 |
A word from Mayor of DeRidder, The Honorable Ron Roberts. There is no accepted formula for how large a city should be. At one extreme, New Orleans occupies all of Orleans Parish. The city boundaries and the parish boundaries are coterminous. At the other extreme, DeRidder occupies less than 1% of the land area of Beauregard Parish. This, despite the fact that more than 30% of Beauregard Parishes’ population lives in the City of DeRidder. |
|
An additional 20% of the parishes’ population lives within four miles of DeRidder’s city limits. If this additional area were annexed, 50% of the parish population would be living in DeRidder, and DeRidder would occupy 4% of the land in Beauregard Parish. Looking at the situation in another way, Merryville occupies an area of 8.2 sq. miles and has 3% of the parish population. DeRidder is only slightly larger – 8.5 sq. miles – yet we have 30% of the parish population. It is a simple conclusion that more people would like to live within the city limits of DeRidder. They are congregated near the city limits because they cannot find within the city limits the property they desire. There is nothing sacred or magical about the city limits of DeRidder. They were considered adequate when established, but they were established with a provision for growth. Now is the appropriate time to utilize the annexation provision of the city charter and to plan for future growth, growth that can only take place if we allow our city to expand.
|