Environment
Its Population Doubled, Baton Rouge Forced to Adjust
(archrecord.construction.com - 09/19/2005)
By Angelle
Bergeron
Baton Rouge became the largest city
in Louisiana overnight when evacuees fleeing Hurricane Katrina
ballooned the area’s population from roughly 400,000
to 800,000, according to Walter Monsour, the city’s chief
administrative officer. Becoming a first-tier city in a single
day with no urban planning and no upgrading of infrastructure
has resulted in commune-style living, depleted grocery store
shelves, and overburdened phone lines and traffic lanes. The
only things that seem to be quick in the bursting-at-the-seams
populace are tempers.
Officials are still trying to get a
handle on urban planning, infrastructure, and housing issues.
Monsour is coordinating a committee of business leaders and
elected officials to identify the city’s future needs,
including planning new zones for development an building a
bigger airport, a northern and southern loop around the city,
and an enhanced transit system.
“We intend to hire the best urban
planner in the country that we can get our hands on to come
in and replan,” he says. “We want to make sure we
do it prudently and expeditiously. We have to do it very quickly,
but we can’t afford to set a ball in motion that is going
to be a ramrod.” Baton Rouge-based architect Trey Trahan
says he has been asked by the city to put together “an
international team of thinkers--including Arup, Urban Strategies,
and Michael van Valkenburgh” to address the issues in
Baton Rouge.
Meanwhile, because available real estate
has been virtually bought out, Baton Rouge is trying to plan
a city that will accommodate the still-growing populace. While
no new zones have been chosen for permanent development, Monsour
says that the city is looking at refurbishing three or four
areas. “We are trying to do it judiciously so as not
to eliminate one problem and create another. Several pockets
will be easier for area communities to absorb, and we don’t
want to clog any particular area. He adds that the city has
a number of undeveloped lots on which construction will be
starting very soon. “Some areas that were being considered
for development will get to the drawing board quickly.”
In the meantime FEMA will be “picking
up the tab” for temporary housing for those in shelters
and those living with family and friends, Monsour says. “They
will pay for rental of trailers, modular homes, whatever they
bring in. Then some of those will rollover to HUD or Section
8, other federal programs that historically sustain people.”
Meanwhile, city planners are hoping
to make the best of an unprecedented opportunity to bring
back blighted neighborhoods and refurbish streets, Monsour
says. Affordable housing, specifically for the displaced poor,
is the largest need in Baton Rouge, says Dr. Sally Soileau,
a Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service County Agent. Limited
spaces are available in public housing, but evacuees have
even filled up student housing and 4-H camps. “Those
who can afford to buy homes have already bought what is available,”
Soileau says.
Arthur Sterbcow, president of New Orleans-based
Latter & Blum Realtors, which owns the Baton Rouge CJ
Brown Realtors, predicts that the immediate surge of home
sales in Baton Rouge will slow down when residents return
to surrounding areas. But “there will still be a tremendous
demand for housing in the Baton Rouge area because it will
be a staging area for the rebuilding of New Orleans,”
Sterbcow says.
|
