Master Plan Chapter Synopsis
PART 1 – SETTING THE STAGE
Chapter 1 – A vision and a plan for action
The Master Plan is neither a prediction nor a projection of the future. It is a plan. A plan for the 21st century: New Orleans 2030.
A plan that could be put into action-aspirational yet practical, focused on the long-term 20-year horizon yet recognizing that New Orleanians were hungry for short-term, visible progress in recovery. The planning process and this document were designed to meet those goals.
Chapter 2 – New Orleans Yesterday and Today: Population and Land Use Trends
Population and land use trends suggest that although New Orleans continues to be challenged by blight and vacancy, population recovery since Hurricane Katrina has exceeded initial expectations and is likely to continue at a moderate pace.
This chapter describes the post-World War II demographic and land use trends that shaped the New Orleans of today. For detailed information on current population figures, consult the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center.
Chapter 3 – The Context: Previous Planning and the Charter Amendment
This 2009-2030 New Orleans Plan for the 21st Century builds on a strong foundation of previous planning and a new commitment to creating a strong linkage between planning and land use decision making. City Planning Commission initiatives in the 1990s, the pre-Hurricane Katrina years, and the neighborhood-based recovery plans created after Hurricane Katrina inform this long-term plan.
Moreover, the City entered a new era in November 2008 when voters approved an amendment to the City Charter that strengthened the relationship between the city’s master plan, the comprehensive zoning ordinance and the capital plan, and mandated creation of a system for neighborhood and community-of-interest participation in land use and development decision-making—popularly described as giving planning “the force of law.”
Chapter 4 – The Community Speaks and Shapes the Plan
Successful city master plans are rooted in an understanding of the values, aspirations, and concerns of the communities whose future they are intended to guide. The City of New Orleans Master Plan benefitted from a conscious commitment to extensive public outreach and engagement.
In November, the success of a ballot initiative to amend the city charter and give the master plan and zoning ordinance formal legal standing prompted unusually high turnout at the previously scheduled round of public meetings.
Chapter 5 – New Orleans 2030
Developing a vision statement is an essential early step in creating a community Master Plan. Vision statements focus attention on a community’s values, sense of identity and aspirations. The process of creating a vision statement brings community members together to identify what they want to hold onto as change takes place, and what they want to improve. In creating a vision, the community is articulating their desires and hopes for the future, developing consensus on an ideal future and committing themselves to working towards that ideal.
The vision statement, accompanied by related principles or goals, becomes the guiding image for the community as it faces future challenges and complex choices.
PART 2 – THE PLAN
SECTION 1 – HOW WE LIVE
Chapter 6 – Neighborhoods and Housing
A network of neighborhoods with high quality of life is one of the most important keys to a successful city. Enhancing the livability of all New Orleans neighborhoods, while preserving their unique character, is one of overarching goals of this Master Plan. It is critical to retaining the residents who have returned and invested in the city-and to making sure that their children will be able to stay in New Orleans-and to attracting new residents to make the city their home, too. As jobs increasingly follow people in the 21st century, rather than the other way around, investing in a high quality of life is also an economic development strategy.
Chapter 7 – Historic Preservation
Residents of New Orleans are fiercely attached to the historic character of their neighborhoods. The need to preserve that character was a top priority at many Master Plan meetings. The city’s physical connection to its historic roots is part of the identity of New Orleanians. Perhaps because it is so ubiquitous, the city’s architectural character is not generally recognized as potentially one of its strongest economic assets for growing a robust 21st Century economy. Among the city’s business, economic development and political leadership, historic preservation is sometimes viewed as an obstacle to progress, a barrier to the city’s growth, rather than the economic asset it can be.
For New Orleans to achieve the vision of 2030, its image will be critical in competing globally for talent, business and private investment. Today and for the next decade or more, the convergence of market forces and demographics is putting cities that have historic neighborhoods and “main streets” of local shops and amenities in the forefront of exciting places to live and do business. Historic preservation is at the root of retaining this character and has been the foundation of neighborhood revival in cities all over the country. Viewing historic preservation as a key component in a comprehensive, integrated approach to neighborhood revitalization, rather than as an isolated function, will enable the city’s historic character – so beloved by residents – to be harnessed more consciously towards a future where innovation and preservation are linked.
Chapter 8 – Green Infrastructure: Parks, Open Space and Recreation
One of the most important themes of this plan is how quality of life is central to the economic success of cities and their ability to retain and attract residents. Excellent parks, recreational resources for adults as well as children and youth, and access to water and nature are key ingredients to the quality of life desired by everyone in the 21st century. City master plans and comprehensive plans traditionally include a chapter devoted to parks and recreation and many cities also have stand-alone master plans for their park and recreation systems.
A Parks, Recreation and Open Space plan was completed in 2002 as part of the pre-Hurricane Katrina master plan process, following a 1980 parks plan. In addition to analysis and recommendations for the overall park and recreation system, the 2002 plan also included a list of park projects by Planning District. This chapter of the 2030 Master Plan is indebted to the 2002 Parks, Recreation and Open Space plan.
