Planning District Four (Continued)

Mid-City

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The following section provides a synthesis of citizen comments and input gathered at a public workshop held at the Municipal Training Academy on the evening of July 8, 1998 and a follow up meeting on October 7, 1998. Approximately 50 residents and business owners, in five small groups, participated in the workshop identifying pivotal development parcels and land use conflicts and creating a proposed land use map for the district. 

The citizens of District Four like their neighborhood's character and spirit. Part of what gives it these qualities is the balance of various land uses. There are many neighborhoods that provide small-scale commercial corridors to service the needs of the surrounding residents. The location of the district puts residents in close proximity to the city's largest green space, City Park. They would like to see their green spaces used more and maintained on a regular basis. They would like landscaping buffers installed along major corridors and railways, and vacant or underutilized industrial areas converted to commercial and residential uses. The community wishes that everyone in the area could enjoy the same quality of life, with specific focus given to removing industrial uses from the neighborhoods and remediating any residual environmental pollution.

Other areas of discussion covered the needs for traffic management along the district's many boulevards. Residents would like parking requirements for businesses in some of the more congested areas, and greater effort by the City to encourage use of mass transit. They want more community activities at Armstrong Park focused around cultural arts or recreation to utilize its full potential. The community would also like to keep commercial activity out of the residential sections of the neighborhoods and centralized along main thoroughfares. Ideally, citizens would like business owners to live in the neighborhood or contribute more to the area, thereby sponsoring a greater sense of community.

Pivotal Parcels

Pivotal Parcels are sites defined by the community that greatly affect or have the potential to affect the surrounding area. In District Four there were numerous sites identified which can be categorized as vacant buildings/lots or street corridors. Below is a list of such parcels with citizen-suggested uses.

Vacant Buildings/Lots

• The American Can building at Jefferson Davis Parkway & Orleans Avenue is currently a vacant structure being proposed for redevelopment into mixed uses. The intended developer, Historic Restorations Inc., is planning to provide retail storefronts as well as housing. This is a very large site with the potential to greatly impact the area. Most of the citizens present at the meeting were in favor of Historic Restorations' proposal, and suggested more on-site parking and fewer 1-bedroom apartments. Other suggestions are: city-run elderly housing, or mixed use, including a theater or activity center. 

• Vacant Falstaff Brewery at Gravier & Dorgenois: mixed use, or demolish existing building and use site for small businesses or for services related to the Medical Complex 
• Vacant lot, formerly St. Alyosius High School, at Rampart & Esplanade: urban wetlands teaching lab; green space; tourism related businesses with preservation of some green space, neighborhood commercial, or a fire station 
• Vacant lot at Tulane & Jefferson Davis: Xavier University expansion, or a baseball field, or a park 
• Gert Town chemical factory at Earhart and Pine Street. This site must be remediated before using. Listed are suggestions following clean-up: residential, cemetery, daycare center 
• Vacant Ice House at Galvez & Lapeyrousse: demolish for green space, cultural center 
• Vacant or underutilized industrial land between Poydras & I-10, Broad & Claiborne: commercial, mixed use, parking, Legacy Project (social services); commercial activities which serve Superdome 
• Surface parking lots of the former Harrah's Temporary Casino which run along Orleans Avenue from Basin Street to South Galvez Street (also discussed in Planning District One): Visitor's Center on Basin Street, tourist & bus off-loading/parking at existing parking lots 

• Claiborne Avenue, beneath Interstate 10: clean up area underneath highway, add lighting; use a portion for a green/farmer's market; develop with small businesses as it was before highway; no large retail; bring back the black Mardi Gras element and other elements of its historic culture; eliminate alcoholic beverage establishments; re-route interstate; install underground rail system 
• Rampart Street: larger commercial from Canal to Armstrong Park; neighborhood commercial from Armstrong Park to Esplanade; mixed use 
• Earhart Boulevard: re-establish trees; light commercial uses are appropriate; require businesses to landscape 
• Esplanade Avenue: maintain housing stock; maintain current use - residential with small-scale commercial 

The schematic map which appears facing page 106 summarizes comments recorded on district maps as an exercise during the workshop. The summary schematic is an attempt to represent graphically the most frequent and consistent comments made by citizen participants. For ease of interpretation, various local landmarks, such as parks, housing developments, and large-scale developments, have been included. 
 

