Plan could shrink New Orleans footprint

[sabra]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10465263/

Plan could shrink New Orleans footprint
Key commission member recommends returning some areas to wetland

A key member of the commission charged with overseeing the rebuilding of New Orleans partially endorsed a proposal to shrink the city's footprint, but pulled back from a recommendation to temporarily ban development in some of the neighborhoods hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina, according to the city's Times-Picayune newspaper.

Joe Canizaro, co-chairman of the city's Bring Back New Orleans planning subcommittee, said he and other commission members agree with a recommendation from the Urban Land Institute that some areas of the city should be returned to wetland, according to the newspaper. The ULI proposal would require environmental tests and hurricane-protection studies before allowing development in some neighborhoods, including the Lower 9th Ward.

Canizaro's plan would allow residents to rebuild in any part of the city for the next three years. "If a neighborhood is not developing adequately to support the services it needs to support it, we'll try to shrink it then," Canizaro told the paper. "I don't envision the elimination of neighborhoods, I see the shrinkage of neighborhoods," Canizaro said. The city would have the power to condemn property in areas that have failed to develop sufficiently to support the neighborhoods.

...

A final recommendation to Mayor Ray Nagin isn't expected until the end of the year, but some commission members have made it clear that they also support the concept of a smaller city, according to the report.

[Ignacio Upton]

1. A smaller city makes more sense

NOLA will not have the 400,000+ residents that it had before Katrina. Also, having a smaller footprint will make the city with more density, which from the an urban planning point of view means more street life and a more vibrant city. Restoring the wetlands is also a given in order to restore buffer zone.

[KamaAina]

2. Funny, they forgot to mention that Canizaro is a major developer

really one of the two big-time real estate developers in N.O. along with Pres Kabacoff. You think he might possibly be looking at a way to make $$$$$ off this plan? And yet his plan is actually more moderate than some who want to "redline" the lowest-lying areas altogether.

Myself, I'd rather see people return to the "in between" areas, Mid-City, Central City, 7th Ward etc. -- but remember, I left N.O. when the phrase "President Bush" was not yet an oxymoron. It so happens that some of the hardest hit "purple zone" areas, notably the Lower Ninth Ward and Lakeview, are also the areas that have the strongest neighborhood identity. To a lifelong resident of that kind of neighborhood, an offer to rebuild across town isn't much of an offer at all. These kinds of issues have to be handled along with the engineering ones in order to get this done.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. they have to take into account Mommy Nature

returning land to wetlands will do everyone good. I know that people will be displaced, but the threat of future ruptures, with the continued subsidence - it is carzy to ignore her.

Here, smaller is better. I can't wait for some hot jazz again.

[Bridget Burke]

4. But most of the wetlands were not "developed"

They washed away because of things being done upstream. Rebuilding them is one of the major parts of protecting NOLA in the future.

Canizaro (a Bush Pioneer) says "If a neighborhood is not developing adequately to support the services it needs to support it, we'll try to shrink it." What if a neighborhod is not developing because funds are being wittheld?