Chapter 9 – Health and Human Services
This chapter provides the basis for ensuring that the health and service needs of all New Orleans residents will be adequately met according to national and international best practices, and that these services will be provided in appropriate settings that are not only easily accessible to residents but which also contribute to the overall quality and vitality of their surrounding neighborhoods.
The chapter outlines a framework for decision-making that will assist the city and other decision-makers in prioritizing physical and operational developments that promote positive social and health outcomes and help move the city toward the health and social goals identified by the community throughout this planning process.
SECTION 2 – HOW WE PROSPER
Chapter 10 – Sustaining and Expanding New Orleans’ Economic Base
This chapter describes the key economic base industries in New Orleans, assesses their prospects, and identifies the challenges and opportunities that will influence their future. Based on these findings, a set of goals, strategies and implementation steps designed to support and strengthen these industries and gain maximum economic benefit for the city are recommended.
Chapter 11 – Reinforcing the Building Blocks of Prosperity
New Orleans’s ability to promote and sustain the processes of innovation, trade, and investment-its capacity to produce-is the key to achieving shared and sustainable growth. This capacity to produce is most directly a function of the characteristics of what can be called the community’s economic building blocks- its human resources, its entrepreneurial climates, physical infrastructure, economic institutions, and general quality of life-and, more importantly, how these building blocks are put to use. This section assesses the local strengths and challenges associated with each of these important building blocks.
Chapter 12 – Community Facilities, Services and Infrastructure
New Orleans community facilities and basic infrastructure including water, sewer, and drainage systems have long been underfunded and poorly maintained. Many facilities, such as police and fire stations, libraries, and community centers, were severely damaged or destroyed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and federal funding is supporting millions of dollars in investments in new and rehabilitated public facilities. Every neighborhood will see improvements resulting from these investments but the full value will depend on the city’s capacity to maintain them over the long term. This chapter focuses on facilities and infrastructure with the exception of transportation infrastructure. Roads and other transportation infrastructure are discussed in Chapter 13.
SECTION 3 – SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS
Chapter 13 – Transportation
The largest transportation planning effort in New Orleans in recent years was contained within the 2004 transportation element of the New Century New Orleans Master Plan, which presented goals and recommendations for shaping the transportation system in New Orleans in the future. Transportation was also discussed in the recovery plans created in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This chapter builds upon the findings and recommendations of these other plans, weaving them together into an overall systems building strategy.
Chapter 14 – Resilience
The primary hazard risk that New Orleans continues to face is that of flooding. This risk comes from three distinct sources: flooding from the Mississippi River, heavy rains, and hurricane-related storm surge. This chapter outlines the input that the planning team has received from the public on this topic, the current level of risk that the city faces, ongoing efforts to mitigate the risk of flooding, and the further goals, policies, and actions that are needed to create a more resilient community.
Chapter 15 – Environmental Quality
This chapter discusses some of the ways in which sustainable redevelopment practices have been employed in New Orleans to date, and puts forth strategies that will continue to foster improvements to the quality of the built and natural environment of the city for generations to come. As the nation’s attention turns increasingly to the economic, health, and environmental benefits of cleaner, more sustainable and more energy efficient practices, New Orleans is poised to become a national leader in these trends.
Chapter 16 – Land Use Plan
The focus of this chapter is the Future Land Use Map, which shows the land uses desired over time, and their densities and intensities. It is accompanied by the Land Use Table, which shows the relationship between the land use designation on the map and zoning classifications. The map reflects the land uses that correspond to the long-term vision, goals and policies expressed elsewhere in this plan and, with the table, it constitutes the most direct link between the Master Plan and the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance. The Future Land Use Map is not a zoning map and it does not govern design or function.
Chapter 17 – Citizen Participation Program
This chapter addresses an issue that is critical to the success of implementing the plan and realizing the aspirations reflected in it. The issue is that of the relationship of citizens to their government. It is an issue that produces a wide range of responses among stakeholders. The November 2008 charter amendment requires that the City create a citizen participation program by ordinance.
Chapter 18 – Structures for Implementation
This chapter discusses specific activities and tools that can help ensure the implementation of this plan. The 2008 master plan charter amendment will assure that the plan will be consulted for land use regulation purposes and in the preparation of the capital plan, but the effective implementation of the plan will require much more.
Simultaneous with this planning process, a new Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance is being prepared that will reflect the policies of this plan. Nonetheless, throughout the planning process, citizens expressed their concerns-and sometimes their cynicism-about implementation, enforcement, and accountability.
The success of this Master Plan is dependent on building the capacity of city staff and public officials to apply and enforce policies and programs that support it. Everyone will need to ‘work with the plan’ to ensure the city is able to realize its potential.
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COMMENTS
The fallout from the financial crisis has yet to be contained. Governments have taken steps to relaunch economic growth and stabilize the financial sector, but they must balance these goals against the needs to reflect public sentiment about banks and to control government deficits.
This conference will examine the impact of the proposed regulatory measures on the financial markets and consider the outlook for the global economy.
These and other topics can be found at the Financial Forum.
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