Conclusion ...and Continuation

The 1999 Land Use Plan concludes with a celebratory tone: it is an importantly hopeful moment in the history of any city when citizens come together to articulate the future they desire. It is also a time when the dedication necessary to achieve that future is made explicitly clear. In recognition of these two facts, this concluding chapter has been given a dual title CONCLUSION...AND CONTINUATION to give equal emphasis to the need to summarize the Plan and to signify the Plan's place in the ongoing, continuing process of planning in New Orleans.

The 1999 Land Use Plan presents agreement about ways to steer change in our city, based on modes of development which sustain and support the community in a sensible and responsible manner. The magnitude of expected change is relatively small: the rate of population decline is expected to continue, but at a rate approximately one/third the rate between 1980 and 1990. Indeed, the number of residents will increase over the next few years in some neighborhoods. Throughout the city, average household income will increase moderately. The long term economic growth projection is for slow but steady growth, meaning that dramatic land use changes will occur in a very few areas (Jazzland and undeveloped land east of it; the area upriver of the Convention Center; and the reconfiguration of public housing communities) and that even these dramatic changes will require several years to be completed.

Therefore, the most direct objectives of the 1999 Land Use Plan are improvement in the quality of life for residents and the environment for business. These objectives are consistent with the goals articulated in New Century New Orleans for "vital, distinctive neighborhoods" and "well-managed physical and economic growth," and might best be summarized as planning to make the best of the extraordinary assets that we have.

Citywide Development Assets

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 "a 15 minute city," and residents of each neighborhood in the city cited "easy access to everything" as a pleasing attribute. 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. Outside the Central Business District are other important and relatively evenly distributed centers for office, commerce, and medical services. 

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 take pride in the city's historic buildings and neighborhoods, its music, art, festivities, and its cosmopolitan tolerance of unconventional lifestyles. 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. 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. 

Utility of a Land Use Plan

The aspirations for change included in a land use plan will occur as a result of cumulative private and public decisions about opening a business, locating a residential development, installing a public park, etc. That is, the interworkings of investments by private actors, individual entrepreneurs, as well as development decisions by public and quasi-public agencies bring about physical change to a city. Properly used, the 1999 Land Use Plan can inform government about where public development such as playgrounds and fire stations should go. It can give potential investors a general sense of where the community would prefer residential, commercial, and industrial development to be located. In short, the purpose of a land use plan is to offer guidance to any and all actors whose decisions affect land. In more particular terms, this land use plan addresses problems and inconsistencies caused by the way land is currently used in New Orleans, and it offers several professional suggestions for achieving commonly-held aspirations for the city's future development. 

A. The Civic Problems Citizens Would Like to Solve

Three issues were at the forefront of most citizens' minds at the workshops: population loss, blighted property, and the land use decision-making process. Almost every suggestion, every comment about existing land use conflicts, and every future development scenario was based upon the hope that these three issues could be resolved, and that the city's future would be improved. 

New Orleans clearly has many strengths. However, the City Planning Commission recognizes that without citywide economic improvement and careful resource management, 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. 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. Building upon economic growth requires many efforts. The city's transportation system must be serviceable and efficient, the environment must be attractive, utility systems must be adequate for changing technology and for the changing needs of business and industry. The infrastructure must be reliable and adequate. And, too, government must actively pursue strategies to attract new businesses and developers to a city. Clearly, then, many of these efforts are the responsibility of public agencies. The results of these efforts is economic growth -- new businesses, expanding businesses, new housing developments -- which ultimately gets expressed as a need for using land. Structures must be built or renovated so that they can be occupied by a new or expanded business, a residence, a utility station; undeveloped land must be used for streets, libraries, parks, etc. 

It is at this culminating point -- when naturally occurring private and public aspirations for prosperity and a satisfying community life seek a physical form or location -- that a land use plan offers guidance.

