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Preface
Urban Design refers to the aesthetic,
social, physical, and functional aspects of a city such as: the
planning and designing perspective views of public spaces,
building locations and facades which produce unity and harmony
among diverse uses and needs. The primary focus of urban design is
making public spaces and the merging of social satisfaction and
the physical built environment with the practical needs of the
community. Urban Design is a quality of life element of the
comprehensive plan and should provide an important contribution to
the future Lafayette Parish and its urban development.
Melville Branch, a nationally recognized
city planner, notes;
"Only recently are the more highly
developed and affluent industrialized nations beginning to view
urban design as worth greater emphasis when it supports the local
economy by increasing people's desire to continue living in a
community or by attracting new residents to the city. It is no
longer considered by the those involved as a regal or purely
aesthetic luxury. Studies have been made showing that urban design
affects people in subtle and hitherto unrecognized ways besides
the aesthetic pleasure it brings those who appreciate it: visual
identification with the neighborhood or place where we live;
awareness of other parts of the locality; even our composure and
sense of well being."
Lafayette has any number of beautiful and
aesthetic buildings scattered around the area. It is in their
placement and setting that often clashes with urban design
principals and practices. The end result can be and often is a
detraction rather than a community asset. But who decides what is
an asset and what is a detraction? Speaking on 19th century urban
design, Melville Branch continues;
"Except on the few occasions when the
populace was in political control, they had little or nothing to
say about urban design. Furthermore, they had little interest in
it, since undoubtedly they were far more concerned with vital
matters affecting their livelihood, survival, and the afterlife.
Ruling authorities were less concerned with the desires and
welfare of the population than is politically necessary
today."
The Lafayette Parish Urban Condition
The American City is, at best, a difficult
entity to read and comprehend. This difficulty may be attributed
to the collision of two very different city types that make up the
urban condition. This condition is composed of the traditional
city and its post-industrial counterpart, the suburban city. The
traditional city is defined as the downtown area and its adjacent
neighborhoods that developed prior to the impact of the
automobile. A suburban city is the area that developed after the
1950s. Both the traditional city and the suburban have their own
characteristics. Lafayette's traditional city was a planned, urban
grid with cohesive block structures. This urban design pattern is
found in Broussard, Carencro, Duson, Scott and Youngsville
downtown areas. But these areas have become fragmented and broken
by the invasion of the automobile to accommodate parking lots,
road expansion, 20th century commercialism, and modern
architecture.
By comparison, Lafayette Parish's suburban
city is even less defined. It expands past the traditional cores
of the city and towns and is composed of its own set of urban
elements: the suburb track houses, the commercial strip, and the
ill-defined and unplanned growth on the urban fringes. The suburb
is driven by commercialism, the automobile, and the population
explosion of the mid to late 20th century. The Lafayette Parish
suburban edge is intangible, unrestrained, and has inefficient
land use. It is primarily composed of one-story construction
sitting on over-sized building lots with a low population density.
The Lafayette Parish Comprehensive Plan:
Lafayette IN a Century provides us with an opportunity to direct
and focus public and private investment on the quality needs and
advantages of urban design throughout the parish - - - now and
into the future. Practical recommendations are listed below which
support the vision and the proven advantages to the physical
development of the community as well as the social impact.
URBAN RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendation No. 1
Downtown Lafayette, Oil Center, Broussard, Carencro, Duson,
Scott and Youngsville should stop the "fragmentation"
that has occurred over the last fifty years and restore the
original urban framework.
Commentary: Fragmentation occurs when the urban block is
disrupted by the removal of buildings for parking lots. This
situation can be corrected by using a method know as urban infill.
This means replacing the parking lots with appropriate urban
buildings that would relate to the street and would activate the
commercial core with commerce.
As mentioned in the preface, the 20th century population
explosion and the automobile have produced a series of vacant
properties in the downtown areas of Lafayette Parish
municipalities. These vacancies have interrupted the street wall's
continuity. The "street wall" being the urban buildings
which frame public areas like streets. The street wall should read
as one continuous building along the street edge. This condition
previously existed in downtown Lafayette and in the municipalities
along their Main Streets and in their commercial core areas. By
infilling empty properties with appropriate urban buildings, the
urban street wall could be re-established. The street wall acts as
a human psychological reference point. People in urban conditions
respond favorably to defendable space; space that is contained and
uninterrupted. Reestablishing the street wall with urban infill
would revitalize Lafayette Parish municipal downtowns.
