Chapter Two

 
• Citywide Development History 
• Citywide Development Assets 
• Current Land Use and Demographics 
• Recommendations and Solutions Presented in the 1999 Land Use Plan 
• Promotion of Residential Integrity
• Concentration of Commercial Corridors
• Implementation of Mixed-Use Categories
• Reduction of Non-Conforming Uses
• Centralization of Industrial Land Use
• Increase of Green Space and Recreational Areas
• Mechanism to Organize Neighborhoods

A land use plan for a developed city is necessarily predicated on what already exists. This is especially true in New Orleans, where we enjoy so many benefits of our city's history, culture and architecture, and where we celebrate the diversity of our population. This chapter will begin with a history of the community's development, continue with a discussion of current land use and demographic information for the city as a whole, and conclude with a discussion of the proposed solutions/recommendations for solving land use problems and achieving the aspirations of citizens. The latter are then presented as the 1999 Land Use Plan Map, which shows how the solutions will change land uses in the city over time.

Citywide Development History

From a small French colonial outpost surrounded by water and swamp, New Orleans evolved into one of the most unique cities in America. The story of New Orleans, of course, begins with the Vieux Carré, with its traditional military site planning, and in many respects ends there, as a major source of the city's distinctiveness and recent economic growth. However, the rest of New Orleans developed quite differently from the Vieux Carré. That story helps us understand current land use conditions throughout the city.

New Orleans grew upriver and downriver from the Vieux Carré in the early 19th Century, as plantations were subdivided to meet the growing population of the city. Downriver, Bernard Marigny divided his property in 1806, creating a residential extension of the Vieux Carré primarily for Creole residents, both French and African (known as free men of color who at one time owned three quarters of the land in Faubourg Marigny). Upriver, land originally granted to Bienville during his term as governor in the early 1700s was subdivided as Faubourg St. Marie, later Anglicized to St. Mary by the Americans who settled there after 1803. The two new faubourgs developed in opposite directions: St. Mary, upriver, with larger lots and extensive commercial and industrial development and Marigny, downriver, with small residential lots, equal in size to those in the Vieux Carré. The city was divided into three self-governing entities, with the Vieux Carré as the First Municipality, Faubourg St. Mary as the Second Municipality, and Faubourg Marigny the Third Municipality. St. Mary became known as the American Sector and developed as the economic hub of the city. The Third Municipality received third priority in the distribution of city services and many observers claim that the situation exists to this day.

Throughout the 19th Century residential, commercial, and industrial land uses developed alongside one another. Commercial activity was interspersed with residences, with maritime uses dominating the riverfront and shutting it off from public access. Major industrial and commercial activity also developed away from the river. Construction of the New Basin Canal in the 1830s shifted the focus of trade from Chartres Street to Canal Street, setting precedent for the area's use as the city's central business district. With its turning basin at present-day Lee Circle, the Canal connected Faubourg St. Mary with Lake Pontchartrain. Interspersed with such residential developments as American-built townhouses along Julia Street, warehouses were constructed to accommodate the resulting boom in trade. Downriver, residential development was joined by a major railroad project and the nation's largest cotton press factory. The Pontchartrain Railroad, developed in 1830, ran along Elysian Fields Avenue, encouraging development northward and connecting Marigny with Lake Pontchartrain at the settlement of Milneburg. Farther downriver in Faubourg Washington (now known as Bywater) the New Levee Steam Cotton Press and the railroad that served it became major industrial developments. Although the Cotton Press is long gone, the railroad corridor is an active, indelible mark on land use in that district.

Apart from natural increase and the influx of Americans after 1803, population growth came from three major sources in the first half of the 19th Century. German and Irish immigrants came in large numbers and provided labor for such projects as the New Basin Canal. Both groups settled in Faubourgs St. Mary and Marigny and developed neighborhoods such as the Irish Channel and Little Saxony (between Esplanade and Elysian Fields). The population of Africans grew to 20% of the city total as the offspring of slave owners were manumitted and immigrants fled the slave uprising in Haiti. Meanwhile, the city's elite were on the move. The natural high ground of Esplanade Ridge became the choice location for wealthy Creole families, and the avenue to this day retains its 19th Century character. In the American Sector wealthy families built ornate mansions up St. Charles Avenue, many in the architectural style of 19th Century Greek Revival. In contrast to the courtyard style housing favored by the French and Spanish, the Americans preferred large front lawns or "gardens," giving the area its current name. 

Port activity increasingly grew upriver. Magazine Street developed support services for the nearby port and was named to signify the warehouses ("magazin" in French) which lined the street for storage of tobacco and other goods awaiting export. Irish and German immigrants moved upriver to follow new jobs being created by the port. With a plentiful supply of inexpensive rental housing, Central City became an area of immigrant settlement, with Dryades Street serving the neighborhood's commercial needs. 