B. How the Land Use Plan Can Help

Citizens identified four problems with the way land in the city is currently used, and believe that if these problems were solved, the main civic issues would be resolved: population loss would be slowed, blighted property would be reduced, and reliable land use decisions would be made. As explained in the 1999 Land Use Plan, seven different strategies show promise for solving these problems.

Problem Area 1. Integrity of residential neighborhoods is threatened by intrusion of incompatible commercial and industrial uses. 

Solutions:

1. Promotion of residential integrity; 

2. Concentration of neighborhood and regional commercial corridors; 

3. Reduction of non-conforming uses; 

4. Centralization of industrial land uses

Problem Area 2. Inadequate protection and enhancement of existing neighborhoods where there is a pleasing mixture of different land uses. There is a lack of vision and workable guidelines for redevelopment of certain obsolete industrial, warehousing or commercial sites as a mixture of compatible land uses. 

Solution: Implementation of mixed use categories, meeting the special needs of unique areas of the city;

Problem Area 3. Insufficient green space and recreation areas, especially along the Mississippi River. 

Solution: Increase of green space and recreational opportunities, especially along the Mississippi River; create development standards that require landscaping, particularly along residential areas and public right-of-ways; 

Problem Area 4. Inadequate neighborhood participation in the city's decision-making process regarding development and redevelopment. Solution: Create a mechanism to organize neighborhood participation in future land use decisions.

The 1999 Land Use Plan has suggested these solutions wherever they are appropriate in each Planning District, according to citizens' desires, existing neighborhood plans, and the experience of the City Planning Commission in its daily duties of researching zoning and subdivision applications. 

Implementation: How the 1999 Land Use Plan becomes Reality 

There are several implementing mechanisms for the Land Use Plan, which are discussed below. Chief among them, of course, is the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, which is the law which governs how land is actually used. But there are other important and complementary efforts that bring about the aspirations of the citizens of New Orleans expressed in the Land Use Plan.

A. The Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance

The Land Use Plan is implemented primarily through the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO), whose stipulations direct where and under what conditions land can be developed or redeveloped. At the present time the CZO is a flawed document which neither protects neighborhoods from unwanted change nor encourages beneficial economic development. For that reason, in late 1997 the City Planning Commission adopted the Strategic Land Use Plan for Revising the CZO, which specifies how the Ordinance should be revised so that citizens can feel assured both that land use decisions will not bring about unwanted change and that appropriate economic development is encouraged. The Strategic Plan identified the following five types of problems with the existing zoning ordinance: 

1) Comprehensive vision is needed for zoning revision 

2) Land use conflicts are unusually common in the city 

3) Unnecessary complexity in the zoning ordinance 

4) Zoning enforcement problems abound 

5) Lack of assurance of consistent and equitable decision-making The Strategic Plan suggested 37 specific strategies to revising the ordinance to solve these problems, with the result that citizens would feel more assured that unwanted change would not occur in their neighborhoods and that beneficial economic development would be encouraged. The Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance is currently being revised according to these strategies as well as the goals and recommendations of this 1999 Land Use Plan, and will be available for comment during 1999. 

The process of implementing the 1999 Land Use Plan will translate proposed land use changes into new zoning districts defined by the revised CZO, and then draw these new districts onto the City's zoning map. This step not only requires diligent work on the part of planning professionals, but integrated input from community members. As stated in the Strategic Plan for Revising the CZO, the revised zoning ordinance must establish clear guidelines for future development in each of the land use classifications. The ordinance should stipulate the authorized uses allowed under each classification; each use must have well-defined operating parameters. In this way, the purview and extent of development allowed by each general land use classification, such as neighborhood and regional commercial, mixed use, and downtown, can be clearly defined and understood. The 1999 Land Use Plan will guide discussions about which zoning classifications in the revised CZO are appropriate for particular pieces of property. 

The particular zoning of specific parcels will be evaluated in terms of overall furtherance of the goals of the 1999 Land Use Plan, rather than strict conformance with general land use map notations. This is a fundamental land use planning principle, and explains the importance of working with community members as new zoning districts are drawn onto the City's zoning map. This fundamental principle should assure citizens who worry that the Planning Commission foresees some mechanistic process of going from a general land use category to a particular zoning district. Neighborhood comment will be solicited at each step of implementation, just as it has been solicited during the process of developing the 1999 Land Use Plan.

