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Planning - The Next Critical Challenge:
Introducing the LRA Fund/Support Foundation
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The complexity of the issues facing the state of Louisiana and its people as a result of the devastation of hurricanes Katrina and Rita continues to challenge both the local and national independent sectors to modify and intensify their responses. As displaced residents settle into temporary housing and the state begins the daunting task of deciding how and if communities should be rebuilt, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation has shifted its primary emphasis from relief work and is now focusing on the massive challenge of identifying and coordinating conscientious recovery efforts.
This shift, in part, reflects the Foundation's acceptance of a major, new role in the recovery effort, namely, the establishment of the LRA Fund/Support Foundation. Although federal funds to rebuild our state will, most likely, flow through the state government and the decision making process of the Louisiana Recovery Authority , the Authority does not have funds to hire consultants and planners. Returning displaced people to their communities and resuming commerce will require the help of experts, people who know the field and have the vision to recommend the smartest, most appropriate decisions possible. To remedy this situation, the leadership of the Authority has asked the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to establish a Fund/Support Foundation that will pay for expertise, and help us create far more equitable and functional communities than those which the storms exposed...and destroyed.
The Foundation continues to maintain the Hurricane Katrina Displaced Residents Fund, issuing grants on a bi-monthly basis to organizations providing relief services for evacuees. Our activities with the LRA Fund will in no way interfere with these grantmaking activities, and will, in many ways, parallel those efforts. The Hurricane Katrina Displaced Residents Fund is currently targeting the housing, mental health, and education needs of evacuees; meanwhile, the LRA Fund will aid the Louisiana Recovery Authority in their work to develop a roadmap for re-stabilizing Louisiana, and build a brighter future for all of our residents. The Hurricane Katrina Displaced Residents Fund now holds just over $8.5 million, following the latest round of disbursements on January 19th.
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The LRA Fund/Support Foundation is led by five people of impeccable credentials who have long histories in south Louisiana. They will be responsible for both raising the money and hiring the experts who will provide the best practices and know-how, ensuring that the plan to reconstruct Louisiana is thoughtful and progressive. The LRA Fund/Support Foundation board of directors has already made several critical decisions. In consultation with the Authority, the board selected three teams of master planners to develop the primary pieces of the physical rebuilding plan for both the natural areas and the built communities of south Louisiana. The foremost regional planners in the country, Peter Calthorpe and his partner, John Fregonese, of Peter Calthorpe and Associates in Berkeley, will develop a plan to connect the south Louisiana communities in ways that achieve far greater functionality for the cities, towns and hamlets that make up the region. They will focus on large scale, statewide issues like mass transit, communications, economic development, coastal restoration, housing development, and other big picture items that help cities work together. The town planning group from Miami, Florida, Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company, was the lead on the recent plan to reconstruct the coast of Mississippi, and will be the town planner for this effort. Andres Duany and his team will undertake planning charrettes in several cities and communities across south Louisiana, gathering community input as they develop plans at the community and neighborhood level. Mr. Duany was the master planning architect for Plan Baton Rouge, the effort that has revitalized and made the capital city of Louisiana a far more vibrant and successful place. Urban Design Associates of Pittsburgh will create toolkits that are the outcome of the charrette planning process undertaken by Mr. Duany and his team. These pattern books will be widely distributed and available for use on both residential and commercial projects, featuring sections on sustainable design and green building techniques, and tools for financing mixed income housing. If homeowners or prospective homeowners choose to build to those designs, the permitting process becomes relatively automatic, and the fabric of the built community is protected. As a final contract to support the planning process and ensure that maximum participation is encouraged, the LRA Fund/Support Foundation has hired Peter A. Mayer Advertising Inc., the largest communications consulting company in the state of Louisiana. The LRA Fund/Support Foundation website, which can be accessed by clicking on the logo below, contains links to all of the consultants websites. These sites, along with the master planners' collective reporting web site, Louisiana Speaks, will ensure broad dissemination of information and will encourage the greatest amount of public input and comment possible.
Beyond the critical work of major physical planning prior to rebuilding our region, the LRA Fund/Support Foundation will also provide technical support to the rebuilding of other critical civic sectors such as the public education system and healthcare provision to the uninsured. In fact, the LRA Fund/Support Foundation has signed a contract with PriceWaterhouseCoopers to provide consulting support on healthcare structures for south Louisiana to ensure that they are rebuilt in a way that is far more practical and accessible for the population they are responsible to serve.
This is a massive undertaking that the Baton Rouge Area Foundation has accepted through the LRA Fund/Support Foundation. In order to honor the contracts that are required to expedite planning, we anticipate that we will need to raise between $8 million and $20 million in the next few months. Both the board of the Fund/Support Foundation and staff of the Foundation have been actively appealing to foundations and philanthropic individuals for support of this important work. As is our practice, we will be reporting the success of our fundraising, our expenses, and signed contracts on a website for the LRA Fund/Support Foundation.
We continue to be immensely grateful to the huge number of compassionate and generous people and institutions across the country who have, in many instances of great sacrifice, supported our work with the hope that we can ameliorate the lives of those who were devastated by the storm. We continue to embrace that dream. We cannot build the better Louisiana if we do not plan it very carefully. It is about planning that we are now dedicating immense amounts of time and resources. Our mood is hopeful that out of the incredible pain and suffering of Hurricane Katrina a wonderful vision of community can be crafted and that this vision can be made a reality.
Sincerely,
John G. Davies
President and CEO, Baton Rouge Area Foundation
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