The details and the views on FuturEBR

THE DETAILS

Land Use

The most controversial part of any good planning document usually involves land use. FuturEBR has plenty say on this:

• “There are many different types of neighborhoods, each with unique characteristics. FuturEBR envisions retaining the best and most cherished aspects of the [neighborhood] districts while allowing them to evolve to meet the challenges of future growth.”

• Neighborhoods such as Spanish Town, Beauregard Town and the Garden District contribute to a cohesive city street grid and offer a variety of land uses, while post-World War II neighborhoods such as Sherwood Forest, Shenandoah and Oak Hills Place “have a discontinuous street pattern and are more auto-oriented, consisting of single-family homes on large lots, shopping centers and parks.”

• FuturEBR embraces the “20-minute neighborhood” concept “where residents can walk to essential amenities and services in 20 minutes … While many will prefer to drive, others prefer walking to further enrich their own daily experience and to contribute to their quality of life.”

Economic Development

The plan identifies ways Baton Rouge can nurture the growth and development of businesses. “A strong, diverse economy will provide many of the resources necessary to accomplish the goals of FuturEBR. However, economic prosperity requires a strategic approach where new business ventures emerge and thrive.”

Public Services

“The vision for FuturEBR is for a unified City-Parish government with departments and divisions working in collaboration to achieve the shared goals of FuturEBR and to protect the health, safety and welfare of parish residents.”

Transportation

The plan will address “a lack of early planning that should have occurred as the urban area developed in the 1960s and 1970s.” It also addresses areas of extreme congestion and promotes public transit that serves more people and is more sustainable.

Housing

“Today, East Baton Rouge Parish is not meeting the demands for current types and varieties of housing choices. If East Baton Rouge Parish cultivates a balanced housing mix that builds on emerging market dynamics, it will have a major competitive economic advantage over its peer cities.”

Infrastructure

Underlying infrastructure—including wastewater, drainage and water, utilities, public rights-of-way and pubilc buildings—should be planned and properly funded.

Parks and Recreation

“East Baton Rouge Parish will be home to a network of diverse parks, providing a variety of recreation opportunities in each neighborhood. A network of greenway trails will connect the parks with neighborhoods, ensuring that all residents can easily access them on foot, by bike, by transit or by car.”

Urban design and Neighborhoods

“The City-Parish should be guided by a vision for strong interconnected neighborhoods and districts which are healthy, walkable and comfortable environments.”

Environment and Conservation

“The vision for FuturEBR is for the parish to protect and conserve its environmental assets, and to foster a green, active, ecologically diverse and economically sound community.”

Views on FuturEBR vary

ON TRANSPORTATION

Two big components are connecting New Orleans to Baton Rouge and downtown to LSU along Nicholson.

You’d love to connect the sister cities by rail, putting the two markets together, and then creating an international airport between them. As it is, neither [city’s airport] is anything to brag about. Connecting them with rail—which is already there—that’s economic development.

The LSU area offers an excellent supply of workers, and downtown has an excellent concentration of workers and jobs. In fact, it’s huge—probably the largest employment concentration in the state when you consider the state buildings. You relieve the traffic, you add streetcars, trolleys, get people back and forth from downtown to LSU. I think demand would be there.

ON DOWNTOWN

What I find so refreshing is the age group of 20- to 30-year-olds are capturing the spirit and essence of downtown. A whole other generation of people are understanding the importance of downtown, even if some in my generation don’t.

There are some controversial projects that rise up, that evoked some discussion—the downtown library—but in reality, we’ve seen more private sector investment down here. FuturEBR is another bold, next step.

ON GOVERNMENT REGULATION

It looks like this was the mayor’s bond proposal on steroids. I don’t see how the people that voted to approve this could possibly appreciate all the ramifications of what this entails. There’s a tremendous amount of suggested improvements, there is some good in this, but [there are also] a lot of anti-market policies.

Economic development should not be a top-down mandate; you’re putting the cart before the horse. Good infrastructure, business-friendly environment, safe neighborhoods, all these things that attract people to an area [create] economic development. You don’t mandate economic development; it follows good government.

ON EMPLOYMENT

We need jobs. Jobs to keep young people here, rather than move away to someplace like New Orleans. There is no reason Baton Rouge can’t grow like other cities. We [already] have a giant college here that brings in young people. They need jobs to stay here.

ON TRANSPORTATION

Synchronizing the lights in East Baton Rouge Parish is a no-brainer. It’s been done in other cities. It works beautifully for a modest cost. Also, we need to take care of the handful of bottlenecks that gridlock traffic on north-south corridors like Essen Lane and College Drive. We have to go under or over I-10 and I-12 in more places to get traffic moving.