At its commission meeting this morning, the Downtown Development District announced plans for a study to update the stretch along the Mississippi River from the Water Campus to River Park.
DDD Executive Director Whitney Hoffman Sayal says LSU landscape architecture students did a series of designs for that area along the river and that the district will schedule an open house for the public to view the designs. No date has been set yet.
One motivation for the study is to keep the area on par with the other structures nearby.
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“As we think about the River Center itself potentially changing, we need to think about how the riverfront and the River Center sort of change together and complement one another because we have the opportunity to make that a really special connection between the two,” Sayal says.
The commission also mentioned that the new downtown parking systems will begin on April 29.
There is a grace period before the rollout, where drivers will receive a warning ticket.
The revamped system is designed to encourage parking turnover, which should benefit downtown businesses and increase revenue for the city-parish.
Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s administration has been trying to overhaul the downtown parking system after scrapping a plan initially proposed by former Mayor Kip Holden. In 2020, the city-parish finalized changes in the management of city-owned parking garages, but supply chain snags in 2021 delayed the installation of the new meters.
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Parking regulations are in effect from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. The cost is 25 cents per 15 minutes with a two-hour limit.
“Event parking on weekends and evenings will still be free,” Sayal says.
This story originally appeared in an April 17 issue of Daily Report. To keep up with Baton Rouge business and politics, subscribe to the free Daily Report e-newsletter here.