Carrollton-Riverbend Neighborhood Association (CRNA)

At Monday night’s Carrollton Area Network meeting, we heard from Jeff Thomas, Special Assistant to Dr. Blakeley in the Office of Recovery and Development Administration (ORDA), formerly the Office of Recovery Management, and John Marshall with the New Orleans Recovery Authority (NORA). (Apologies that my previous announcement of this meeting only mentioned Thomas. I did not realize that Marshall was coming.)

I offer these notes.

Jeff Thomas spoke about Code Enforcement, in the sense of dealing with blighted and abandoned properties. He noted that his office, with responsibility for policy issues, has been behind the recent amendment of the chapter in the City Code dealing with unoccupied properties. There are 20 – 40,000 unoccupied properties in the city. They are recognized as a de-stabilizing effect on neighborhood recover and as a disincentive to redevelopment.

In addition to changing the Code Enforcement procedures, staff and money are being added to the process, as well as a new information technology system that promises that all data, from all offices, will be in one database.

One of the changes mentioned is that the new rules shift the “burden of proof” to the landowner to show why a property is not a ‘public nuisance,’ for example. That alone can significantly shorten the process.

Essentially, ORDA devises the policies for dealing with unoccupied properties and NORA actually takes possession of the properties and disposes of them.

Thomas expects the new code enforcement process to generate 500 hearings a month. Of those, he expects about 100 to result in expropriation/seizure, about 200 to be brought into an enforcement process involving fines and oversight, and about 200 to be fixed up, simply as a consequence of the attention brought to the problem by the enforcement action.

He also noted that, though many property owners need “tough love,” many also need help. A program of financial and technical assistance is also being developed.

He observed that one of the keys to redevelopment is the “intelligence gained from the community,” and he encouraged neighborhood associations to help his office focus on the real needs. He said that his office goes to the Council members every week with requests for lists of problem properties that have been reported, and he encouraged us to coordinate our efforts through our council member.

In response to a question about whether all of the attention of his office was going solely to the 17 named redevelopment zones, he spoke about a plan to identify some “key stabilizing areas” for focus in “code enforcement sweeps,” once the new system is fully staffed. He particularly mentioned Willow Street, in our part of town, as one of those ‘key stabilizing areas.”

He also spoke about the “311” system for reporting problems to the city and promises that a modernized “311” (with folks to be trained in April) will actually connect 311 calls to inspections and follow-up.

He then spoke about “code enforcement” in terms of the everyday functioning of the Safety and Permits office. He understands that the office is presently overwhelmed and that there are many complaints. ORDA now has authority over Safety and Permits (S&P), and the current director of S&P is about to retire. ORDA is in the process of studying similar offices and procedures in other cities and promises a complete reform of the office.

In all these matters, and in the re-writing of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (which is underway), he observed that “neighborhood vigilance and advocacy is critical.”

Asked specifically about the Carrollton Shopping Center, he noted that the project is “moving forward.” Presently, the developers are seeking tax-free “GO Zone” funding from the state. A total of $1.2 billion was set-aside for such incentives; the shopping center developers are requesting $40 million of that. ORDA reviews such requests and can support or oppose—but the decision is the state’s. Thomas noted that ORDA opposed a request of $200 million from Donald Trump’s organization for their project. ORDA’s involvement in the shopping center at this point is in assessing its infrastructure needs and how some of those things will be paid for, things like street improvements and public transportation issues. No direct recovery money will be going to the shopping center. He noted that no one expects there to be enough money to cover the Palmetto canal. He assures that there will be more public dialogue on the project and that it is not likely to begin until 2009.

John Marshall then spoke on behalf of NORA. He noted that there are presently about 4000 “blighted and adjudicated” properties in the city, about 27,000 vacant, and that NORA actually owns 75 properties. That latter number will grow as the Road Home properties are processed and returned to the city through the Louisiana Land Trust, their “last stop” before NORA.

Initially, the properties will be offered through the “Lot Next Door” program, through which neighbors on either side can buy the property, and some will be offered through a “Small Entrepreneur” program that NORA is developing. (See attached flyer/questionnaire). He said that “community priorities” will be important and suggested that some properties might be “pulled” at the suggestion/insistence of the neighborhood if, for example, it were next to a school and the property would make a useful expansion of the school grounds, or if the property would make a neighborhood park, or for similar purposes. He promised that a new GIS mapping system will be out this month that will allow the identification of blighted and adjudicated properties around a specific address.

NORA is presently training 12 new attorneys re: expropriation, and cases are starting to move through the system.

NORA’s board meets every 2d Monday at 6 p.m., at the Capital One Tower, 201 St. Charles Ave., 52d floor board room.

Notes by Jerry Speir