parish officials could have done a better job explaining the proposal to residents before the election.
"The public has informed us that we didn't do a very good job in rolling this out," Young said. "But if we do decide to continue with the process, we're gonna invite more of our citizens to be part of that deliberation. I think that's important."
Young said the parish needs to find new ways to generate revenue as its population continues to decline. He noted that Caddo Parish has lost more than 24,000 residents since 2000.
Caddo Parish Commission Vice-President Victor Thomas said the parish held community meetings explaining the proposal and would consider additional outreach if officials decide to pursue it again.
"We initially held 36 town hall meetings," Thomas said. "We will go back to the drawing board if we decide to put this out."
Thomas said officials struggled to attract residents to some of the meetings.
"We found it challenging to get people to come out, to hear what we had to say," Thomas said.
For now, parish officials have not set a timeline for revisiting the proposal. Bryant said the parish will review voters' concern before deciding whether to move forward with the project.