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Louisiana ASLA Volunteers Support Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program
The Louisiana chapter assists in New Orleans recovery efforts.
ASLA and the National Park Service (NPS) are celebrating the ninth year of the partnership in support of the Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program (RTCA). The RTCA program provides technical assistance to communities, at their request, for local projects that develop trails and greenways, preserve open space, conserve rivers, promote health and wellness, and provide watershed planning. RTCA encourages locally led conservation and recreation projects and provides RTCA's expertise to facilitate them. Under the partnership, the local ASLA chapter provides volunteer services and expertise to mutually agreeable RTCA projects.
RTCA and the ASLA chapters in Louisiana, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, California, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia have participated in this partnership. The Washington state ASLA chapter and RTCA have had a long-standing collaboration under this partnership. They have successfully collaborated on numerous charrettes to assist communities throughout Washington state. WASLA provides the professional expertise to help guide the charrette process. As a result, the communities have secured funding and are implementing ideas and plans generated by the charrettes. The results have been both rewarding and long-lasting and have been an amazing success story for public/private partnerships.
One recent success story from this program is taking shape in New Orleans. Dana Nunez Brown, ASLA, of BROWN+DANOS landdesign, inc., describes the work on the Lafitte Greenway Master Plan under the RTCA program. Brown served as the project manager for the effort.
Lafitte Greenway Master Plan (New Orleans)
Friends of Lafitte Corridor is pleased to announce the completion of the Lafitte Greenway Master Plan prepared by BROWN+DANOS landdesign, inc. of Baton Rouge, which provides a vision for the transformation of the Lafitte Corridor.
In partnership with Friends of Lafitte Corridor, a grassroots nonprofit group, The Urban Conservancy, Bikes Belong, and Rails-to-Trails, BROWN+DANOS analyzed the corridor and surroundings, identified historical and cultural assets, planned the greenway, and prepared conceptual designs for key nodes and connection points. The master plan and illustrations, as well as an implementation phasing strategy, was documented in a report presented to and approved by the New Orleans City Planning Commission and the New Orleans City Council.
The Lafitte Greenway will include a three-mile trail beginning at Basin Street near Louis Armstrong Park and running toward Lake Pontchartrain to Canal Boulevard near Delgado Community College. Once constructed, the greenway will link the Vieux Carré (French Quarter) and Armstrong Park to City Park and connect neighborhoods from Tremé to Lakeview.
The Lafitte Greenway Master Plan provides the vision for how the greenway development and revitalization can proceed. Revitalization of this corridor into a greenway surrounded by a mixed-use district with housing and businesses will jump-start the recovery process in the heart of New Orleans—MidCity. The Lafitte Corridor will be transformed into a new public space as one of the 17 recovery areas selected by the Office of Recovery and Development Administration.
The Lafitte Greenway will provide four basic benefits for residents of New Orleans and the region:
- encourage economic revitalization
- create transportation alternatives (walking, biking, and connections to transit)
- improve public health
- promote cultural tourism by connecting to neighborhood attractions
The Lafitte Greenway Master Plan was completed with BROWN+DANOS landdesign, inc. of Baton Rouge and a team of contributors. The plan was 15 percent funded by Bikes Belong—a national coalition of bicycle advocacy organizations—through a grant administered by the Urban Conservancy. The remaining 85 percent of the cost to develop the master plan was provided as pro bono services over one and a half years by BROWN+DANOS. The Friends of Lafitte Corridor learned of the cooperative agreement between the National Park Service and ASLA to provide local support for park planning and design and asked the landscape architecture firm to work on the project under that program. The master plan recently received a Merit Award from the Louisiana Chapter of ASLA.
In August 2007, the New Orleans City Council recognized the importance of this initiative and established a structure through which citizens and city agencies will work together with area property owners to plan and build the Lafitte Greenway.
To learn more about the project and view the master plan, visit the Friends of Lafitte Corridor website or contact Dana Brown, ASLA. For more information on the ASLA–RTCA partnership, contact ASLA Government Affairs Director Julia Lent.
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