Selling Houses

East Baton Rouge Parish

Sell your house in Central

Central incorporated in 2005 and covers 62 square miles on the east side of East Baton Rouge Parish, along the Amite River, most of it outside the public sewer system. The city issues its own building permits from the Municipal Service Center on Sullivan Road, while the assessment, the recorded act and the tax bill stay with parish offices in Baton Rouge. Central is a Class 5 community in FEMA's Community Rating System, against Class 6 for the rest of the parish, which earns a 25 percent discount on flood insurance inside the special flood hazard area.

Talk to an agent who works Central

Who issues a building permit in Central?

The city does, from its own Permits and Inspections office at the Municipal Service Center, 6703 Sullivan Road. The city publishes a permit fee calculator that estimates plan review and flood zone fees before an application goes in, which tells you something useful on its own: flood review is built into ordinary permitting here rather than bolted on.

Everything else about the property sits with the parish. Your assessment, your parcel record and your homestead exemption are with the assessor. The recorded act that put your name on the house, and any mortgage or lien against it, are with the clerk of court. The tax bill comes from the sheriff. So the document trail on a Central house starts at City Hall and then runs to three separate offices in downtown Baton Rouge.

Does a Central address put my house in the Central school district?

Usually, but the two lines are drawn separately and you should check rather than assume. The Louisiana Legislature approved the creation of the Central Community School District in 2006, and it has its own elected board that is not under the control or oversight of the City of Central. The Louisiana Constitution treats the Central and Zachary community school systems as parishes for the purposes of Article VIII.

The district runs five schools with a combined enrollment over 4,600. School attendance is one of the first questions a buyer asks, so confirm the address against the district boundary in the City-Parish GIS rather than against the city limits, and say what you find.

What does a Class 5 rating do for a buyer's flood insurance?

FEMA's community status book lists Central as a Community Rating System Class 5, which carries a 25 percent discount on National Flood Insurance Program premiums for policies inside the special flood hazard area. East Baton Rouge Parish is Class 6 at 20 percent. That difference follows the address, so it belongs in the conversation.

What the class does not fix is the map. Central's current effective flood map took effect on June 19, 2012, four years before the August 2016 flood, and it has not been superseded. A house that took water in 2016 can still be mapped outside the hazard area, which is why a buyer reads the disclosure and the elevation certificate rather than the zone letter alone.

Is my house on public sewer or an individual system?

For most of Central, an individual system. The city's own planning profile states that the majority of its land area is not served by public sewer treatment, and that the public system generally parallels Hooper Road, Sullivan Road and Joor Road along with areas south of Hooper Road.

That matters twice. A buyer's lender and insurer will want the answer in writing, and an individual sewage system is an inspected item with a service history, which a public connection is not. Find the last service record, the permit for the system if you have it, and the location of the field before the house goes on the market.

Neighborhoods in Central

  • Tanglewood. Seven filings in the City-Parish subdivision record, from Section 1 in April 1953 to the last part of Section 3 in March 1976. Tanglewood Elementary, which the school system runs for first and second grade, was renovated after 2016 flood damage and reopened in 2017.
  • Bellingrath Hills. Two filings, approved in July 1955 and June 1962. Bellingrath Estates added filings in 1972, 1975, 1977 and then a fourth in February 2020, forty-eight years after the first.
  • Comite Hills. Seven filings approved between 1970 and 1990, with Comite Hills West adding three more in 1976 and 1977.
  • Crystal Place. Seven filings approved between 1972 and 1984, all outside the gated category in the parish record.
  • The Village at Magnolia Square. Seven filings between 2009 and 2025, several of them recorded as a traditional neighborhood development rather than a conventional subdivision.
  • Bellingrath Lakes. Three filings approved in August 2000, July 2003 and September 2005.

Housing stock to check

  • The Census counted 12,116 housing units in Central for 2019 through 2023. The 1970s account for 2,980 of them and the 1980s for 2,116, while 4,411 units were built in 2000 or later and only 1,305 predate 1970.
  • Most of the city's land area is not served by public sewer treatment. Public sewer generally parallels Hooper Road, Sullivan Road and Joor Road and the areas south of Hooper Road, and the rest of the city runs on individual systems.
  • Two electric utilities serve the city, Entergy and DEMCO, and which one reaches a given house depends on the address. Water comes from Baton Rouge Water Company, which draws from wells 600 to 2,800 feet deep.
  • On a house platted in the 1970s or 1980s here, the systems worth dating before anyone else asks are the roof, the condenser and air handler, the water heater and the sewage system. On anything from 2000 forward, the builder paperwork and the recorded plat restrictions matter more than the mechanicals.

East Baton Rouge Parish records and permits

Before you list in Central

  • Central has run its own Permits and Inspections office at the Municipal Service Center, 6703 Sullivan Road, only since the city incorporated in 2005. Work done before that was permitted by the City-Parish, so a search of the city's records alone may come back empty on an older roof or addition. Run both offices before you conclude a job was never permitted.
  • Name the electric provider specifically, because Entergy and DEMCO both serve parts of the city. Add Baton Rouge Water Company for water, and if the house is on an individual sewage system rather than public sewer, put that on the list with the date it was last serviced.
  • Central took some of the worst of the August 2016 flood, and the city adopted its first Master Drainage Plan in 2019 in response. Walk the lot after a heavy rain and note where water stands and where it leaves. A Central buyer asks that before they ask about the kitchen.

Gather

Permit history for past work

Pull the permit record for the roof, the windows, the panel, the water heater, and any addition. An open or missing permit on work already done is the item most likely to surface during inspection.

Inspect

Grading, gutters, and the slab edge

Walk the perimeter after a rain and see where water sits, then check that downspouts carry it away from the house. Standing water against a Florida slab is the start of most of the problems inside.

Resolve

Replace every burned-out bulb

Match the color temperature across a room while you are at it. A house with one dead bulb per room photographs dim and shows dimmer.

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Last updated September 19, 2026