BR starts Phase Two for downtown
Print
Email
Save
Share
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Reddit
Baton Rouge will soon embark on the second part of the planning effort credited with kick-starting the resurgence of its downtown a decade ago.
Mayor-President Kip Holden on Tuesday announced Plan Baton Rouge Phase Two, in which an urban planning consultant will work with the Center for Planning Excellence and the Downtown Development District on a plan for existing and planned residential, commercial, mixed-use, public space and infrastructure developments. The plan will also include a retail market analysis study and recommendations of incentives for the newly designated Arts & Entertainment District.
Holden will serve as co-chairman of the new project.
The $350,000 contract will be funded by the state, the city-parish and Fannie Mae, with other funding contributed by the Downtown Business Association, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, the Downtown Development District and the Baton Rouge Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Davis Rhorer, executive director of the DDD, said the Metro Council will take up the issue of funding the plan at its next meeting.
Rhorer said that with all the development since the first plan — more than $1.5 billion in public and private-sector projects and more than $300 million planned or under construction — the city needs another master plan to guide development.
The process will be a little different this time, focusing on economic analysis to guide further development and identify markets, programming of public space and connecting public assets and infrastructure improvements; examining regulations of building use and design; creating economic incentives; and conducting a retail market analysis and tenant mix plan for the Arts & Entertainment District. The effort also could look at expanding the capacity of the DDD to make such changes.
Rhorer said another aspect of the plan is to see how development can be spread out from downtown to what he calls the downtown ring, which includes areas of Midcity on the other side of Interstate 110; the area to the north of downtown; and Old South Baton Rouge toward LSU.
While those areas have redevelopment efforts already, there are ways to help extend development outward, he said.
“We’re all in this together,” Rhorer said.
