New Orleans City Planning Commission
Planning Districts Twelve and Thirteen
Algiers and English Turn
From the historic neighborhood of Algiers Point to the Audubon Center for the Research of Endangered Species, Algiers and English Turn contain a variety of uses, including a strong residential base, a concentration of regional commercial activity, extensive public access to the Mississippi River levee, and some of the largest tracts of undeveloped woodland in the city. Algiers faces a number of land use and related issues for improving the quality of life in the district: reducing blighted properties and non-conforming uses within neighborhoods, revitalizing vacant commercial properties, renovating the Fischer Housing Development, beautifying General Meyer, and redeveloping the former Southern Pacific Railway Yard. The 1999 Land Use Plan preserves residential and green space values and regional commercial activity on General de Gaulle, promotes the revitalization of Old Algiers for residential and mixed use, and supports the preservation of the rural character of English Turn.
Section I: Boundaries
Algiers and English Turn encompass that portion of Orleans Parish on the West Bank of the Mississippi River. Algiers is bounded by the River, the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Jefferson Parish line. English Turn is bounded by the River, the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Plaquemines Parish line. The following neighborhoods make up the districts: Algiers Point (19A), McDonogh (19B), Algiers/Whitney (19C), Fischer Housing Development (19D), Behrman (20B), Algiers Naval Station (20A), Aurora/Huntlee Village/Walnut Bend (20C), Tall Timbers/Brechtel (20D), and River Park/Cutoff (20H).
Section II: Development History
District Twelve
Transportation links to the East Bank, first by boat and later by bridge, have played a central role in the development of this district. Algiers consists of two historically distinct areas. Old Algiers has a long history which developed in relation to the ferry service connecting it to the CBD and Vieux Carré. The general area known as Aurora, bounded by the River, Holiday Drive, General de Gaulle Drive and the Intracoastal Waterway, developed as a result of the opening of the Mississippi River Bridge in the 1950s.
Algiers grew extensively in the late 19th and early 20th Century along with the city's robust economic growth from trade and population increase from Irish, Italian, and German immigrants. With expansion restricted lakeward on the East Bank because of backwater swamp, Algiers Point provided an outlet for an increasingly crowded city. Excellent ferry service to the East Bank facilitated the growth of Algiers during this period and also helped define its physical boundaries. Neighborhoods such as Algiers Point and McDonogh developed compactly near the river, with residents taking advantage of the ferry service to Faubourg St. Mary, Vieux Carré, and Marigny.
As New Orleans became a railroad hub during the late 19th Century, Algiers enjoyed the prosperity created by the railroad yard that extended south from the Mississippi River to the Parish line between Atlantic and Thayer Avenues. The yard, which marshaled transcontinental trains before or after their ferry passage across the Mississippi River, was important as a source of jobs and as the eastern boundary of development. Although it contained scattered residences, land to the east of the railroad yard was mostly undeveloped.
Between 1927 and 1949 very little construction occurred on the West Bank of Orleans Parish. Home building in New Orleans during this time was concentrated mainly in Lakeview and Gentilly. Development on the West Bank was limited to widely scattered subdivisions in the Aurora area and the extension of Old Algiers westward to Flanders Street.
Not until the construction of the Mississippi River Bridge in the late 1950s did large-scale urbanization resume. The bridge gave impetus to intensive construction, particularly in the area west of Holiday Drive and north of General de Gaulle Drive. By 1965 few vacant lots remained in this portion of the district. In Aurora, single-family subdivisions were extended northeast toward the Intracoastal Waterway. However, large areas of vacant land separated these subdivisions, and south of General de Gaulle remained sparsely populated.
Ironically, this development was facilitated by construction of the Mississippi River Bridge, which created transportation congestion going over the river. This congestion prompted construction of a second span in the 1980s, renamed the Crescent City Connection. Although this span reduced congestion on the bridge, the traffic problem continues because of continued development, including subdivisions near the Outfall Canal around Tullis Drive and General de Gaulle and throughout Jefferson Parish and Plaquemines Parish.
The William J. Fischer Housing Development opened in 1965 on a 48-acre tract isolated from the rest of the West Bank community by the Mississippi River Bridge, the West Bank Expressway, Donner Canal and Southern Pacific Railroad line. Fischer was the last conventional public housing development built in the city. The Housing Act of 1965 stipulated that low-rent housing programs use the scattered site method rather than concentrating dwellings in a single location. In terms of site planning, Fischer departs substantially from the traditional public housing developments in the city and is similar to Guste Homes found in Central City (District Two). Rather than a series of courtyards, the architects consolidated the open spaces into several large park areas, which occupy 60% of the development's acreage. The development currently includes a 13-story high-rise building for the elderly, with 168 one-bedroom units, and 13 low-rise buildings with a total of 834 units. HANO is working on redevelopment plans for this area, which will reduce thenumber of units by approximately half, provide commercial and open space to the residents, and generally tie this part of the community into its neighboring environs.
District Thirteen
The area's historical claim to fame is also its name, English Turn. In 1699 New Orleans' founder, Sieur de Bienville, managed to convince a British expedition traveling upriver that they had reached a dead-end. The British turned about, and France's claim to Louisiana was thus made secure.
English Turn has retained a rural quality to this day, with development constrained by its relative isolation. Prior to the construction of a high span bridge in the late 1980s, the Lower Coast was connected to Algiers by drawbridge. Development has increased since the opening of the high span bridge, but not to the extent predicted by earlier plans, some of which envisioned a population of 10,000 people by 1998. Scattered large-lot homes are being constructed along River Road, but most growth is occurring in the English Turn Development, which opened for residence in 1990. As of June 1, 1998, 336 lots had been sold and 215 homes occupied. More homes are currently being constructed or in the design review process. Officials expect 800 homes, perhaps less, by the time development is completed.
In 1987, the Lower Coast Algiers Moratorium was enacted to address concerns that future development on English Turn Parkway would alter the woodland character of the district. The moratorium, which expired December 26, 1997, required that any development plan other than for single- and two- family residences be reviewed by the City Planning Commission and approved by the City Council. A proposed English Turn Urban Corridor District has been developed by City Planning staff in cooperation with members of the community. The proposed District, to be reviewed by the City Planning Commission and presented to the City Council for approval in late 1998, would preserve the natural setting by establishing design requirements for all developments, including residential, abutting English Turn Parkway and its proposed extensions. Although development pressures do not currently pose a threat to the woodland character of the area (during the ten-year moratorium not a single appeal was made), the overlay district is an important tool for the future development of District Thirteen.
Section III: Population
The following tables provide demographic statistics on the population residing within the planning district as well as the total population of the city of New Orleans. The statistics provide information on each area for 1980, 1990, 1997 and 2002.