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Contact Nathan Cataline at nathan@evacuteer.org

We are very happily celebrating the final step in the City of New Orleans’ formal adoption of both policy and legal code that establishes the Early Notification System of the NOLA CPP model in our city.  First passed in policy form by the City Planning Commission last July, the policy document and amendments to the City’s Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance were unanimously adopted by the City Council on May 2.  The policy is officially called the “Neighborhood Participation Plan” by City Planning.

What these changes mean is that going forward, virtually any public or private sector project that requires any action at all by the City Planning Commission must be brought to the nearby residents and neighborhood association first, before the City Planning process can begin.  This a truly groundbreaking step in terms of protecting New Orleans neighborhoods against unwanted development, and the biggest achievement to date in this project.

While this also has positive ramifications for businesses, it will not be until the full NOLA CPP is implemented that the full benefits to businesses will be realized.  Good developers are already meeting with residents and neighborhood associations, and the new mandate will give all sides a chance to get together, solve problems and find common ground.  This should expedite the rest of the city’s decision-making processes, which go much faster when all parties are in agreement.  However, business owners remain vulnerable to individuals who may appear later in the process, identify themselves as stakeholders, and demand changes and/or delays in a project.  In New Orleans, sometimes these individuals are legitimate; many times they are not.  Currently, there is no method for authenticating these individuals.  The full NOLA CPP model does include a method for identifying, authenticating and including all stakeholders at the beginning stages of a project.  Thus, one major next step for the project is working with business interests 1) to inform them about the new mandate and facilitate effective communication with residents and neighborhoods and 2) to enlist them in supporting adoption of the full CPP model.

We will also collaborate with the Planning Commission staff, the Neighborhood Engagement Office and our partners at the Neighborhoods Partnership Network on other aspects of implementing the NPP.

Simultaneously, our work to map neighborhood boundaries in New Orleans continues.  We are nearing completion of our second (of 13) planning districts, are making good progress on another two, and are about to start up in three more.  We also continue to work with the Neighborhood Engagement Office to enroll residents in the New Orleans Recreation Division Commission’s new Community Advisory Boards, which are the first formally established structures for resident input in the city’s history.  And our Neighborhood Association Manual has now been downloaded over 160 times, been circulated in printed copies, and is being used by several resident groups to help start new neighborhood associations.

Finally, we are advancing work on our Latino Community of Interest pilot project with our partners Puentes New Orleans.  Following up on the well-received Latino community survey, which examined Latino residents’ priority needs and issues as well as their barriers to civic engagement (the report is currently being translated into Spanish), we are preparing a new survey that will take a more detailed look at issues, concerns and needs among Latino residents regarding health care and education.  We will be working with many of the Latino leaders who assisted us with the first survey, and also with the City’s Department of Health, in designing and conducting the survey.  It is also likely that Puentes and Committee for a Better New Orleans will present on the first survey at the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza, which will take place in New Orleans in July.

While it is tempting to take a few breaths and celebrate a little longer over the adoption of the NOLA CPP Early Notification System, the other projects are keeping us much too busy — and the new momentum is much too strong — for such a luxury.  Our Citizen Action Team and other key partners will be meeting soon to discuss a comprehensive strategy and specific next steps for moving ahead with adoption of the full NOLA CPP model.  We have a great opportunity to speed up the already-accelerating pace, and must take full advantage.  As always, we are extremely grateful to our many supporters, here in New Orleans and across the country and world.  You enable our work and inspire our dreams.

We would like to thank everyone who helped make the NPP a reality: City Planning Commission, CPC staff, City Council, City Council staff, and all of the New Orleans residents and neighborhood who have called for and provided input into the Neighborhood Participation Program. You can find the approved NPP on the City Planning Commission website at this link: http://new.nola.gov/city-planning/neighborhood-participation-program/

If you have any questions about the NPP, please contact Nick Kindel at nolacpp@gmail.com or (504) 267-4665. We look forward to continuing to work with the City Planning Commission staff to help ensure the successful implementation of the Neighborhood Participation Program!

