## Facts

- The 2100 block of Chestnut Street (between Josephine Street and Jackson Avenue) lay in New Orleans’s Lower Garden District and functioned as a narrow public traffic connection and bikeway.
- Trinity Church operated an elementary school on property fronting both sides of the block; the campus configuration required schoolchildren to cross the public right-of-way during the day.
- In 1972, the City authorized limited closure of the block by gates during school hours (10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.) for safety.
- Traffic counts later showed an average of 505 cars per day using the block, including 220 school-related trips; no traffic injuries to Trinity students were reported in the record.
- In 1985, Trinity proposed removing the block from public use and incorporating it into the school campus, ultimately seeking a long-term lease; an appraisal valued the block at $160,300.
- After public hearings and review of traffic and safety information, the City Planning Commission recommended action and the City Council enacted an ordinance closing the block and leasing it to Trinity for 60 years at appraised market value, finding the block “no longer needed for public purposes.”
- Neighborhood associations and nearby residents sued the City to enjoin enforcement of the ordinance, arguing the street remained in public use and could not lawfully be removed for private benefit.

## Issues

1. Whether the City of New Orleans could lawfully close a dedicated public street block that remained in actual public use and lease it for 60 years to a private religious school under the home-rule charter and Louisiana law governing public streets.
2. Whether the City Council’s finding that the block was “no longer needed for public purposes” was subject to judicial override based on the opponents’ evidence of continued public use.
3. Whether the closure-and-lease ordinance was arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion.

## Decision

- The Louisiana Supreme Court, on rehearing, affirmed the court of appeal and upheld the ordinance closing the street block and leasing it to Trinity for 60 years.
- The court treated the City Council’s “no longer needed for public purposes” determination as a legislative policy judgment entitled to deference.
- The court declined to reweigh competing evidence about traffic impacts and public need because plaintiffs did not prove arbitrariness, capriciousness, or abuse of discretion.
- Injunctive relief was denied, leaving the closure and lease in effect.

## Legal Principles

- A home-rule municipality has broad authority to manage and regulate property under its control, including closing and leasing a street, when it determines the property is no longer required for public purposes.
- A municipal determination that property is “no longer needed for public purposes” is reviewed deferentially; courts will not substitute their judgment absent arbitrariness, capriciousness, or abuse of discretion.
- Municipal action is not invalid merely because a private party receives substantial benefit, so long as the action serves a legitimate public objective and is within the municipality’s lawful authority.

## Conclusion

The court sustained New Orleans’s decision to close and lease a publicly dedicated street block to a private school because the City acted within its charter authority and opponents failed to show that the council’s public-necessity finding and ordinance were arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion.


Coliseum Square Ass’n v. City of New Orleans, 544 So. 2d 351 (La. 1989)