Section VI: Proposed Land Use for Planning District Four

Residents in District Four claim historic architecture, ethnic diversity, and family-oriented neighborhoods as being their greatest assets. The central location affords the area convenient access to any other region in the metropolitan area; City Park and Bayou St. John provide a wealth of green space close by. As well, New Orleans history of jazz may be found at the Fairgrounds during Jazz Fest and Armstrong Park year round. In many parts of the district there is a wonderful mix of residential areas with small neighborhood commercial businesses to service them. A positive "sense of place" is felt by residents and visitors alike. 

District Four can be almost entirely characterized as historic, and enjoys local and/or national historic district designation for the Esplanade Ridge, Mid-City and Parkview areas. There are plans underway to establish additional local historic districts in the area. Esplanade Ridge is one of the earliest developed tracts within District Four, as it was one of the only areas above water before the drainage pump was invented in the late 1800s. As the Vieux Carré became crowded in the 19^th Century, the only place suitable for expansion into the "backswamp" was Esplanade. The avenue stretching along the Vieux Carré to Rampart Street is dotted with early 19^th Century Creole cottages. After the Civil War, the area above Rampart to Broad was developed with shotgun cottage style homes, and from Broad to Bayou St. John, one can find early 20^th Century Revival architecture. Many of these homes provide a treasure of architectural history for the city and have been preserved and restored.

The Parkview historic district is bordered by Toulouse Street, City Park Avenue, Bayou St. John, Orleans, and Rocheblave. This is a relatively young neighborhood because the land was submerged until the 1930s! One can find Colonial Revival homes and Bungalows in this residential neighborhood. Mid-City, bordered by Tulane Avenue, City Park Avenue, Conti Street, and Claiborne was also completely drained in the 1930s and 40s and developed with styles similar to those in Parkview.

Despite its many assets, District Four has experienced one of the city's highest rates of population loss between 1980 and 1997. It also had a high percent (17.7%) of vacant housing units in 1990 -- above the citywide average of 16.6%, which itself is high. Furthermore, the District has an average household income and home value well below the citywide average. Despite these apparently discouraging facts, revived renovation activities have been evident throughout much of the area in the 1990's, particularly in the area bounded by Carrollton, City Park Avenue and I-10, along Esplanade Ridge, and in the Faubourg St. John and Treme neighborhoods. The role of the 1999 Land Use Plan is to build upon these positive movements and unique qualities of the District to form a strong and prosperous community. 

Issues/Problem Areas

Similar to Planning District Two, District Four encompasses a unique area of New Orleans that has a varied and colorful history of land use and people. Current land uses in the district range from single family residential to heavy industrial. While the overall vitality of the district hinges upon this assortment of uses, this variety often creates conflicts in the area. Other difficulties in the District have to do with vacant and underutilized industrial properties, crumbling public housing developments, distressed old commercial corridors, and lingering problems of disinvestment and urban decay which inhibit redevelopment and revitalization of many neighborhoods. 

