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Preface:
- Neighborhoods are the critical building blocks of our community
and should be planned, developed, enhanced and protected.
- Neighborhoods are our barometer on quality of life issues.
- Lafayette Parish neighborhoods must be safe and healthy
environments to raise and nurture succeeding generations.
- Housing is a basic and fundamental need of all citizens and should
be a primary community concern and focus.
- "Affordable housing" is defined as owner-occupied
residential units for the employed minimum-income family.
- Housing in Lafayette Parish should be located in defined and
viable neighborhoods with adequate infrastructure and services.
NEIGHBORHOODS:
Recommendation No. 1
The Lafayette Parish Comprehensive Plan should be developed and
implemented on a defined and organized neighborhood level through the
preparation and adoption of neighborhood plans.
Commentary:> Residential land use comprises the largest single
developed classification in the Parish. Obviously, this is where we
live, where our children play, and increasingly where we may work in the
future. We must plan the parish on a realistic and viable neighborhood
level. We can not allow our older neighborhoods to deteriorate and we
must not allow new neighborhoods to be built without adequate basic
services, infrastructure, planning and citizen involvement. The
subcommittee urged and the staff supported the request to pilot two
neighborhood comprehensive plans in the Parish: The LINC North
Neighborhood Pilot and the LINC South Neighborhood Pilot programs. This
effort has already demonstrated some positive community responses. Even
negative reactions to these neighborhood pilot plans and programs should
be considered beneficial to public awareness and involvement.
Recommendation No. 2
Existing and future neighborhoods should be clearly defined with
natural and manmade borders to help plan, organize, and support the
area.
Commentary: The North/South LINC Neighborhood Pilot Areas were
located in high growth areas of the parish where substantial public and
private investments have already been made or committed. Each area
measures approximately two square miles. This may or may not be the
ideal geographic size, but could be a starting point for a parishwide
model program.
Recommendation No. 3
Neighborhood plans must be developed in conformity with the overall
parishwide comprehensive plan framework.
Commentary: Planning decisions must be directed to the most
appropriate level. Decisions that have limited impact on the parish as a
whole should be made on the advice and in consultation with the
neighborhood primarily affected. On the other hand, planning decisions
that affect the City-Parish as a whole should not be overly influenced
by a single neighborhood's needs or interests.
Recommendation No. 4
Existing and future neighborhoods should be planned with *
"adequate" infrastructure improvements including sewer, water,
electrical, communication, drainage, streets, and parks.
* Adequate to be determined by other LINC elements on Utilities, Land
Use, Green, and Transportation.
Commentary: Once a new subdivision has been constructed, it
will be there for a long time. Start multiplying the subdivisions and
what follows may be drainage problems, traffic congestion, low water
pressure, and sewage problems. We sometimes call this development
"progress." What we may be doing is setting ourselves up for
major public and private costly remedies to resolve such uncoordinated
growth problems. The subcommittee members note that Lafayette
experiences the same "leapfrog" development activities that
most urban areas experience. Too much development builds beyond adequate
infrastructure because it is cheaper. It is cheaper because there is
inadequate or minimal infrastructure. This pattern should be reversed.
Recommendation No. 5
To ensure that Lafayette Parish neighborhoods are safe and secure
Community Oriented Policing must be available to all neighborhoods.
Commentary: Law enforcement has changed over the last fifty
years. Police no longer walk the streets, but drive in high powered
technological units that respond to needs in minutes. But neighborhoods
have lost something in the technological divide. Law enforcement may
have lost its connectivity to the community, its neighborhoods, and its
residents in the process. The old traditional "Officer Bill"
who walked our neighborhoods in the past and who knew the residents and
they knew him should be reconsidered as an integral part of a safe and
secure neighborhood program. Our neighborhoods should not be walled
enclosures. Community Policing has been tested and found to be a
workable and viable solution to neighborhood security. Police who
"walk the beat" have demonstrated locally in some of our older
neighborhoods an effectiveness that is both traditional and
community-oriented. At the very least the option should be available.
Recommendation No. 6
Neighborhood parks/squares/green spaces should be planned and
developed for both existing and future neighborhoods in the parish and
as a general rule within a ten-minute brisk walk from every residence.
Commentary: Lafayette City and Parish Government and the
Lafayette Consolidated Government have invested heavily in the
development of regional and community-wide parks and recreation
facilities. The recommendation here is for smaller public areas or
squares, well situated within the heart of residential neighborhoods
that compensate for smaller lot subdivisions and a general lack of open
areas. Committee members note that most families must transport their
children to area parks when all that is needed is more immediate and
available open space. Children should not have to cross one or more
major thoroughfares or travel several miles to reach open space. With
increasing urban development in Lafayette Parish there must be a
corresponding program to provide open public spaces for people. The new
River Ranch development provides us with a model.
