Evaluating New Urbanist Plans in Post-Katrina Mississippi

Abstract

Immediately following Hurricane Katrina, the Mississippi Governor's Commission for Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal partnered with the Congress for the New Urbanism to provide teams of planners and designers to work with communities along the coast in preparing rebuilding plans. Following a week-long charrette in October 2005, each coastal community was provided with a rebuilding plan that was intended to be based on the principles of New Urbanism. The initial plans have been followed up with further long-range planning. Two years after Katrina, this paper examines the degree to which New Urbanism has been incorporated into the long-range comprehensive, master and other rebuilding plans developed in the communities along the coast in Harrison County, Mississippi. This study finds that New Urbanist principles were integrated into some community plans, but were largely absent from others. In those that do incorporate the principles, the realities of post-Katrina planning created serious challenges to the feasibility of implementing New Urbanist plans. While the goals of the New Urbanist consultants were to create better communities and regions, these good intentions have primarily failed on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In many cases, communities felt dissatisfied with their design-based plans because they were not appropriate for the time and place of post-Katrina Mississippi. The paper concludes by offering suggestions on how communities can improve their plans relative to integrating the principles of New Urbanism that can help rebuild better communities, while balancing community priorities for rebuilding.

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on research supported by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Universities Rebuilding America Program, grant number URAP-05-OH-039.

Notes

1. Mississippi Code Title 17 Chapter 1 Section 1 defines a comprehensive plan. A comprehensive plan must be for 20 to 25 years and include a land use plan, transportation plan and community facilities plan. All of the plans created include a land use, transportation and community facilities component. However, they do not fully meet the definition of a comprehensive plan because some do not define the time period for the plan, others do not address schools, and others do not provide projections of population and employment. It is clear from a review of the plans that some do meet these criteria and others do not.

2. Note that the unincorporated areas of Harrison County have been divided into six planning areas. Plans had been completed for four of the six areas at the time of this writing.