With the vision for future development contained in this 1999 Land Use Plan and with a reliable Zoning Ordinance to implement the Plan, officials in New Orleans can better assure citizens that the future they have articulated will be the future they realize.

B. Other Land Use Regulations

Many other land use regulations also carry out the recommendations of the Land Use Plan. Chief among these are subdivision regulations, which oversee how land is divided and developed; sign regulations, which try to create a pleasing visual environment in commercial areas while accommodating the needs of business to advertise. The City Planning Commission has nearly completed revising the Subdivision Regulations and the Sign Ordinance. Draft documents of both proposals will be presented for public discussion and further comment in the Spring of 1999.

There are also various sections of the City Code which regulate the operation of land uses: we have regulations regarding alcoholic beverage outlets, for example, which in part serve to achieve the goals of the land use plan by making these shops good neighbors wherever they occur. The City Planning Commission will continue its ambitious work program to offer assistance to other city agencies so that the overall goals of the 1999 Land Use Plan can be realized.

C. Other measures

The Capital Improvement Plan, known as the Capital Budget, directs how the city should spend money on capital projects, better known as public facilities. By City Charter, developing this plan is the responsibility of the City Planning Commission. By guiding where public facilities are authorized, the Commission ensures a broad level of coordination among a variety of existing plans, including the 1999 Land Use Plan. The coordination required to develop the Capital Improvement Plan has occurred in the past, but one of the efforts of the Master Plan Advisory Committee is to determine a way that all plans enforce one another formally, and that progress toward realization of goals can be measured. 

Another financial measure which can help implement a land use plan is the institution of development impact fees. This phrase refers to the requirement that a developer pay for some of the public costs that his or her project will cause, a requirement that many, many municipalities have used throughout the United States in order to accommodate new economic activity. In New Orleans, for example, developers of new subdivisions are already financing all street improvements within -- and often beyond -- their property, and they are dedicating land for public recreation purposes. In the Central Business District, prospective developers are required to improve street landscaping, paving and lighting. In the future, development impact fees may be warranted for improvements to the drainage system or to solve parking problems.

Finally, in a broader sense the City of New Orleans exists within a region of political subdivisions that are mutually dependent in terms of land use planning and also in economic circumstances. The city is already an active participant in the Regional Planning Commission for matters such as transportation planning, emergency preparedness (flooding and hurricane protection) and the development of a geographic information system. The 1999 Land Use Plan readily acknowledges the cooperation within our metropolitan region that is required to achieve the city's goals, and looks forward to joint planning endeavors with other parishes, government agencies and cities in the region.

D. Administrative Accountability

This Plan has offered planning solutions for all districts in order that every neighborhood will enjoy a prosperous future. The phrase "administrative accountability" describes what is required to assure a neighborhood that its interests 

are given the same measure of attention as the aspirations of other parts of town. 

The recommendations of the 1999 Land Use Plan will work to bring about a future that citizens agree they would like to see, but only if these recommendations are reliably carried out by officials whose elected or appointed office gives them the requisite authority, and who feel their actions must be accountable. 

While accountability is a topic larger than the Land Use Plan can encompass, it is a specific part of the work plan of the Master Plan Advisory Committee. The Committee is dedicated to finding methods of measuring compliance/consistency with the Master Plan, once it is adopted, and of measuring the performance of officials with regard to their furthering the goals of that plan. This effort will include the 1999 Land Use Plan, because it is a central element of the Master Plan as defined by the City Planning Commission in May 1998.