Reestablishing the street wall from an economic perspective would
provide places for commercial activity such as stores,
restaurants, and cultural events.
Recommendation No. 2
Appropriate architecture for the downtown areas of Broussard,
Carencro, Duson, Lafayette, Scott and Youngsville, including the
Lafayette Oil Center, must be established as follows:
a. All new infill buildings shall be a minimum of two
stories high and up to 85' height in downtown Lafayette and
the Oil Center.
b. High rise buildings will be designated to their own sector
(See Urban Code, Downtown Lafayette, 1995)
c. All new infill buildings should have a minimum 80 percent
of the building facade on the property line of the street
facing wall.
d. All new urban infill buildings should have a 70-80 percent
site coverage of the property in the downtown areas.
e. Additional site coverage should be required for parking
located behind the buildings, thereby screening parking from
the street front.
f. Urban buildings should be adjacent to the sidewalk and
create a continuity of the street wall.
Commentary: Appropriate urban infill buildings should be
the goal of urban design. Building height should be of appropriate
scale to fit or coexist with the existing buildings for Lafayette
Parish municipal cores. Object, stand alone suburban buildings are
inappropriate to an urban context. Suburban buildings generally
have extreme street setbacks and are surrounded by acres of
asphalt. This type of building construction has greatly
contributed to the fragmentation of our urban centers.
Recommendation No. 3
The majority of municipal downtown multi-story buildings should
be occupied with commercial on the ground floor and office and
housing integrated on the top. Mixed uses should be encouraged.
Commentary: Mixed use development brings activation to the
downtown by allowing residents an opportunity for housing. This
housing revitalizes the downtown areas and promotes continuous
occupation of the area itself rather than having an 8:00-5:00
community.
Recommendation No. 4
The facade treatment (exterior elevation) in municipal
downtowns, including the Oil Center, should be of appropriate
scale, texture, and material(s) to blend with the surrounding,
indigenous buildings.
Commentary: Appropriate windows, doors, materials, and
other architectural elements provide continuity for the street
wall. These elements provide scale for pedestrians, produce an
appropriate urban texture, and would be in context with the
surroundings. Metal buildings, generally, distract from historic
districts and urban centers. Facade treatments should camouflage
the exterior of metal buildings for compatibility with surrounding
buildings.
Recommendation No. 5
Parking in downtown areas should have four clear strategies:
a. Street parking facilitates activity along main streets
and should be encouraged.
b. At grade parking should be tucked behind buildings and
screened from the street front.
c. Parking courts (at grade) should be organized in the middle
of the block and screened from the street.
d. Downtown Lafayette and the Oil Center should have adequate
parking garages to meet increasing density over time.
Commentary: Parking lots are the major contributing
factor to the fragmentation of the downtown areas. A society built
on convenience has destroyed its history and urban fabric. As
previously mentioned, parking strategies can allow automobile
groupings in places that contribute to the urban design rather
than destroy it.
Recommendation No. 6
An effective public transit system should be encouraged and
promoted as an alternative to the auto dependency condition of the
downtown areas. Specifically, coordinated public transit between
large parking areas such as the Cajun Dome, the University of
Louisiana at Lafayette, the Oil Center, downtown Lafayette, the
Acadiana Mall and Northgate Mall could link existing high traffic
areas and reduce the dependency on the automobile.
Commentary: Effective public transit diminishes the
impact of the automobile. An effective public transit system would
reduce the congestion and land use requirements for parking
facilities. An overall coordinated strategy with parking and
public transit would effectively reduce ground use parking lots.
Recommendation No. 7
Each Main Street and adjacent side streets in downtown core
areas should be designed with street trees, walkways, lighting,
secondary landscape, and benches. Overhead utility lines should be
removed and placed underground.
Commentary: Streetscape provides continuity and
activation of a downtown area. Street trees and landscape provide
physical and psychological barriers between the pedestrian and the
automobile. Streetscapes, generally, increase property values and
facilitate desired urban land uses.
Recommendation No. 8
Public art should be integrated into the urban design landscape
with a public allocation of one percent (1%) of total cost on both
new and renovation of public buildings, public roadways and parks.