After the Civil War interrupted the city's development a resurgence of economic and population growth occurred in the late 1800s. New Orleans became a major railroad hub, which being connected to the Port gave the city an advantage in trade. Population growth came from southern Europe, with large numbers of Italians, especially Sicilians, settling in New Orleans, the only city in the South to receive substantial new immigration. However, since much of the city was still an undrained backwater swamp, the development pressure caused by population growth was great on the few available areas of higher ground such as Algiers Point or farther along the bayou ridges and natural levees on the East Bank. Where drainage was adequate, developers could maximize the number of units constructed by building what came to be known as a shotgun house (a unique style wherein the structure almost entirely fills a rectangular lot in a linear fashion without interior hallways or closets), and in this way responded to the housing shortage.

In 1899 the city authorized drainage of backwater swamps using a heavy duty "Wood Pump," named after its inventor, the engineer Baldwin Wood, that quickly raised large volumes of debris-laden water a short vertical distance. By 1920 much of the swamp area had been drained. The majority of new residential development in the city between 1927 and 1949 occurred in Lakeview and Gentilly. 

The city also grew into Lake Pontchartrain! In 1927 the Levee Board completed a seawall that extended 3,000 feet into the lake and added 2,000 acres of prime real estate to the city. Half of the acreage was given to Louisiana State University (now University of New Orleans) and the other half sold to private developers to pay off municipal bonds sold to finance the reclamation. The resulting housing development, Lake Vista, is a carefully planned neighborhood in the "city beautiful" tradition with rear-entry cul-de-sacs and houses facing green commons.

The 1920s also saw the construction of the Industrial Canal, completed in 1923. The Canal determined with finality land use in the area even as it brought increased railroad activity. The Canal also isolated the Lower Ninth Ward from the rest of the city. Many Port operations shifted from the River to the Canal (as a result of new demands on the Port of New Orleans, such as the shift to container shipments), and the Canal now gives the city the opportunity to centralize industrial activity and remove underutilized wharf facilities along the River without affecting the economic benefits of the Port. These changes support the future growth of the Port by increasing efficiency and thus competitiveness with other national ports. 

The Mid-City area, especially near Earhart Boulevard and Washington Avenue, is the lowest ground in New Orleans and was the last portion of the backwater swamp to be developed. In addition to flooding, the area faced other development challenges. Property lines in New Orleans were laid out perpendicular to the River to give all plantation owners river access, and streets later followed those lines. With the River forming a crescent, streets converge in Mid-City as a hub to spokes of a wheel, forming odd-shaped lots and unusual traffic configurations. This area is also broken up by the Pontchartrain Expressway and by railroad lines constructed during the railroad boom of the late 1800s. 

The decades following World War II have significantly altered the landscape of New Orleans. The Wagner Bill of 1937 created the United States Housing Authority, which took as its philosophy that improving the physical living conditions of the urban poor would reduce their poverty. St. Thomas, which opened in 1946, was the first public housing development in New Orleans. Like all but two of the major developments, it was built under traditional site planning concepts, located at large, isolated sites with buildings clustered around open spaces used as drying yards, play areas, and courtyards. Guste Homes in Central City and Fischer Housing Development in Algiers were planned differently, each with a high-rise structure surrounded by a series of low-rise buildings and open recreational space concentrated in the perimeter. Built in 1964 and 1965 respectively, they were the last projects developed before the Housing Act of 1965 stipulated that public housing be scattered within the larger community rather than concentrated in major complexes.

The most dramatic changes to the city in the post-WW II years have been related to the automobile and to desegregation activities in the 1960s. With new road construction and the promise of suburban security, extensive subdivisions were built in New Orleans East and on the West Bank in the part of Algiers known as Aurora. Development on the West Bank was facilitated by the construction of the Mississippi River Bridge in the late 1950s. This expansion in New Orleans, however, was exceeded by subdivision development in Jefferson Parish, so by the 1970s the city's population trend reversed course. What had been a long upward movement became a dramatic and long term population decline, now entering its fourth decade, from over 600,000 in 1960 to 474,000 in 1997. Commerce and industry followed the population movement to the suburbs, and the oil bust of the late 1970s and 1980s affected those firms which had remained in the city.

Construction of the high-rise interstate system facilitated this population movement and also affected the physical layout of the city. Neighborhoods have been cut in half or in some cases completely isolated. Construction of Interstate 10 destroyed the vibrant African American commercial district along North Claiborne Avenue, along with the ancient oaks that lined its neutral ground. Furthermore, as happened throughout the nation, efforts by the oil industry and automobile and bus manufacturers prompted a decision to remove the city's streetcar lines.