E. Related land use studies or monitoring in each District 

Due to their general nature, Land Use Plans do not provide recommendations regarding particular or site specific land use problems that are of concern for neighborhoods. These problems are analyzed on the level of detailed area plans, proposed zoning, or plans developed by other agencies such as HANO. Listed below are a few of the specific neighborhood plans, programs, or actions that were recommended for completion by the 1999 Land Use Plan:

1. The 1999 Land Use Plan supports all efforts to study methods to reduce automobile traffic and supports all plans for determining additional streetcar routes; (Planning Districts One and Seven)

2. Prepare detailed neighborhood plan/study for Central City neighborhood and recommend comprehensive strategies for addressing complex problems of decay, vacancies and disinvestment; (Planning District Two)

3. Prepare detailed neighborhood plans/studies for Hollygrove and Freret neighborhoods and recommend comprehensive strategies for addressing complex problems of decay, vacancies and disinvestment; (Planning District Three) 

4. Prepare detailed plan/study/guidelines for redevelopment of the Lafitte railroad corridor; (Planning District Four)

5. Conduct special traffic studies of the intersection of Pontchartrain and West End Boulevard with Robert E. Lee (Hammond Highway). Improve traffic signage and access at I-10/I-610; (Planning District Five)

6. A small area study should be conducted of the shopping area at Gentilly and Elysian Fields and the edges of the adjacent neighborhoods, for the purposes of improving traffic circulation, reducing "quality-of-life" problems (noise, litter, etc.) reported by adjacent neighborhoods, and improving the overall appearance and marketability of the collection of shops and services; (Planning District Six)

7. A small study for the area bounded by Elysian Fields, the River, Esplanade Ave. and St. Claude Avenue (the Marigny Triangle), with the intent of protecting residential uses while supporting the corridor of restaurant and entertainment uses; (Planning District Seven)

8. Prepare detailed neighborhood plan/study regarding each proposed alternative for the Florida Avenue expressway; (Planning District Eight)

9. Transportation studies to identify and pursue improvements in traffic management on the high rise bridge and alternatives to the few corridors into and across New Orleans East; (Planning Districts Nine, Ten, and Eleven)

10. Action plan for improving the area of Algiers near Wall Boulevard (mentioned in the ULI study), including comprehensive strategies for addressing complex problems of decay, vacancies, and disinvestment. (Planning Districts Twelve and Thirteen) 

11. Develop an action plan for revitalization of old commercial corridors including comprehensive strategies for addressing complex problems of decay, vacancies and disinvestment; (several Planning Districts)

The 1999 Land Use Plan gave every part of the city equal planning attention. Without such parity, economic growth and investment are more likely to occur unevenly, resulting in isolated neighborhoods and neglected residents. The plan presumes that development proposed in any Planning District will receive equal regulatory scrutiny, and that zoning laws will be enforced with equal vigor in all parts of New Orleans. These assumptions make good community sense, because a concentration of wealth or poverty, or unequal zoning enforcement in any individual area, negatively affects the city as a whole. The plans listed above would continue this equitable attention to all neighborhoods by solving their individual problems.

As resources become available, the City Planning Commission will either undertake these studies, or collaborate with other public agencies or with private entities who receive the charge to complete them. The City Planning Commission will include any such studies in its biennial review of the elements of the Master Plan, which includes the 1999 Land Use Plan.

5. Neighborhood impact -- formal review process

The 1999 Land Use Plan proposes creating a mechanism to organize community participation in the city's development process. Under ideal conditions, residents of each planning district would participate in a formal manner with the Planning Commission to address future changes in specific land uses, especially when a currently non-conforming use proposes to undergo expansion or a change in ownership. Such a mechanism would allow residents to actively participate in the planning process and ensure timely community discussion about land use changes. 

Citizen participation is clearly a necessary component of administrative accountability. In every part of town, citizens expressed dissatisfaction with their ability to participate in decision-making processes regarding not only land development but also long-range plans of a variety of agencies such as the Regional Transit Authority, the Dock Board and the Levee Board. Finding an effective method of citizen participation will be thoroughly addressed in the Master Plan during 1999, and will advance the goal of administrative accountability.