Recommendation No. 7
Designated LINC Neighborhoods should be organized and coordinated
through neighborhood organizations following an organizational structure
acceptable to the City-Parish Planning Commission, the Neighborhood
Pride Section of the Department of Community Development and the
Planning Division of the Department of Traffic and Transportation with
administrative support coordinated through Lafayette Consolidated
Government.
Commentary: Effective and viable neighborhoods require
resident and property owner interests and involvement. Neighborhood
organizations are absolutely necessary in developing community awareness
and understanding. The LINC Neighborhood North and South Pilot Program
should be utilized as a model method of organizing citizens to be
actively engaged in their neighborhoods through an organizational
structure that has been tried and tested over the years. Organizational
adjustments should be considered, but the basic outline must be clearly
established for long term associations. Local government is and should
be a partner in the neighborhood process. However, since government has
limitations a team approach is recommended. The Community Development
Department of the Lafayette Consolidated Government provides
neighborhood organizational support services for existing organizations
and is a good example of neighborhood partnerships.
Recommendation No. 8
Permanent funding for Designated LINC Neighborhoods should be
established and sustained if they are to be successful and durable as
long term institutions. Neighborhood organizations must have coordinated
resources to direct and manage as local neighborhood priorities are
determined and implemented. A variety of funding tools should be
identified and provided as options for neighborhood consideration and
use including local government.
Commentary: There exist several neighborhood organizations
within the City and Parish of Lafayette that have managed to remain
active for over thirty years. One of the essential items that have
helped keep these organizations engaged and productive is money. Working
with and through local government, fund raisers, grants and dues, these
neighborhood organizations have made long-term impacts within and for
their communities. The subcommittee is pleased to note that a strong
recommendation for the establishment of a local Community Foundation has
been achieved and is now available as a potential future partner in the
process.
Recommendation No. 9
New Designated LINC neighborhoods should be established and
reinforced with a sense of identity or place.
Commentary: Residents need to identify with their neighborhood
and community. As Lafayette Parish continues to expand its suburban
growth pattern, neighborhood plans should help to associate new
subdivisions with their immediate area and organization.
Recommendation No. 10
Designated LINC Neighborhood Plans will incorporate drainage areas
including bayous, coulees, canals, retention and detention facilities,
parks, streets (existing and planned) and a variety of land uses that
will protect and enhance existing and future property values.
Commentary: Neighborhood development must include an option
for mixed uses which if designed correctly, taking into account the
character, context and scale of the surrounding neighborhood, can
provide unique opportunities for employment, shopping, housing, and
public gathering space. It is desired that Designated LINC Neighborhoods
should have a diversity and balance of land uses.
Recommendation No. 11
Lafayette Parish must plan and design its future neighborhoods around
the adopted Lafayette Consolidated Thoroughfare Plan.
Commentary: Lafayette City and Parish have had a thoroughfare
plan since 1955. Numerous studies in the past have identified the need
to protect future arterial corridors at critical locations. Neighborhood
residents do not react favorably to arterial development through
established residential areas. Yet the pattern continues, and the
process allows new subdivisions to be built in the path of future
thoroughfares. The I-49 Connector through the Lafayette Urban Center has
provided the first serious opportunity for local, state and federal
support of a corridor preservation program in Lafayette Parish. It is
poor planning to allow new neighborhoods to be built and then follow
with needed arterial construction. The cycle needs to be reversed.
Recommendation No. 12
Lafayette city and parish should preserve and enhance older
neighborhoods identified in the I-49 Connector Corridor Study for
recommended improvements and maintenance programs.
Commentary: These neighborhoods will be the front door of the
Lafayette community with direct access to downtown, the airport, the Oil
Center, the University of Louisiana and the Cajundome Complex. This area
should be the best we can make it and not allowed to deteriorate. The
displacement of approximately 150 residents will have a significant
impact on these neighborhoods and the Lafayette community as a whole.
Neighborhood revitalization is a critical need for the corridor.
HOUSING
Recommendation No. 13
The single most important permanent need for housing in Lafayette
Parish is the availability of affordable housing. Local government must
take the initiative to facilitate private/public investment in this
critical community need and at the earliest possible date. LINC must
identify available options to provide the working poor with housing
opportunity.
Commentary: There are government programs in existence (some
federally funded, some locally funded) which are currently available to
assist low income families to purchase or build a home. There are even
private programs, such as Habitat for Humanity. But these efforts are a
drop in the bucket compared to the overwhelming need. The subcommittee
members recognize that this problem is not local but national in scope.
