[StBernard] Duany Plan, Parish planning, and securing houses

[Westley Annis]

As far as I can tell, the "official" word is that the Parish is still in the
process of deciding which neighborhoods will be rebuilt and "which areas are
targeted for permanent open space."  The Parish site on Louisiana Speaks has
a clear statement that not all areas of the Parish are going to be rebuilt.
Maybe Craig or somebody can tell us the status of this. 
 
How do you find this statement? Go to the Louisiana Speaks Parish Planning
website.  There is a section on recovery projects here:
http://www.louisianaspeaks-parishplans.org/IndParishHomepage_ProjectListing.
cfm?EntID=13 .  Look down to one of the Housing and Community Development
plans, the one labeled "Create a Neighborhood Redevelopment Map."  If you
click on that, you get a summary of the Parish's plan to create a
neighborhood redevelopment map.  Here's how it starts:

This project will enable the parish to hire a consultant to work with the
Parish Council and citizens to create a Neighborhood Redevelopment Map. This
map will determine which areas of the Parish will be rebuilt and which areas
are targeted for permanent open space. At this time, neither parish
residents nor local government officials know which areas of the parish
should be redeveloped. However, both groups agree that deciding how and
where to rebuild - and deciding quickly - is of the utmost importance to the
parish's recovery. This project helps answer those questions through a
transparent and inclusive public participation process. Until the questions
are answered, residents will not have the information needed to rebuild and
businesses will not have the information they need to return and reopen in
the parish.

There's much more, but it clearly states that the Parish will decide which
areas will be rebuilt and which will not.  The project has a start date of
May 1, 2006, and is scheduled to take three months.  That means that the
Parish will not tell me whether my neighborhood is going to be rebuilt until
at least August 1, 2006 (that's if they put out the results on time -- has
this project even been started?).  If the Parish cannot yet tell me whether
my neighborhood is going to be rebuilt, how can the Parish force me to spend
more money on my house -- buying new doors and windows, for example, to
"secure" it? What happens if this project determines that my neighborhood
will not be rebuilt?  Shouldn't those of us with houses north of
Patricia/Genie wait for this map before we spend any more money on our
properties?  

CK