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$14bn to rebuild New Orleans
31/01/2007 13:10 - (SA)
New Orleans - Urban planners on Tuesday presented a $14bn blueprint for rebuilding New Orleans after hurricane Katrina that recommends keeping temporary facilities for clinics and schools in heavily damaged neighbourhoods for another two years, while focusing initial investment in areas that have rebounded more quickly.
It is up to the city to decide whether to adopt the Unified New Orleans Plan, developed with citizen comments and designed to be New Orleans's final recovery proposal.
It was given to city planning officials on Tuesday - 17 months after hurricane Katrina - for the start of what is expected to be a months-long approval process.
The privately-funded plan proposes about $14bn in spending over the next five to 10 years to restore what Katrina ruined. Most of the money could come from the federal and local governments, with some private funding.
The $14bn does not include what the government already has obligated for rebuilding projects in the city, consultants said.
The plan suggests that over the next two years, the city use temporary facilities, like portable modular buildings, for such things as schools or health clinics in parts of the city slowest to repopulate, such as the Lower 9th Ward, while repairing major infrastructure in places where more people have settled since the August 2005 storm.
People-driven plan
"The financing follows the people," said Darren Diamond, a consultant on the planning team. "This is a people-driven plan."
About 80% of the city flooded after Katrina, with some neighbourhoods, such as the Lower 9th, Lakeview and eastern New Orleans more devastated than others.
The plan relies heavily on financial incentives to get people to build more safely. The clustering, elevation of homes and rebuilding of slab-on-grade homes, to mitigate future flood risk, would be voluntary under the proposal, raising questions about whether would-be investors would balk about putting their money into the plan.
The city would have to provide for the incentives the plan recommends to create such things as affordable housing and clustered neighbourhoods, in which homes and businesses in less populated areas would be centred around retail and community hubs.
- AP
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