The agenda for the Thursday, May 2 City Council is available online, and the City Planning Commission’s Neighborhood Participation Program (Item 41 on Page 26) and the CZO text amendments implementing the NPP (Item 10 on Page 15) are on the docket.

Both of these items will go a long way to further engage residents in the land use and zoning decision making processes. It should end “Planning by Surprise” in New Orleans. Therefore, we are very supportive of the implementation of City Planning’s NPP. You can view the entire NPP at this link.

The City Council meeting is Thursday, May 2 in City Council Chambers at City Hall. We are not sure what time these items will come up, but it will come up sometime after 11am. If you want to contact your City Councilmembers, their information is available here: City Council Contact Info

City Planning’s Neighborhood Participation Program (NPP) will create the Early Notification System (ENS), which is a key component of the NOLA CPP Model. The ENS and NPP provides early notice of land use and zoning applications to nearby residents and neighborhoods. It also requires that developers hold a meeting to discuss the proposed development and invite neighborhoods and residents. This will be a significant step forward for the City Planning Commission and the New Orleans Citizen Participation Project. You can view the full City Planning NPP report at this link: City Planning Commission NPP

Here are the complete meeting details:

Neighborhood Participation in Land Use and Zoning

Saturday, April 20, 10am – Noon

Little Zion Baptist Church

4821 Earhard Blvd

Update: Here is the Presentation for the event: Gert Town Planning Forum Outline

If you have any questions about this event, please contact Nick Kindel at nolacpp@gmail.com or 267-4665.

You can view a table of the Lot Next Door Properties at this link: https://data.nola.gov/Administrative-Data/List-Of-Properties-Eligible-For-New-Lot-Next-Door-/xtav-rgc7

You can view a map of the Lot Next Door Properties at this link: https://data.nola.gov/Administrative-Data/Lot-Next-Door-Properties/sqk7-tzz2

Here is the Press Release from NORA/the City:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZBjZQ_nMWM

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu5Qi1oASD0

Here is Ordinance Number 29491 with all of the individual project costs. I had trouble reading all of this information, so I put it all into a spreadsheet (Capital Budget Changes). Of the changes to the Capital Budget, there is approximately $63 million in de-appropriations and $77 million in appropriation. So the changes added about $14 million to the Capital Budget. So this go go beyond just minor and technical corrections.

When you dig a little deeper into the Captial Budget and the proposed changes, a number of question came to my mind. First, I could not find the adopted Capital Budget on the City’s website. The Mayor’s Office webpage has the proposed 2013 Capital Budget, but I could not find the version of the budget that was approved by City Council. Here are some other questions from the proposed capital budget changes:

• Department of Public Works (streets, streetlights and drainage) is always listed by residents as one of their top concerns (see any of the Mayor’s Budget hearings), so then why is over $17 million being de-appropriated from Public Works?
• $732,000 is being removed from “Marconi Bike Path” and $732,000 is being allocated to “Splash Park Enhancements.” Are these to projects linked? If so, who and how was it decided to take money away from the Bike Path and give to the Splash Park? Finally, there is a splash park in New Orleans?
• About $7.5 million is going to the CAO for “Capital Project Management.” Management sounds like this is money for personnel, so won’t that be an operating expense?
• What was the $1 million that Parks and Parkways was going to use for “Teachers Pet Improvements”?
• There are a number of other items that I am sure neighborhood residents would have questions about like why is $3 million being removed from Lincoln Beach, why is $400,000 being taken away from land acquisition in the Lower Ninth Ward, and why is $600,000 being removed from the Gert Town Pool?

I am sure that there are rational answers to these questions. I raise these questions to make a bigger point, without transparency in the budgeting process, how will get the answers to these questions to ensure that City funds are being properly spent and that spending is aligned with the budget priorities of New Orleanians.