However, something must be done and soon. While Lafayette Parish has
enjoyed a great deal of new housing activity over the last several
years, the free market has not produced affordable housing. Homes are
not being constructed in the $50,000 -$60,000 range for low salaried
working couples. The First Time Home Buyers Program is not meeting the
need for this modest income market.
Recommendation No. 14
Prototype housing designs should be developed compatible with the
existing housing found in the older neighborhoods located in the I-49
Connector Corridor Housing Study. These designs should be formulated
into a number of selected specification options (1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, 3
bedroom and 4 bedroom) with plans for a test bid construction program.
Commentary: The Subcommittee members traveled to Athens, Texas
to view state of the art modular housing units being built by an
international corporation at half the cost of current construction
methods. The efficiency of the operation as well as the experience of
some committee members indicates that assembly line modular units will
be the future of new housing. Specifications are needed to meet the
displacement housing of over 150 residents for the I-49 Connector alone
and subcommittee members chose the housing prototypes from the I-49
Connector Study as a starting point for developing local specifications
for affordable housing.
Recommendation No. 15
Affordable housing initiatives are recommended first priority in the
I-49 Connector Corridor Neighborhoods.
Commentary: The Steering Committee considers the affordable
housing need a parishwide problem, but that priority should focus on the
I-49 Connector Neighborhoods due to the number of residents to be
displaced. Secondary consideration should be provided to other older
neighborhoods within the Parish as funding becomes available.
Recommendation No. 16
An Affordable Housing Assistance and Development Fund for Lafayette
Parish should be established under the umbrella of the new community
foundation (Acadiana Legacy Foundation).
Commentary: The establishment of the area community foundation
was of special interest to the subcommittee. It is hoped that this vital
community asset will open new opportunities for advancing resources to
meet the challenge of affordable housing needs in the Parish now and
well into the century.
Recommendation No. 17
A Housing Committee should be established comprised of 5-7 members
from the existing neighborhood organizations affected by the I-49
Connector construction and answerable to the Planning Commission of the
Lafayette Consolidated Government to facilitate alternative low cost
housing construction. LCG, along with other involved agencies will be
responsible for preparing a package 2-unit bid construction program that
will be tested on eight (8) I-49 Connector prototype affordable housing
designs with each bidder constructing one identical 2 bedroom and one
identical 3 bedroom units within the I-49 Connector neighborhoods. This
activity will serve as an experiment of cost containment and options for
an expanded affordable housing program as part of the I-49 Connector
effort. The I-49 Connector Project should be the community incubator for
affordable housing initiatives throughout the parish.
Commentary: The committee met with a number of local builders,
developers and housing professionals over many months. All stated they
could not conceive of building the type and style of housing identified
in the I-49 Connector Study in the affordable housing price range of
$50,000 to $60,000. This is the challenge today and certainly for the
future. Alternatives will have to be developed if traditional stick
building construction cannot meet affordable housing objectives.
Private/public partnerships, non-profit organizations, local, state and
federal programs may all have to put their shoulders to the wheel on
this affordable housing objective in the Comprehensive Plan. Testing
initiatives and creative ideas will certainly be needed for this
program.
Recommendation No. 18
A consortium of voluntary financial institutions should be
established to pool and provide affordable housing financing exceptional
to standard lending practices and restraints (including government
programs) with special arrangements which will accommodate the needs of
the borrower.
Commentary: The committee has found four area banks interested
in coordinating this proposed consortium to help solve the problem of
affordable housing needs.
Recommendation No. 19
Local government should continue to facilitate community-based and/or
non-profit organizations that promote affordable housing and related job
training efforts.
Commentary: There are existing federally-sponsored affordable
housing programs managed locally through the Lafayette Consolidated
Government Department of Community Development. The available government
funding and restrictions meet only a fraction of the Parish needs for
affordable housing. These government programs should be continued and
expanded.
Recommendation No. 20
Affordable housing assistance programs both existing and proposed
should be marketed regularly and consistently through public service
announcements, brochures, displays and updated through the Comprehensive
Plan.
Commentary: Resources that exist today and may exist through
the Comprehensive Plan in the future should be actively marketed.
Affordable housing assistance programs will not help unless people are
aware that such help is available.
Recommendation No. 21
A Housing Education Maintenance Program (HEMP) should be a mandatory
requirement for all affordable housing loans.
Commentary: It was noted by several members of the committee
that problems exist at all economic levels with people who do not know
how to maintain their homes. However, special emphasis must be placed on
new home owners who do not have any previous experience with home
ownership.