In the course of developing this plan, citizens have identified these and other problems related to the existing pattern of land uses in District Four. The residents' assessment of problems are confirmed in detailed neighborhood plans as well as in the daily duties of the City Planning Commission to research zoning and subdivision applications. Briefly, they are as follows:

• Disinvestment and blight, accompanied by abandonment of properties in some areas of the District; 
• Disinvestment, vacancies and deterioration of properties in old industrial and commercial corridors; 
• Unwarranted demolitions of the older housing stock; 
• Incompatibility of industrial uses with the abutting residential neighborhoods; 
• Problems relative to the improvements of public housing developments and their effective integration with the surrounding neighborhoods; 
• Pressure from institutional uses --particularly Xavier University and Jesuit School--on the adjacent residential neighborhoods (traffic congestion, parking problems, noise, litter); 
• Inadequate respect for historic character of the area resulting in incompatible developments; 
• Increased incidence of nonconforming uses due to the lack of enforcement of the existing regulations; 
• Unpredictability of the land use regulatory process, which has led to many spot zones and speculative development decisions. 

Plan Recommendations

The most significant recommendations for District Four are intended to strengthen its residential character and encourage redevelopment of depressed neighborhoods and commercial and industrial corridors. The 1999 Land Use Plan has centralized commercial uses, reduced the size and intensity of industrial land and introduced recreational space throughout. Along with these changes, areas of mixed use development have been proposed to further unify and promote development appropriate for areas adjacent to residential neighborhoods. The plan also outlines the preferred areas for expansion of several major institutional uses and regional commercial centers. To promote positive future growth, the plan introduces new uses to many areas -- although their distribution is carefully planned to ensure stability and welfare in the surrounding community. Furthermore, Housing Authority plans for renovation/redevelopment of four public housing developments located in District Four should have an enormous positive impact on the future of the area.

These and other recommendations of the 1999 Land Use Plan are as follows:

Industrial Uses: The 1999 Land Use Plan recognizes that Mid-City can no longer accommodate the transportation needs of modern industry. The Lafitte Rail Corridor and adjoining Earhart Boulevard were developed with manufacturing and transportation businesses. However, these once vital roadway and rail links to Mid-City became congested and impractical to use as residential development in the area intensified. Mid-City, once on the edge of town, is now at the center. While for residents and many businesses this central location means good access, for the transportation/shipping industry there is no longer easy access in or out of the area. Heavy industry generally requires superior interstate access, high speed rail lines and corridors that can handle high-impact vehicles. The transition of District Four from the city's aging industrial hub to a neighborhood where families live and work, has been slow. 

The Land Use Plan recognizes the inherent conflict between heavy industry and residential life. Therefore, the Plan encourages heavy industry to locate in the New Orleans Business and Industrial District (NOBID) located in Planning District Nine, an area specifically designed with high-impact transportation in mind. By recognizing the need to centralize industrial uses in the NOBID and the Industrial Canal areas, the Plan frees up space within the center of the city to be developed with higher standards for quality of life. As a compliment to this solution, the aging Lafitte Rail Corridor should be converted to a walk/bike path and leftover industrial warehousing should be redeveloped as mixed use projects. The proposed American Can project (discussed in the Pivotal Parcels section above) is an example of the type of development that could have an extraordinarily beneficial effect on the Mid-City neighborhood. 

Another area with concerns regarding the existence of industrial land use classifications is the Gert Town/Zion City neighborhood. This residential neighborhood has seen the intrusion of industrial uses over the years, and now is faced with their decline, accompanied with vacancies and blight. Of central focus in the Gert Town neighborhood is the former Hayward Thompson Chemical Plant located at 7300 Earhart Boulevard. The vacant plant has been listed as a Brownsfield site needing remediation and the neighborhood has received funding from former plant operators to revitalize the community. However, there are not yet plans for redevelopment of the plant's site. The 1999 Land Use Plan recommends green space, but recognizes that redevelopment will be limited by toxicity levels after remediation and must win the approval of neighborhood residents. 

The 1999 Land Use Plan proposes only a limited area for future industrial location, the Earhart corridor. The Plan recommends downgrading heavy industry uses to non-polluting light industry in the area bounded by Earhart, I-10, Claiborne and Lopez; this recommendation would provide a convenient job source for area residents.

