more on New Orleans rebuilding proposal

[from Times-Picayunne]

Rebuilding proposal gets mixed reception
Critics vocal, but many prefer to watch and wait
Thursday, January 12, 2006
By Gordon Russell and Frank DonzeStaff writers
Tempers flared as expected Wednesday with the unveiling of a bold plan to temporarily halt the issuance of building permits in flood-ravaged parts of New Orleans -- a four-month timeout proposed by Mayor Ray Nagin's rebuilding commission to allow for a planning process that would chart the future of those neighborhoods.
The message to Nagin's Bring New Orleans Back commission from many of the roughly 20 audience members who spoke out at the presentation of its land use plan was direct and simple: Don't tell me what I can do with my property. Fueling the anger was the plan's call for using eminent domain, as a "last resort," to buy out homeowners in areas that show few signs of rebirth.
The proposal also drew a pre-emptive Bronx cheer from City Council members, who held a news conference minutes before the unveiling to assail it.
While the mayor appears to be in favor of the four-month planning process, he indicated after the meeting that he is uncomfortable with preventing people from renovating their homes and is unlikely to support the building moratorium.
The chorus of opposition also included groups like the NAACP and Louisiana ACORN, though not all the plan's opponents shared the same objections and some seemed to contradict one another. While representatives of some neighborhoods called the four-month planning process too long, for example, Louisiana ACORN said the time frame was too short to gather enough public input.
After the commitee presented its plan in a Sheraton Hotel ballroom packed to the brim, a number of speakers argued that temporarily barring them from getting permits would choke the progress that is starting to show in their neighborhoods.
"We don't want to wait four months," said Jeb Bruneau, president of the Lakeview Civic Association. "We want to be able to go down to City Hall and get permits. We have the means to help ourselves, so don't get in our way."
Others called the plan a "land grab" cooked up by greedy developers. Carolyn Parker of the Lower 9th Ward warned the group that her home would be taken "over my dead body." Rodney Craft, also of the 9th Ward, warned: "If you come to take our property, you better come ready."
Though most of those who spoke strongly opposed the plan, the crowd of about 500 applauded at several points during the presentation and many seemed willing to listen and consider the proposal.
Even some of those who attacked parts of the plan seemed to welcome its promise of civic participation. Former state Rep. Sherman Copelin, who spoke for the New Orleans East Business Association, criticized the proposed building moratorium but said his Eastover subdivision, one of the wealthiest in the area, welcomed the chance to plan its own rebirth.
"We want to accept your challenge that we come up with a plan. But we want a commitment that you will work with us on that plan," Copelin told commissioners.
The outcry was hardly surprising. Since the mayor's commission began its work, by far its most controversial question has been whether the city's footprint should be made smaller to reflect a population expected to reach only half its pre-Katrina number by 2008.
Nagin himself didn't comment publicly after the presentation ended, but said via e-mail afterward that he has "serious reservations" about the permit moratorium. He said that he is especially concerned that those rebuilding in the flattened Lower 9th Ward may be putting themselves in harm's way -- particularly as long as the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet remains open. But he indicated that, even there, he is inclined to allow residents to rebuild.
"I just do not recommend it (rebuilding there) at this time," Nagin said.
Those objections aside, the mayor said the land use plan is a good starting point from which a shattered city can rebuild itself. "I like the plan," Nagin said. "It was well presented and is well thought out. The committee chairs, commissioners and citizens who contributed should feel proud for a job well done."
In remarks before the plan was presented, Nagin said he realized that many in the audience would object strongly to it.
"This report is controversial," he said. "It pushes the edge of the envelope."
But he reminded the crowd that the proposals are far from final.
"Let's take the time to discuss it, debate it, analyze it and tweak it," he said. "This is a recommendation from the commission. We as a community have the ultimate say in how we move forward."
Joe Canizaro, the banker and developer who chairs the land use panel, said after the meeting that he does not believe the plan requires a halt to permitting for it to succeed.
While some residents interpreted the proposed moratorium as a signal that city leaders don't want them to come back, Canizaro said, the panel's intent was to protect homeowners from investing heavily in renovations and later facing the possibility of a forced buyout.
"I don't have any problem at all if the mayor chooses otherwise," he said of the moratorium, adding that he realizes some flooded sections are already bouncing back. "I hope that the people in this community, when they make those investments, make sure that they're going to have neighbors and they're going to have services provided. The city may not be able to provide services if they're stuck out there by themselves. There are a lot of things that people emotionally in today's environment aren't thinking about."
The plan, which has been subject to numerous revisions over the past few weeks and even late into the night Tuesday, contained a few changes from a draft published Wednesday by The Times-Picayune.
The most significant change was the suggestion that, for neighborhoods to be considered viable, at least half their pre-Katrina population must commit within the next four months to return.
The report also recommended that the buyout legislation proposed by U.S. Rep. Richard Baker, R-Baton Rouge, be modified to give homeowners forced to sell in devastated areas 100 percent of their equity. The bill that stalled last month in Congress guaranteed only 60 percent to homeowners.
However, Canizaro also said that even without the Baker bill, he thinks enough federal money will be available -- in the form of Federal Emergency Management Agency grants and other sources -- to make homeowners whole.
The panel estimates it will cost $12 billion to buy out every home that received at least 2 feet of water, but Canizaro said he expects only half of the flooded homes will be bought out in the end.
