NEW ORLEANS – The Data Center reports the city planning process in New Orleans during the decade following Hurricane Katrina was arguably one of the most challenging periods of city planning in any city, at any point in U.S. history. The challenges were made more daunting by the fact that before the storm the city lacked a history of strong traditional urban planning practices.
Today, The Data Center is releasing the second in their series of reports they are calling The New Orleans Index at Ten Collection, highlighting changes post-Katrina.
The second report, “No More ‘Planning by Surprise’: City Planning in New Orleans Ten Years after Katrina” is contributed by Robert A. Collins of Dillard University.
Although the process was disorganized at the beginning and dragged on longer than most citizens would have liked, New Orleans now has a master plan as of 2010, and a comprehensive zoning ordinance (CZO) as of May 2015, Data Center reps said. Both the master plan and the CZO incorporate best practices from city plans around the U.S. in terms of transparency, reliability, and due process.
In order for the planning process to continue to improve the standard of living in the city, The Data Center said future amendments to the CZO will need to address issues of equity and resilience by implementing recommendations from the master plan.
These recommendations include: inclusionary zoning to increase affordable housing at higher elevations, requiring houses to be built higher and stronger, and designing drainage systems that return rainwater to the soil in order to fight subsidence (sinking land), which will reduce future flood risk.
