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12/2005 |
Louisiana Recovery Authority
Endorses LRRC’s Planning Principles AIA-sponsored conference allows citizens’ voices to define rebuilding |
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Specifically, the motion, which was proposed by the LRA’s Long-Term Community Planning Task Force Chair Donna Fraiche, says, “Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the Louisiana Recovery Authority does hereby endorse the AIA/APA goals and planning principles as outlined in Starting Point: Report from the Louisiana Recovery and Rebuilding Conference, within the section titled, ‘Goals and Principles for Action.’” “It was a privilege to deliver the results of the conference to the Louisiana Recovery Authority’s board,” said David Downey, Assoc. AIA, managing director of the Institute’s Center for Communities by Design. “Trula Remson, AIA, and Steve Villavaso, AICP, were able to present the LRA with copies of Starting Point and offer them DVDs showing conference highlights and the participants hard at work. Most rewarding was hearing the LRA Board profess their dedication to speaking with one voice and rebuilding communities or neighborhoods rather than simply looking for development options. It was rewarding because this was the language used by the conference participants two weeks prior.”
1. Create infrastructure that supports recovery by restoring confidence, enhancing quality of life, and withstanding future disasters by:
2. Promote economic growth that benefits everyone through:
4. Pursue policies that promote a healthy environment and healthy
5. Plan and design communities that advance livability by:
“Cheer it on:” Next steps
to a long-range plan
The LRA Support Organization—a nonprofit foundation made up of Board members from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, and the LRA—implemented the LRA’s guideline for selection of design professionals, which will include architects and planners from the Louisiana Gulf region, Fraiche says. “It is essential that the local communities get the opportunity to participate in their own planning effort. This has to be a groundswell approach from the bottom up,” she says. She notes that Trula Remson, AIA, president of AIA Louisiana, is integral to this process as a member of the LRA Long-Term Community Planning Task Force. The planning team has been charged to assess recovery needs through a series of meetings within parishes. The advisory group’s first order of business was to recruit experienced volunteer professionals to facilitate the first round of parish planning meetings currently scheduled for January 6–11, 2006. “We feel very enthusiastic that this process needs to be done
with a great deal of urgency,” Fraiche concludes. “But, at
the same time, it requires the kind of necessary thought, integration,
and stakeholder participation to get it done right. And I want to reiterate
what came out at the December 1 LRA Board meeting, which is nothing but
incredible gratitude for the effort of the AIA and APA in putting together
the Louisiana Recovery and Rebuilding Conference as a starting point.
It was extremely important to us to have the benefit of the national
and international expertise on the subject, not to mention the outpouring
of feelings and warmth, hard work, and desire to see this region rebuilt.
We have to thank the national efforts of your organizations for putting
that opportunity together. It brought a lot of minds and spirits together.
If we heard anything it is for us to do whatever we can to rebuild it
better, stronger, and wiser.”
Unify. “You have said this all morning; it was said over and over at the conference, ‘Speak with one voice,’” Remson said. “We have all said it. We just must do it. “ Cooperate. Public and private sectors; parishes and municipalities; federal, state, and local governments must cooperate creatively and selflessly. “As I look at our State Seal that is hanging there on the back wall, I see a mother pelican in her nest with her babies. he is pecking the meat from her own breast to feed her babies,” Remson said. “Now, that is selfless. That is creative, and that is the kind of cooperation that the citizens of our state are expecting.” Protect. Protection from floods, hurricanes, coastal erosion. “Our citizens must have protection in order to have the confidence to rebuild and to reinvest,” Remson said. “Think, again, of our Mother Pelican. Protect.” Preserve. “There is so much right about Louisiana. We want to preserve and protect our heritage, our architecture, our culture, our diversity.” Rebuild. “The citizens are ready to go and ready to rebuild. We need answers in a timely manner.”
Remson also told the directors that the “Starting Point” report presents the needs defined by each individual parish as they worked in breakout sessions on the third day of the conference. Although each parish expressed very different needs, five ideas emerged in every group:
Remson concluded, “The people of Louisiana are looking to you, the LRA, to bring back the Hope, the Confidence, and the Opportunity to Dream once again.” Copyright 2005 The American Institute of Architects.
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