Mixed Use category is a hybrid land use category that encourages a flexible mix of residential, commercial, and certain light industrial uses. The application of mixed use is appropriate when it is based on principles of compatibility developed within the neighborhood. The mixed use category can be differentiated into two classes, depending upon the scale and location where this category is applied. Neighborhood mixed use is designed to allow small scale commercial and residential activities to co-exist, either in the same building or in adjacent ones. This classification encourages preservation of existing housing stock while allowing for the unique mixes of commercial and residential uses currently found on these streets. Such a category appears on the proposed land use map along Canal Street and the Lafitte railroad corridors from North Anthony to Broad (including a section of Carrollton and Jefferson Davis); and along a section of Rampart/St. Claude, from Esplanade to Elysian Fields. 

Urban mixed use is intended to encourage redevelopment of large vacant properties or to permit an adaptation of large historic buildings that once housed rather intensive activities. By promoting such conversion, this category can result in uses beneficial to the adjacent neighborhood. Urban mixed use is proposed for the American Can site and for the area bounded by Broad, Tulane, Galvez and Perdido (the Falstaff Brewery is located within these boundaries). For more discussion on the proposed uses for these sites, see the section on Pivotal Parcels.

The pressures on Canal Street and Carrollton Avenue are likely to increase with the proposed Canal Street/Cemeteries streetcar loop, although the loop should also enhance the attractiveness of the adjacent neighborhoods as residential areas. In response to issues of demolition and appropriate scale and design, a new "Inner City Urban Corridor" zoning overlay was created, to require review of development plans prior to any expansion or new development. In early 1998, Carrollton Avenue was the first area to receive this new overlay. The neighborhood mixed use category proposed in the 1999 Land Use Plan for this corridor is expected to encompass the scale and design standards established by the corridor overlay. 

When the general category of mixed use is translated into appropriate zoning districts, there will probably be a variety of mixed use categories to cover different situations that exist in different areas of the city. It is not in the scope of a generalized land use plan to distinguish more specifically among these categories of mixed use. Rather, the implementation of the Land Use Plan requires revision of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance to accommodate the types of mixed use areas the citizens desire.

Concentration of commercial services To minimize the negative effects of commercial uses on the adjacent residential neighborhoods, the 1999 Land Use Plan proposes that future commercial development be limited to major roadways where current commercial uses are concentrated. In some portions of Planning District Four, specifically along old and declining commercial corridors such as Tulane, Claiborne, Broad and St. Bernard, future development should make an effort to beautify facades, landscape and maintain properties, and offer higher quality services. The low intensity, neighborhood designation should encourage development that is compatible with the surrounding area, which preserves valuable buildings by locating in existing structures and by revitalizing empty or blighted buildings where possible. The higher intensity commercial designation applies along major automobile corridors, where there is adequate parking space to accommodate shoppers drawn from more distant parts of the city to satisfy their retail needs.

Neighborhood commercial. In addition to the proposed types of mixed use development described above, where small shops can co-exist with residential uses, the plan proposes neighborhood commercial land use category for sections of several major street corridors where there is an existing concentration of commercial activities and where the area immediately abuts residential neighborhoods. The low intensity commercial uses should be concentrated along major thoroughfares: Rampart Street, St. Bernard Avenue, Claiborne Avenue, South Carrollton Avenue, Broad Street, Tulane Avenue, and Washington Avenue. Other areas designated as neighborhood commercial can be found at major intersections, or along portions of Orleans Avenue, Elysian Fields, Canal Street, and Jefferson Davis Parkway. 

The nature and intensity of uses permitted should be carefully examined and any potential expansion closely monitored because of the potential that commercial uses have to disrupt the harmony of a neighborhood. The proposed concentration of commercial services and mixed use developments should result in reduction of spot zoning and a gradual reduction in non-conforming uses that were identified as problematic within Planning District Four. 