The commission also recommended that a new public authority be created by the Legislature, tentatively called the Crescent City Recovery Corp., to oversee the expenditure of federal money and in particular the buying, selling and, in some cases, seizure of homes.
Giving the recovery agency the powers the panel wants will require voters to amend the City Charter. Voters would also have to approve the panel's recommendation to take away the City Council's power to overrule decisions of the City Planning Commission. Instead, those seeking to appeal would go directly to the courts.
Canizaro said he hopes both matters will be placed on the ballot at the time of the next election, which may be held in April. Gov. Kathleen Blanco has indicated she plans to call for a special session next month.
For the time being, none of the panel's recommendations has any legal force. On Wednesday, the mayor's committee voted unanimously to accept its report, but it will be up to Nagin to decide how to tweak the proposal, along with those of six other committees scheduled to be heard next week: education, infrastructure, government efficiency, health care, culture and economic development. The White House and a state commission appointed by Blanco that will disburse billions in federal money would also have to OK the plan.
Canizaro said the committee will nonetheless begin to lay the groundwork for the next phase of planning called for in its report. The report calls for planners to begin holding meetings, starting March 20, for residents of each of the city's 13 planning districts. By May 20, those plans would be finalized. The process will be quarterbacked by New Orleans architect Ray Manning and Tulane University's school of architecture dean, Reed Kroloff.
Manning and Kroloff said Wednesday they will begin immediately to assemble data about different neighborhoods. They will also start to formulate a strategy for including displaced residents scattered across the country who may not be able to attend meetings in New Orleans. They said their efforts may include teleconferencing meetings.
The two men acknowledged that they are about to enter uncharted waters.
"This is an evolutionary process," Kroloff said. "We're learning as we go. This is a problem of unprecedented scope and dimension. Answers aren't immediately available. We've got to gather as much as we can from the best minds everywhere to help us come to terms with this."
Manning said the tight timeline is daunting, but not impossible.
"Some of what we have to do is tantamount to doing a study that would normally take, in some places, a year and a half," rather than four months, he said.
Like Canizaro, Kroloff tried to assuage the fears of residents who believe that because they live in a flooded area, their property rights are threatened.
The planning process and the proposed moratorium, he said, should be seen as "a breather, a moment in time to assess these neighborhoods with their residents -- and under the direction of their residents -- to determine what is the best for protecting their long-term future in the city. It doesn't mean they won't be able to rebuild, it doesn't mean they won't be able to come home."
Canizaro said he believes the planning process will help bring clarity to residents and officials alike, and the end result will be a smaller footprint, though he declined to speculate on its shape.
"Nature and people's own emotions will cause them to want to consolidate," he said. "Maybe I'm looking for too much out of this process, but I'm hopeful that it will bring people together to understand what is best for them."
Perceived as the driving force behind the proposal, Canizaro took much of the heat Wednesday. During roll call, scattered boos broke out when his name was announced. More than one speaker mentioned him by name.
"Mr. Joe Canizaro, I don't know you, but I hate you," eastern New Orleans resident Harvey Bender said. "You've been in the background trying to scheme to get our land."
Canizaro buttonholed Bender in the hallway afterward and encouraged him to attend the planning sessions to make himself heard. He also told Bender he does not have any financial interest in any panel recommendations.
Individual residents were not the only ones to attack the plan. In a news release, ACORN leaders said the four-month window was far too narrow for neighborhoods to prove their sustainability. Dorothy Stukes, spokeswoman for the agency's Katrina Survivors Association, said: "They are just changing the rules around to justify a land grab." NAACP branch President Danatus King, meanwhile, suggested that the plan was designed to help "fat cats" and a "chosen few," pointing in particular to sections of town that the land use panel described as "infill areas" where large commercial, industrial and residential development might occur.
The local chapter of the Sierra Club, meanwhile, weighed in with a cautious endorsement of the plan, calling it a "thoughtful step forward" but expressing concerns about the accelerated time period for the planning process and the possibility that there is lingering toxicity in the soils of flooded areas.
First to attack the plan was a group of City Council members who held a hastily called news conference a few minutes before the mayor's commission unveiled its report, just one floor below the ballroom where it was presented. The opposition was not unexpected; the council in December passed a resolution calling for aid and city services to be distributed equally across the entire city, and trashed the notion of a "reduced footprint." Council members, who have been at increasing odds with the Nagin administration in recent months, also complained that they were not briefed on the plan.
Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis, whose eastern New Orleans district was among the hardest-hit by the storm, told reporters that the council had come out with a "strong, forceful declaration of the right of everyone to return."
Councilwoman Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson, whose district includes Algiers and the French Quarter, which were lightly touched by the storm, went further, calling the panel recommendations "a blatant violation of private property rights that is unprecedented in America."
Also present were Jay Batt and Renee Gill Pratt.
Mel Lagarde, the usually diplomatic health care executive who co-chairs the mayor's panel, promised to do a better job at communicating with other elected officials, but said he refused to let the debate become a political sideshow.
"The tolerance in this community for any kind of political foolishness is over," said Lagarde, who up till Wednesday has declined to speak publicly about the process. Lagarde said the situation is too dire to worry about making everyone happy.
"The size of the problem always dictates the size of the decision," he said. "And there's no way you're going to be able to finesse a decision around a problem of this magnitude that everybody's going to feel comfortable with. There is no way that is going to happen."