• By CHAD CALDER
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Feb 10, 2009 - Page: 1D - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Consultants plotting the next phase of downtown development talked Monday night about boosting housing stock, improving transportation and creating recreational space with a close bond with the Mississippi River.

Plan Baton Rouge Phase II, which aims to pick up where the first installment a decade ago left off, is aiming for a final proposal later this spring.

Alex Krieger, of lead consultant Chan Krieger Sieniewicz, said downtown needs to be better connected to the river at both its northern and southern ends.

Economic development consultant John Alschuler told the group at the Louisiana State Museum on Monday the goal should be to increase downtown’s residential base of 1,500 by half or even double it in the next 10 years. He said downtown has the capacity for another 2,000 units, but cautioned residential development in downtown areas can be very expensive compared to its suburban counterpart.

He said the proposal the team is putting together will recommend a fund to provide low interest loans to help make it possible.

Convincing people to live downtown, he said, is key to much of what planners would like to see happen.

That said, downtown needs to focus on entertainment and cultural offerings for conventioneers and visitors in order to help that grow as well, said Alschuler, of HR&A Advisors Inc.

Alschuler said downtown needs some kind of attraction to pull people to the northern end of downtown now dominated by the State Capitol, suggesting a theater or upscale jazz club.

Alschuler said entities such as the Downtown Development District and the local redevelopment authority may have to be expanded to steward growth. In addition, with only 50 percent of downtown parking available to the general public, a parking authority would need to be created.

Troy Russ, a transportation consultant with Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, said downtown needs to begin laying the groundwork that will lead to more diverse transportation options, but there are things it can do to improve movement along the streets, some of which should be converted from one way to two way.

Laurel Street, he said, should not be a one-way street and could take as much as a quarter of the traffic off of Main Street. In addition, St. Louis and St. Ferdinand streets shouldn’t be one way because they impede the north/south flow and create a barrier between downtown and LSU.

Also, River Road should be reduced to three lanes where it is now four, allowing for some additional green space and South Boulevard could become a tree-lined artery, he said.

Doug Reed, of landscape architecture firm Reed Hildebrand, talked of creating a canopy of trees throughout downtown, but said the average lifespan of a poorly maintained urban tree is seven years.