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Louisiana
Proposed Ascension Parish Comprehensive Plan Focuses on Smart Growth
Projecting Ascension Parish’s population of some 102,000 last year to nearly double by 2030, county leaders expect its new comprehensive plan to save unincorporated land from sprawl, concentrate most growth in service areas, and ensure both denser and better urban design. Drafted by Boulder, Colorado-based Winston Associates in a broad public input process, with help and a $100,000 grant from the Baton Rouge Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX), reports Baton Rouge Advocate writer David J. Mitchell, the smart-growth plan is now taking its final shape for prospective adoption by the Parish Council later this year.
Mindful of the fate of earlier parish master plans, insufficiently supported and largely disregarded, the writer observes, officials hoped for the latest public workshops to help attendees reconfirm their long-term development choices. “I want to see something that comes out of here that is workable, that we can implement and follow,” said Parish Councilman Benny Johnson, “and I think we’ve got good people working on it.”
Focused on a full range of issues, from growth concepts to basic livability elements such as sidewalks, the four-scenario plan anticipates investment of a few hundred million dollars into a regional sewage treatment system as a tool for directing growth. Designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the system delineates service boundaries for the comprehensive plan, which requires many inside dwellings to access the future sewer service and precludes individual package treatment plants elsewhere, effectively blocking major new outside subdivisions unless service areas are added, possibly by sharing the system-linkup costs.
Parish officials secured money to start construction of the main treatment plant, with developer bids scheduled for March, but a source of funds for the whole system remains uncertain. Also, Parish Planning Director Ricky Compton said that some of the plan’s provisions differ from what many may expect, that developers would have to bear part of county service costs, and that more people are leery of the impact than initially thought.
Nevertheless, the challenges must be met. “If we want to improve the quality of life in the parish, development is going to have to get more expensive,” he stressed. “I can agree to lose some battles but win this war.” Learn about the plan, its architects, and related work at www.planascension.org/Home.html. 1/10/2010
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