Commentary: Cities that incorporate successful art
programs use these programs as an integral part of the urban
setting. The purpose of public art is to stimulate the urban
landscape through color, texture, signage and play. Public art
becomes an attraction to the urban environment. The revenues
derived from public construction projects for public art should be
channeled through the Lafayette Arts Council as an incentive for
preparing a comprehensive public arts plan for the Parish.
Recommendation No. 9
Signs should be of the appropriate size, color, and texture to
integrate itself into the urban fabric. An aggressive sign
ordinance applicable in both urban and suburban areas should be
adopted along the models found in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and
Hilton Head Island, North Carolina as well as a selected list of
communities which are attached to this recommendation for
reference and as a resource. Implementation of this new parishwide
sign ordinance should be phased into compliance over a ten year
period.
Commentary: Appropriate signage must be provided in
downtown core areas that is not an obvious focal object. Competing
and overwhelming signs distract and detract from the physical
urban environment and should be compatible with the surrounding
neighborhood. Suburban areas along arterial roadways are
particularly emphasized for sign regulation. The new Ambassador
Caffery South Parkway project should be used as an initial prime
example of how signs must be limited to build an attractive
community.
Recommendation No. 10
No new bill boards should be permitted throughout the parish
and existing bill boards phased out over time.
Commentary: Subcommittee members recognized the powerful
political clout and lobbying mechanism of the bill board industry
in Louisiana. However, the highways and by-ways of Louisiana that
are free of bill boards are far more attractive areas than those
with bill boards. State and local elected officials have
historically hesitated on opposition to these oversized signs to
the detriment of the community. The subcommittee notes that some
cities around the country have resorted to the out right purchase
of bill boards at public expense and with voter approval.
Lafayette Parish could be far more attractive area without
unsightly bill boards. Several communities around the country have
taken this issue to the public voters where public dollars are
approved for the acquisition and removal of existing bill boards.
The committee notes that the City of Houston banned billboards in
1980!!
SUBURBAN RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendation No. 11
Street design should include all classification of streets.
These are defined as freeway, major arterial, minor arterial,
major collector, minor collector, and local roadways.
a. Each street classification should integrate linear
forested green space areas, sidewalks, bike paths, lighting,
and benches.
b. Street design should require green space separating the
pedestrian from the automobile.
c. This green space should be planted with street trees and be
minimum 8-12 feet wide.
d. Sidewalks should be a minimum of eight feet wide and bike
paths should be the appropriate size of eight feet wide each
way.
e. Lighting and landscaping benches should be included for the
pedestrian.
f. All arterial streets should have appropriately placed
public art.
Commentary: Healthy contemporary cities include public
space for the pedestrian. Street design should include pedestrian
access while fulfilling automobile requirements. Public space
along major arterials and local streets provides a connection from
neighborhood to neighborhood or from neighborhood to shopping
district. This pedestrian connection reduces automobile
dependency. The subcommittee notes, with approval, the adoption of
Lafayette Consolidated Government City-Parish Council Resolution
No. ____ requiring Linear Parks parallel to new major arterials in
the parish to shield residential areas. This is a positive step
into the future.
Recommendation No. 12
Strip commercial design should be reorganized into a nodal
system at the intersection of two arterial roadways.
Commentary: The commercial strip is generally located
along major arterial highways with commercial businesses lining
both sides. Nodal designs are organized around a central point of
reference such as a park or building complex. Nodal development
organizes commercial districts into a concentric ring strategy
allowing internal, local circulation for automobile and pedestrian
travel. This internalized model reduces automobile trips, thereby
alleviating traffic on congested arterial highways.
Recommendation No. 13
Buildings fronting a major arterial should have a setback,
green space in front with parking organized to the side and/or to
the rear. The buildings should be a minimum of two stories with
mixed use (commercial on the ground floor, residential above)
programming. Appropriate facade design should allow the building
to relate to the arterial road.
Commentary: This reorganized emphasis on buildings
facing streets with appropriate facades and closer to the arterial
establishes a relationship of building to street and focuses the
attention on the building rather than on the parking lots. Mixed
use buildings (minimum two stories high) would provide a denser
environment with better land use.
Recommendation No. 14
Existing parking in suburban commercial areas must be reduced
by 40 percent which can be converted to a "grass green
surface" for maximum allowed parking based on current
requirements or simply utilized for forested green space. New
proposed commercial development should also incorporate this 40%
reduction before being constructed and also include the
"grass green surface" alternative for maximum allowed
parking.
