Environment
New Orleans Introduces First Master Plan for Rebuilding
(archrecord.construction.com - 01/18/06)
By Angelle
Bergeron
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| Rough conceptual
image of a future New Orleans neighborhood. Image courtesy
Bring New Orleans Back Commission |
On January 11, members of the Urban
Planning Committee of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's “Bring
New Orleans Back Commission” (BNOBC) presented their
long- term vision for rebuilding the city. Issues they addressed
ranged from the establishment of neighborhood planning teams
to ensure residents’ participation to the procurement
of funding for buyouts and the creation of the Crescent City
Rebuilding Authority to manage the redevelopment process.
Dubbed, “comprehensive and aggressive”
by committee chair Joseph Canizaro, a local real estate developer,
and “controversial" by Mayor Nagin, the plan marries
lofty, visionary concepts for a “bigger, better New Orleans”
with tangible deadlines for those participating in the process.
John Beckman, principal with the Philadelphia
firm of Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC, master planners for
the BNOBC, detailed the plan to a jam-packed (and often contentious)
room at the Sheraton New Orleans. In the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina, 50 percent of New Orleans houses were flooded with
at least four feet of water, Beckman said. The storm ravaged
roughly 110,000 households. At least 25,000 of the city's
38,000 historically-significant properties were damaged.
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The urban planning committee’s
framework for rebuilding includes not only a call for greater
flood and storm water protection, but calls for every neighborhood
to have basic infrastructure, public schools, cultural and
community facilities, places of worship, health facilities,
open spaces, convenient retail, and access to public transit
(most likely light rail). The plan is based on the premise
that the federal government will provide the promised hurricane
protection system, Canizaro said. Before making specific neighborhood
plans, urban planners are awaiting FEMA’s release of
its base flood-elevation maps, which could determine where
redevelopment will be feasible.
The commission now has its work cut
out for it if it is to meet its self-imposed deadlines in
the coming months. By January 20, Reed Kroloff, dean of Tulane’s
School of Architecture, and New Orleans architect Ray Manning
will begin forming neighborhood planning teams comprised of
residents and experts like economists, urban planners and
public outreach specialists. The two have pledged to have
the groups organized by February 20, and to have them identify
the number of residents committed to returning to New Orleans
by March 20. By April 20, the committee hopes to secure funding
to enable homeowners who don't want to rebuild to be bought
out. By May 20, Manning and Kroloff will present the information
gathered by the neighborhood planning teams. All committees
of the BNOBC will make a final presentation June 20, and the
urban planning committee has set a deadline for August 20
to complete a financial analysis, secure funding and begin
reconstruction.
One of the biggest challenges faced
by the committee, admitted Canizaro, is devising a long-term
goal in the face of so many unknowns, including future population
estimates and revenue streams. And one of the primary concerns
among New Orleans residents, especially those who continue
to be displaced from their flood-damaged homes, is that they
will be excluded from the rebuilding process. Kroloff pledged
to utilize every means possible, including the Internet and
public access channels, to include residents in the planning
phase of the rebuilding. “The urban planning committee
has presented a plan and now we will go into the public realm
and find out what people are feeling and thinking,” he
said.
Residents are understandably wary, especially
in light of the city city’s quick slating for demolition
of storm-damaged homes in certain neighborhoods. Initially,
55,000 homes were marked for demolition, says Tami Frazier,
a spokesperson with the Mayor's office. Citizens filed a lawsuit
against the city to halt the demolition, and on January 18
a federal court ruled that homeowners must be given seven
to ten days notice before demolition.
The committee's plan encourages Congress
to reconsider passage of the Baker Bill, which would finance
a federal buyout of heavily damaged homes for 100 percent
of the pre-Katrina market value, less mortgage and insurance.
The plan also supported creation of the Crescent City Rebuilding
Authority, which will be comprised of paid professionals,
to manage redevelopment. Beckman detailed specifics of such
an authority, including a scheduled life-expectancy. “It
should have a 10-year life span,” he said. “It needs
to finish its work.”
Beckman outlined the committee's ideas
for financial vehicles to support various aspects of the plan,
including bonding options, tax credit incentives, below-market
interest rate loans, and institutions to provide funding not
available from other financial sources. The committee proposed
a four-month delay in the issuance of building permits in
heavily damaged areas, allowing time to assess future viability
of those areas.
People representing the historic Holy
Cross neighborhood, New Orleans East, Lakeview and Gentilly
expressed concerns that a third-party panel comprised largely
of non-residents would determine the viability of neighborhoods
that they feared were being viewed more as plans and abstract
concepts than their homes.
Through its efforts, the building committee
is “setting up a model for the next major community that
suffers another catastrophic event,” Kroloff said. "More
than half of the country lives in an area of geographic instability."
"The question is not what will
happen, but when," Manning added.
View the urban planning committee’s
complete report at www.bringneworleansback.org
or www.cityofno.com
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