Recommendation No. 22
Local government and the private sector should establish incentive
programs to protect and preserve housing over fifty years old for
residential or practical alternative uses suitable to the older
neighborhoods in which many of these houses are located. Houses
identified on national, state or local historic registers should receive
special priority, consideration and financial assistance for the owners.
There are several dozen such historic properties in the parish in
serious need of structural stabilization and rehabilitation.
Commentary: Many older homes in Lafayette Parish are in need
of special and costly maintenance and updating but continue to meet the
housing needs of many families. Countless numbers of these owner
occupied houses are in need of funding for new energy efficiencies and
structural protection. Federal funding is limited but does exist for
financial assistance to qualified owners in targeted areas, but a much
broader program is needed throughout the parish. Historic houses are an
asset to the parish and should be preserved. Tax abatements, utility
abatements, special grants and/or financing programs are suggested.
Recommendation No. 23
A home and yard maintenance program for the elderly and handicapped
should be established and available to all parish homeowners with
limited incomes through public and private resources.
Commentary: We all know elderly and handicapped residents who
are struggling to maintain yards and homes on limited fixed incomes.
Many of these citizens must give priority to food, utilities and medical
needs; this results in deteriorating houses and yard maintenance.
Deteriorating houses and yards have a negative impact on the
neighborhoods in which they are located. General assistance must be made
available to this segment of our community now and in the future and
certainly for the aging "baby boomers" generation.
Recommendation No. 24
Traditional single family home ownership should be considered a
primary goal of local affordable housing initiatives, but a consortium
of voluntary financial institutions should establish nontraditional home
ownership models like limited equity cooperatives and land trusts, which
are recommended in the I-49 Connector Study Corridor Preservation Plan.
Commentary: Though many people are familiar with condominiums,
there are other options to home ownership that may prove beneficial and
should be tested. Mixed use developments which are being highly promoted
around the country may provide opportunity to experiment with new
housing ownership scenarios that might prove economical and
satisfactory. This consortium should be a catalyst for researching and
testing new directions in nontraditional home ownership.
Recommendation No. 25
Affordable Housing should be designed and constructed for affordable
utilities and maximum energy efficiency.
Commentary: Low maintenance is a necessity for affordable
housing. Utilities are a critical factor and must be limited to the
minimum cost level practical.
Recommendation No. 26
Universal design housing should be encouraged and available to some
degree in all neighborhoods of the parish.
Commentary: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has
focused attention and resources on accommodating the accessibility needs
of the handicapped. Residential units for the handicapped are needed
throughout the parish now and even more so in the very near future as
the "baby boomers" continue to age. Some advance planning for
this growing elderly population is needed.
Recommendation No. 27
Porches. Incentives should be established to promote construction of
functional porches on all new housing in the Parish conducive to the
climate and social needs of the area.
Commentary: Porches are not nostalgic sentimental aesthetics
attached to housing, but practical, social, efficient and
climate-friendly facets to local housing and neighborhoods. Porches were
specifically identified as a special housing consideration in the I-49
Connector Study. This recommendation is not intended as a regulatory
requirement for new construction, but a suggestion to home buyers,
builders and developers that functional porches are encouraged in the
design and construction of new homes as a practical accommodation to the
culture and climate of the area.
Recommendation No. 28
Minimum Housing Standards must be established and enforced within
each governmental jurisdiction throughout the parish.
Commentary: The need for minimum housing standards was
demonstrated by the number of housing units found to be without some of
the minimal facilities most committee members considered necessary for
human habitation in modern America. Only within the corporate limits of
the City of Lafayette and the unincorporated areas of the parish were
minimal housing standards identified and enforced. Lacking minimal
housing standards was determined to be unacceptable for the parish and
its municipalities.
In Conclusion
The Neighborhood/Housing Subcommittee met for over eight months with
interviews, presentations, discussions, travel and debate on
neighborhood and housing needs in Lafayette Parish today and into the
future. The creation, preservation and enhancement of neighborhoods is
essential to the success of the Comprehensive Plan. Neighborhoods define
and characterize the unique cultural, historical and natural qualities
of Lafayette Parish. Neighborhoods are one of the most critical quality
of life priorities for the Comprehensive Plan.
Housing is the single largest investment most of us make in a life
time. The opportunity for housing is a primary consideration and an
essential need for everyone. The issue of affordable housing should be a
major priority concern for the parish. Substandard housing should not be
practical option even for the poorest of the poor. There are assistance
programs that are available, but these current federal, state and local
strategies are terribly underfunded.
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