[StBernard] Plaquemines, St. Bernard start anew

[Westley Annis]

Plaquemines, St. Bernard start anew
They seem prepared to take divergent paths 
Sunday, December 25, 2005
By Matthew Brown
West Bank bureau 
The downriver parishes of St. Bernard and Plaquemines are starting largely
from scratch in their recovery from Katrina, but already they appear headed
in different directions. 

St. Bernard officials are aiming for a major overhaul of what they expect
will be a much smaller community. Their counterparts in Plaquemines predict
a larger proportion of the parish's pre-storm population will return, but
some officials there are inclined to let market forces, not new zoning or
planning, shape the resettlement. 

In St. Bernard, an estimated 23,000 homes and 4,000 businesses were damaged
or destroyed by the hurricane. 


>From its pre-storm tally of about 67,000 residents, the parish has

contracted to a population estimated in the hundreds, said Walter Leger,
co-chairman for the St. Bernard Parish Citizens Recovery Committee. 

The most optimistic predictions from parish officials have the population
climbing to about half its original size in the next five years. 

Whether that forecast pans out depends largely on the pace of New Orleans'
recovery, Leger said. And even if the city's rebound goes smoothly, few will
be lured back until flood protection is ensured. 

In St. Bernard, that means closing the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet. The
shipping channel between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico served as a
conduit for Katrina's storm surge and amplified its destructive strike
against levees in St. Bernard and eastern New Orleans. 

"We were sure there was adequate protection from a storm surge. But there
wasn't," Leger said. "That's got to happen now." 


Plotting a new look 

In the meantime, the recovery committee plans to have a drastic redrawing of
St. Bernard's communities ready by Jan. 25. 

Leger said the Chalmette Refinery has offered the committee $100,000 to hire
a professional planner to guide the process. But a rough outline of
possibilities already has emerged: 

Low-lying neighborhoods, including parts of Carolyn Park, Arabi, Buccaneer
Villa North and St. Claude Heights, could become public green spaces.
Nonresidential buffers could be established adjacent to the parish's two
refineries. 

Shopping districts with strict rules governing aesthetics and landscaping
have been proposed along Paris Road, St. Claude Avenue in Old Arabi and
Judge Perez Drive near the Orleans Parish line. And high-rise condominium
complexes could crop up along the Mississippi River. 

"St. Bernard Parish could become the newest place to develop and live, much
better than Metairie," said Ron Chapman, a history professor at Nunez
Community College and member of the recovery committee. "It would be closer
to the city. You'd have the advantage of living in the country, and you have
close proximity to the city without any congestion." 

In Plaquemines, which is largely independent of New Orleans, ambitions for
recovery are divided between the people seeking a grand re-making of the
parish and others content with simply rebuilding what was lost. 

South of Myrtle Grove on the parish's west bank and along the entire east
bank of the Mississippi River, Katrina knocked flat or ruined an estimated
99 percent of homes and businesses. Largely rural, dependent on fishing, the
oil industry and agriculture, and home to about 16,000 of the parish's
28,000 residents, lower Plaquemines and the east bank are strung out along a
pair of highways on both sides of the Mississippi. 

Trying to dramatically reshape those areas does not make sense because of
their geography, said Parish Councilman Jay Friedman, who represents parts
of Empire, Port Sulphur and Buras. 

"You have to realize, we have one road in and one road out," Friedman said.
"You could come in and say, 'We're going to plan,' but how do you require
people to come in and move back with more stringent rules and regulations in
an area that's not conducive to planned housing or planned development?" 

Parish President Benny Rousselle disagrees. He said a freewheeling approach
to rebuilding would be a mistake. 

"Now that we have everything wiped out in the southern part, we will have a
clean slate to build planned communities that will entice people to return,"
Rousselle said. "I would like to see planned communities in Port Sulphur,
Buras, Venice, Boothville. I would like to see a planned community where we
have nothing but houses, a planned community where we have nothing but
mobile homes, a planned community with condominiums." 

But Rousselle is barred under the Parish Charter from voting on zoning
matters, and the council already has signaled that it's unwilling to concede
any authority on the matter. On Dec. 8, it rejected a proposal to form a
rebuilding committee of parish officials, elected leaders, including
Rousselle, and residents. 


Northern migration 

History suggests not everyone will come back to lower Plaquemines regardless
of how it is rebuilt. After Hurricanes Betsy and Camille inundated almost
all communities south of Empire, the population shifted to Port Sulphur and
north. 

With Port Sulphur and Empire destroyed by Katrina, another shift north
already has begun, Rousselle said. 

Roughly half of Plaquemines, including its modern-day residential and
commercial hub of Belle Chasse, survived the storms in good shape. Residents
and parish officials say Belle Chasse and other upper Plaquemines
communities have become staging points for rebuilding and will likely see a
sharp jump in population as families elect not to return to harder-hit
areas. 

About 3,000 of the public school system's 5,000 students are now enrolled in
schools in upper Plaquemines. 

By 2010, the parishwide population will jump above its pre-Katrina level, to
30,000 or more people, Rousselle predicted. He said up to two-thirds of that
population will live in upper Plaquemines. 

Buras business owner Byron Marinovich isn't so sure. In the first two months
after the storm, Marinovich, who runs a bar and gun shop, said he looked
into home prices in Belle Chasse and found them too high. He plans to
rebuild on the same site where his house and businesses were destroyed. 

"Some of the people are going to be forced to come down (to lower
Plaquemines) because the prices are going through the roof," Marinovich
said. 

. . . . . . . 


Matthew Brown can be reached at mbrown at timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3784.