Statistics compiled by Dillard University and the University of New Orleans with planning consultant David Rusk, demonstrate the region-wide effects of these trends. In the New Orleans metropolitan area, developed land increased by 47% between 1970 and 1990 even though the population rose by only 8%. Housing construction outside the older developed parts of town exceeded growth in the number of households by 77%. As a result, not only did many older neighborhoods with historic structures enter into a long period of decline, but also property values in the region actually stagnated, even factoring in new construction. Meanwhile, in most other metropolitan areas throughout the country property values rose sharply.

The 1990s have brought renewed prosperity to many segments of the community thanks to a surge in tourism and conventions, healthy activity at the Port, and a stable oil market. In many neighborhoods blighted buildings have been targeted for renovation. With a boost from the World's Fair in 1984, the Warehouse District has been revitalized from a skid-row territory of abandoned warehouses to a vibrant arts district and residential community. On the uptown side of the Pontchartrain Expressway, a major mixed use development is being planned for the area adjacent to Phase III of the Convention Center expansion. Renovation has transformed blighted neighborhoods in the Lower Garden District, Bywater and Algiers Point and is making inroads in other neighborhoods as well. The number of vacant units should be re-examined following the completion of the 2000 Census, so that the City Planning Commission can determine the effect of these efforts. 

Other opportunities for improving housing in the city involve current plans by the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to rehabilitate and restructure the city's major public housing developments. The overall strategy is to reduce the density of public housing and to increase reliance on scattered subsidized housing. The 1999 Land Use Plan supports this strategy to the extent that it lessens resident isolation from the community, increases home ownership, decreases poverty density, and reduces blight.

Citywide Development Assets

Taken as a whole, this discussion of development history yields a rich list of pleasing attributes of New Orleans that constitute the basis for future development. A summary of these positive qualities of our city confirms the comments that citizens of this city made during the workshops about what they found pleasing in their neighborhoods.

New Orleans enjoys a unique cultural heritage that exists to this day in the diversity of economic and social circumstances. Citizens feel a strong sense of community, and feel proud of the city's historic buildings and neighborhoods, its music, art, festivities, and its cosmopolitan tolerance of diverse lifestyles.

New Orleans has a unique setting along the Mississippi River and among wetlands, marshes, canals. The riverfront has historically been the locus of economically important port activities, but contemporary changes in the maritime industry have created redevelopment opportunities for various public uses. Lake Pontchartrain provides sport and recreational opportunities, and the industrial canal is vital for commerce. There is great potential for further economic development at the NOBID site for industrial purposes, as well as in the Almonaster, Florida, Poland Street corridors. Despite its large geographic area, New Orleans is still referred to as "15 minute city," and residents of each neighborhood in the city cited "easy access to everything" as a pleasing attribute. Finally, there is ample wildlife to be found in Bayou Savage and other areas in New Orleans East, and the Westbank, a fact which citizens enjoyed for sport, recreation, tourism, and a sense of a balanced ecosystem.

New Orleans has an especially vibrant downtown, offering several attractive venues including the French Quarter; the Riverfront with the Convention Center, Riverwalk, Moonwalk, and Woldenberg park; and the Arts District. For sports, the downtown offers the Superdome and the new Arena; for shopping, there is Canal Street, the New Orleans Center, Canal Place, and Jax Brewery. Office towers line Poydras Street, and the New Orleans Medical Center is home to several hospitals and clinics. 

Neighborhoods are vital and diverse with regard to cultural heritage, and share a strong sense of community. There are many successful neighborhood revitalization and rehabilitation initiatives operating in the city. The unique architectural styles of New Orleans are an asset known worldwide, and citizens are dedicated to historic preservation. 

The city offers several large parks -- City Park, Audubon Park, the Zoo and Aquarium, and Armstrong Park, soon to become a part of the National Jazz Historical Park and already home to the Black Music Hall of Fame. These beautiful areas offer opportunities for recreation, entertainment, and simple leisurely enjoyment. In New Orleans East, the Jazzland amusement park is under construction. 

And finally, New Orleans is home to several institutions of higher learning: Tulane, Loyola, Xavier, UNO, SUNO, Dillard, Delgado, Baptist Seminary and Notre Dame Seminary. 

As attractive as these positive attributes of New Orleans are, however, the City Planning Commission recognizes that without citywide economic improvement, revitalization of individual neighborhoods may result in nothing more than a shifting of impoverished families from one location to another. Average household incomes must rise substantially if urban revitalization is to be successful, if the quality of land use and community life is to improve citywide, and if population decline is to be reversed. As the following section on current land use and demographics shows, the prosperity of the 1990s has yet to reach large areas of the community or to stop population migration out of the city. The challenge in the coming years is to build upon recent economic growth and neighborhood revitalization and spread their benefits throughout all areas of the city.

Current Land Use and Demographics

The 1999 Land Use Plan is based upon existing conditions, which in a largely developed city such as New Orleans are amenable to modification and change over time as long as the consequence of change is accurately acknowledged. It's useful to start with how land in the city is now being used, and for this the following table provides useful statistics.