GONZALES - Ascension Parish is going through growing pains.

"If we're going to have economic growth we need to be able to attract a millennial generation. So we need to have more housing," said Chief Administrative Officer for the city of Gonzales Scot Byrd.

The Rothland Townhomes going up behind the hospital off Highway 30 will eventually become 40 affordable townhomes, but not everyone's on-board with that.

But it turns out it's not the only new development that residents are concerned about"

"The apartments on veteran's boulevard I've got a huge issue with," resident Jeff Petitt said.

Those luxury apartments will add at least 500 more residents to the area and onto Highway 30.

"Which at peak travel times is a parking lot and I don't see it getting any better," said Petitt.

Byrd says he understands the concerns about traffic but doesn't think these developments will affect it.

"We're talking about a highway that has a daily traffic count in the vicinity of about 25,000 cars a day, so 40 more vehicles is not going to make a major impact."

But that's not the point for residents like Jeff.

"It's what I call irresponsible development. Where we develop before we put the infrastructure in to handle the demand the new developments will bring," he said.

Byrd says they cannot hamper the city's development while they wait for the state to make improvements to the roads.

"That is a state highway so one of the things that they're working on and promised us is some roundabouts to improve traffic flow in that area," Byrd said.