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A Milestone: UNOP Approved in JunePosted December 13, 2007
The Unified New Orleans Plan’s central elements focus on providing enhanced flood protection stabilizing neighborhoods, providing affordable housing, enhancing public services, and providing state-of-the-art education and health care systems in New Orleans.
After a series of successful public reviews last winter, the UNOP was approved by the New Orleans City Council and by the Louisiana Recovery Authority in June 2007, thereby enabling New Orleans to begin accessing millions of dollars in federal funding dedicated to rebuilding.
The Office of Recovery Management, the Downtown Development District and the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) are using the UNOP as their primary development guide. In September, the City Planning Commission announced that the UNOP would serve as the foundation for the Master Plan that the city would create.
The UNOP’s success has contributed to the positive rebuilding momentum that is growing in the city. More than two years after Hurricane Katrina’s landfall and the failure of the levees, there is growing baseline evidence of New Orleans’ recovery. Sixty-six percent of the pre-Katrina population has returned (up from 50 percent on the first anniversary) and sales tax receipts are 84 percent of what they were before the storm. The city has issued 60,000 building permits, and while the Road Home Fund will require further federal infusions, upwards of 50,000 homeowners have received grants through it.
The RF’s decision to support the UNOP in the face of other conflicting plans and a political stalemate was a high-risk proposition that appears to have paid off, as the UNOP is serving as the fundamental starting point for the city’s rebuilding efforts.
In crafting the grantmaking strategy, the RF has been explicit that our engagement in New Orleans would be time-limited. This does not reflect a view that the challenges in New Orleans can be solved in the near-term. In fact, rebuilding the city will require many years of effort and significant additional resources. However, this initiative has been strategically focused on generating a platform for rebuilding from which many actors – affordable housing non-profits, private developers and investors, government and other stakeholders – could contribute. Having accomplished our desired objective – the successful completion of the UNOP process and approval by the Louisiana Recovery Authority – we will advance to the final stage of our work in New Orleans.
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