Location: 2300 South College Road
Acreage: 6.88 acres
Property taxes paid in 2010: $21.50
Owner: WPM Exploration Inc.
Description: This vacant lot sits between two other empty tracts along South College Road, adjacent to a small row of new industrial companies and near a small industrial complex.
Location: 2300 South College Road
Acreage: 6.88 acres
Property taxes paid in 2010: $21.50
Owner: WPM Exploration Inc.
Description: This vacant lot sits between two other empty tracts along South College Road, adjacent to a small row of new industrial companies and near a small industrial complex.Though the listed owner is WPM Exploration, the sign on the property indicates that the land might be available for lease through MPW Properties. Online searches show that WPM and MPW are both owned by William Mills III. Mills did not return a phone call to his office at MPW Properties.
WPM Exploration, which owns almost 7 acres at
2300 S. College Road, paid $21.50 in 2010 property taxes.
Photo by Robin May
[Editor's Note: "Fair Share" is part of an ongoing Independent investigative series to expose local property owners who appear to be taking advantage of what is widely viewed as an outdated state law. The state law mainly relies on the honesty of landowners who claim that there is some type of agricultural activity on their land in order to pay extremely low property taxes. While we argue that the law needs to be changed, we also maintain there is no excuse to exploit it. We have identified numerous tracts of land throughout the parish that benefit from the exemption yet have no agricultural activity whatsoever taking place on them.]
Exposed:
1. 1900 Kaliste Saloom Road (corner of Kaliste Saloom and Camellia Boulevard)
• 13.5 acres
• owned by Parc Lafayette developer Glenn Stewart
• paid $42 in property taxes in 2010
• lost ag status for 2011 due to breaking ground on development
2. 3100 Ambassador Caffery
• 11 acres of forested land
• owned mostly by members of the Arnould family
• paid $28.69 in property taxes in 2010
• lost ag status due to The Independent's investigation
3. 200 Alleman Drive
• 8 acres of undeveloped land with a residential building using city services
• owned by attorney Greg Logan
• paid $17.41 in property taxes in 2010
• lost ag status due to The Independent's investigation
4. Dover Boulevard, behind Southbrooke Business Park just off Ambassador Caffery
• 7 acres nestled between prime commercial office buildings on the southside of Lafayette
• paid $20.44 in 2010 property taxes
• owned by Dwight Andrus Jr.
• lost ag status due to The Independent's investigation
5. Lafayette Golf Academy Inc., 2231 Kaliste Saloom Road
• 13 acres total, with a small corner of the property classified as farmland
• paid $1,215 in total property taxes in 2010: $1,205 for commercial use and $10 for the portion of land that's classified as agricultural use
• owned by Thomas Becnel and Patrick Gros of The Becnel Company Trust
• ag status unknown