Louisiana capital requests planning help

An estimated 200,000 evacuees from New Orleans settled in the Baton Rouge area in late August, straining the resources of the principal local government — the consolidated City of Baton Rouge and Parish of East Baton Rouge, which had a population of about 390,000 before Hurricane Katrina. Consequently, Mayor Melvin “Kip” Holden met with Andres Duany Sept. 13, and the city expressed interest in obtaining planning assistance. DPZ consulted in 1998 on “Plan Baton Rouge” for the downtown. “Since then, scores of projects based on our recommendations have been accomplished,” including building renovations, streetscape improvements, and the Shaw Center for the Arts, said DPZ director of town planning Galina Tahchieva. Duany decided to devote his current attention instead to the much worse-off Mississippi Gulf Coast. Mayor Holden is seeking “a nationally known and recognized team to help update the comprehensive plan,” said Planning Director Troy Brunch. Whether the team will be new urbanist is not known.