Regional Commercial development is proposed in selected areas: at the convergence of Martin Luther King Boulevard, Washington Avenue, Earhart, and Jefferson Davis Parkway; off Claiborne Avenue between Martin Luther King Boulevard and Earhart; and at Carrollton Avenue between I-10 and Poydras. Due to its strong drawing power even outside the city's limits, the Fairground is designated as regional commercial. While some other locations within District Four have been considered for this land use category, they have instead been designated as less intense Neighborhood Commercial areas because of their proximity to residential neighborhoods or inadequate access via major arterial roadways. 

The 1999 Land Use Plan supports creation of the National Jazz Historical Park, a part of the National Park System, because it will positively affect the city and its surrounding community. The center of the Park will be in Perseverance Hall, one of the early sites of jazz, and located in Louis Armstrong Park. Because a great number of historic jazz sites are within the adjacent Tremé neighborhood, development of the Jazz Park should strengthen the threads connecting Armstrong Park with its neighbor. As the park will greatly affect the adjacent Vieux Carré and the CBD, this proposal was also discussed in District One. 

Institutional Uses: The 1999 Land Use Plan proposes expansion of Xavier University to infill areas of the neighborhood where currently vacant or underutilized warehouses stand. The residential neighbors of Xavier desire review of a Master Plan from the university before endorsing any expansion. The Plan also proposes future expansion of the criminal justice property in and around the current location of the prison and headquarters, between Broad, Interstate 10, Jefferson Davis, and Tulane. Furthermore, the Plan suggests LSU Medical Center expand toward Poydras, to utilize vacant land already owned by the institution. New areas of institutional use include the Legacy Project (a center for social services) proposed for the area north of the Superdome on Poydras Avenue, and a Visitor's Center and parking/shuttle facility located near the Municipal Auditorium at the former Harrah's Casino parking lots. 

Recreational Uses/Green Space: The plan for District Four proposes additional green space and landscaping along all major roadways and as buffers between industrial and residential uses. Furthermore, the plan proposes conversion of the Lafitte railroad corridor into a walk and bike path, extending from Bayou St. John to Claiborne Avenue. These actions should enhance the overall appearance of the area and the quality of life of area residents. 

Redevelopment of vacant or underutilized properties. Based upon the extensive public input and other considerations including the analysis of the adjacent land uses, traffic circulation and overall stability of the area, the Plan proposes redevelopment of several properties identified as "pivotal" parcels. One of the most significant pivotal parcels, the American Can site, is proposed for redevelopment as a mixed use project that incorporates residential, museum or gallery space, and small shops. A number of other vacant parcels or blighted and under used properties were discussed as pivotal for future development. Proposed development for these specific sites was summarized in the section entitled "Pivotal Parcels" and where consensus was reached, their land use designation has been presented on the Proposed Land Use Map.

Other recommendations. Due to their general nature, land use plans do not provide recommendations regarding many site-specific land use problems and other issues that concern neighborhoods. These problems are analyzed on the level of detailed neighborhood plans, proposed zoning, or plans developed by other agencies such as the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO). As a guidance for future planning actions, the 1999 Land Use Plan makes several recommendations and proposes development of the following detailed studies:

• Prepare detailed plan/study/guidelines for redevelopment of the Lafitte railroad corridor; 
• Develop an action plan for revitalization of old commercial corridors including comprehensive strategies for addressing complex problems of decay, vacancies and disinvestment. 
• Recommend incentives for property owners to reinvest in outdated, nonconforming structures. 
• Revitalization of public housing developments in accordance with HANO's proposed plans for renovation, density reduction, street openings; 
• As a part of the work on the revision to the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, develop design guidelines for specific commercial and mixed use corridors to ensure harmonious relationship between the existing and infill developments and to enhance the overall appearance of the area. Recommend improvements to existing street and median landscaping throughout the District and create buffer zones and strips as a part of site design to reduce potential conflict between the residential and adjoining commercial and institutional uses.