6. Relationship to the Master Plan for the City of New Orleans

The 1999 Land Use Plan and the accompanying map are integral steps in New Orleans' Master Planning Process. The Land Use Plan is a central element in the Master Plan, and specifically carries out the vision for New Orleans articulated in New Century New Orleans, the seminal element of the Master Plan adopted in 1992 by the City Planning Commission. Articulated in New Century New Orleans are two primary goals that a land use plan can help achieve: "vital, distinctive neighborhoods" and "well-managed physical and economic growth." Citizens in New Orleans see these two goals as essential to achieving their aspiration of a more livable community. 

The City Planning Commission has defined several other elements as comprising the New Orleans Master Plan and work is progressing with the assistance of the Master Plan Advisory Committee to complete all elements. As other elements are completed, of course, they may affect the long-term conception of future development. The Master Planning Process adopted by the City Planning Commission contemplates such occurrences, and has directed that the Master Plan -- which will include the 1999 Land Use Plan -- be reviewed every two years to make sure it is internally consistent and up to date. As a part of this biennial review, the Commission has also directed that the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance be reviewed for consistency.

7. The process of revising the Land Use Plan

A land use plan is a long-term, generalized guide for future development. It is not an inflexible or rigid pattern for future land use. A land use plan does not anticipate all the new ideas and new opportunities that may arise over the next 20 or so years. Indeed, a land use plan cannot foresee all the ideas that may occur in a city. In recognition of the hopeful fact that good ideas may occur, a land use plan accommodates flexibility while emphasizing the importance of a reliable mechanism for evaluating unanticipated proposals. As mentioned above, the Master Plan Advisory Committee will recommend to the City Planning Commission a mechanism which involves neighborhoods and citizens for evaluating proposals that have never been anticipated.

But in addition to unanticipated proposals, the Land Use Plan can be amended based upon forecasts, analysis, changes in goals and policies that affect how land will be used, and the experience of implementation itself. That is, as new zoning districts are drawn up in the process of revising the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, some significant changes may arise that necessitate amending the Land Use Plan.

The 1999 Land Use Plan has been predicated on the directive that it be reviewed every two years by the Master Plan Advisory Committee, and that necessary changes be recommended to the City Planning Commission. This directive allows the plan to be kept up to date as major planning decisions are made, say, by external agencies such as the Dock Board, the R.T.A., or H.A.N.O., which would have obvious consequences to how land is used in the city. But in addition to this formal biennial review, amendments to the 1999 Land Use Plan may be initiated by the City Planning Commission or by citizens. And as individual studies such as those listed in the previous section are completed, for example, they should be evaluated by the City Planning Commission to determine if an amendment to the 1999 Land Use Plan is warranted. The procedures for conducting reviews and adopting amendments to the 1999 Land Use Plan shall be established based upon the recommendations of the Master Plan Advisory Committee. In the interim, the City Planning Commission will review requests for revision of the Land Use Plan and adopt amendments based upon the proposal's consistency with goals and objectives of the plan.

CONTINUATION...

The steps described here to implement the 1999 Land Use Plan with a revised Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, as well as the Master Plan Review Process have been adopted with specific purposes in mind. The City Planning Commission is intent on bringing about the vision for the future contained in New Century New Orleans; the Commission is intent that citizens have a Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance that builds upon the city's extraordinary assets, that protects neighborhoods from unwanted change and that encourages appropriate economic development; and the Commission is intent on keeping the elements of the Master Plan and the CZO well-coordinated, and up-to-date with evolving expectations of New Orleanians.

These are high aspirations, which can only be achieved by dedicated work to bring about the vision articulated in 1999 Land Use Plan. This plan offers its readers a complete sense of the vision their fellow citizens have for the entire city. The City Planning Commission hopes that the vision articulated here will capture the imagination of citizens, and that by being assured this vision can come about through a reliable zoning ordinance and administrative accountability, the city will work hard to realize the vision. 

Glossary
Appendix A: Listing of Neighborhoods in Planning Districts
Appendix B: Public Meetings to Develop the Plan
Bibliography