DONALDSONVILLE - Ascension officials voted to extend a measure banning new developments in the parish as they mull long-term changes to local ordinances. 

Thursday night, the parish council voted unanimously to extend the moratorium, originally planned to last only nine months, halting all business and residential developments until May 31.

Councilman Aaron Lawler says they need more time. 

"We have an imperfect product, and we're trying to make it a little less imperfect. We're changing the ULDC codes, the Unified Land Development Codes, and they just need a little bit more work," he said.

According to Lawler, extending the moratorium was a possibility from the beginning. 

"When we passed this the first time the president said he needed seven months, we gave him nine. And we said we'd extend it if we needed too, and that's what we're doing here today. We're going to extend it," he said. 

The order was first introduced last year so local leaders could come up with permanent changes that would mitigate Ascension's flood problems, which had been exacerbated by the parish's fast-growing residential areas.

But Lawler says the moratorium doesn't fix current problems. He said it will fix a lot of potential future problems. 

"What the moratorium is doing is it's allowing us to come up with solutions that will allow future planning, and that's why we're in the problem we're in today. For thirty years, we haven't planned for growth. Now we're starting to plan better for growth," he said. 

While parish leaders have proposed a list of adjustments, they won't be ready to adopt those changes before the current moratorium expires later this month. 

Read the full list of proposed changes here