Commentary: Reduced parking requirements for existing
strip commercial developments would allow for square footage
expansion, both horizontally and vertically. This expansion would
foster better land use, mixed use building types, and provide
green space. High volume parking areas (Acadiana Mall) can include
alternative parking strategies. Alternative parking lots are
developed with a solid under layment and grass on top. This
provides additional parking during the high volume Christmas
Season (three weeks out of the year) yet allows the same area to
be grassy meadow for eleven months out of the year. This parking
alternative is a much improved suburban design as opposed to a
vast asphalt sea surrounding commercial buildings.
Reduced parking as well as alternative "grass green"
options generates a number of positive developments for the
community:
1. Increase rainwater ground absorption through reduced
impervious surface.
2. Reduced heat indexes through less pavement construction.
3. Improved aesthetics.
4. Reduced construction cost.
Recommendation No. 15
New neighborhoods should be designed with contributions to
public parks, forested areas and retention/detention districts or
facilities.
Commentary: Studies now reveal that people need public
spaces even in suburban environments. Our developed subdivisions
are lacking public areas. It is an identified social need as well
as an aesthetic benefit to incorporate public spaces for our
parish subdivision development densities. Regional parks are not
the final solution to this human need. The planned construction of
individual or areawide retention/detention facilities in all new
development, both commercial and residential is an opportunity to
provide a common solution to two problems or shortcomings in our
parish built environment. Mechanisms must be established to fund
and maintain this identified need for public space. Drainage/stormwater
plans may be the common vehicle to utilize in the process. The
subcommittee is not recommending "impact fees", but
potential options for implementation.
Recommendation No. 16
Neighborhoods should be interconnected with neighborhood
streets allowing for local traffic and pedestrian travel. Higher
density per acre for neighborhoods should be encouraged and could
allow for more open space by incorporating two story houses
sitting on smaller lots.
Commentary: Isolated suburban neighborhoods are a
contributing factor to the overload of traffic on major arterial
roadways in Lafayette Parish. These isolated developments restrict
localized automobile and pedestrian traffic and push all
connections to the arterial streets. Larger sector plans rather
than individual subdivision plans are needed to integrate local
and collector streets to connect neighborhood to neighborhood and
allow for a smoother transition of localized traffic. These larger
sector plans should be inclusive of park systems with recreation,
green space and retention facilities. The LINC Designated
Neighborhood Pilot Program recommended by the Neighborhood/Housing
subcommittee is a good example of how this might be accomplished.
Recommendation No. 17
Lafayette Parish municipal and parish governments should join
together to establish "managed growth policies" for the
parish. These growth policies should lead to the creation of
managed growth boundary lines or by controlling growth through
already established "Areas of Influence" surrounding
each municipality. A "Time Line" should be guaranteed by
each jurisdiction for phased adequate infrastructure to be
installed prior to consideration of new development plans on a
parishwide level.
Commentary: The problems associated with unrestricted
development are now being experienced by parish municipalities and
the parish government. Growth strategies would provide better
infill development practices and stop the leap-frogging
development that presently exists. The subcommittee recognizes
this recommendation is a tough issue and will have to be worked
through very carefully. Restrictions on development drive up
costs, but it is the inefficiency of the scattered suburban
development pattern that is raising public infrastructure cost and
investment to an even greater degree.
Conclusion
Urban Design is both an economic incentive and a social need
for enhanced quality of life options available to Lafayette Parish
and its municipalities. It is not just an aesthetic concern. It is
not just a cost concern. It is not a wealth issue. It is not a
poor issue. Urban/Suburban Design is a human issue. The vast
majority of our population, parish citizens, live and work in
urban and/or suburban areas. A small minority live (and work) in a
shrinking rural environment. This trend is projected to continue.
We should take practical steps to ensure that the Lafayette Parish
of the future is something our generation planned well for our
children and grandchildren to live work and enjoy. It is a new
century. We must take inventory of what is not working well and
what is. We must learn from our mistakes and plan for a physical
environment that we can be proud of and compatible with.
Attached Reference Documents: (To be identified at
presentation)
Urban Design Subcommittee:
Mr. Joe Dennis, Chair
Mr. Larry Larriviere
Mr. John Broussard
Mr. Buddy Palmer
Mr. Don Bertrand
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