MANY THANKS to all of you who have taken the time to send emails to the City Council.  Your emails have made a difference, and have demonstrated that, despite the developer's claims to the contrary, there is widespread opposition to this particular project.


Whether you're in the French Quarter, Bywater, Lakeview, Mid-City, Carrollton, Treme, Broadmoor, New Orleans East, Faubourg St. John, or any of the other wonderful parts of New Orleans, this issue affects you because it's the first test of the Master Plan.  That's the document that is supposed to protect neighborhoods from having to deal with request after request after request for exemptions to the rules, and instead is supposed to allow for changes to the rule as a whole, once a year.

Fifty-five thousand voters enshrined the Master Plan in the city charter. Five thousand-plus people attended the numerous master planning and zoning meetings held all over the city.  It's clear that the citizens of New Orleans support the Master Plan and want a reliable, fair, and predictable land use process.  That's good for neighborhoods, businesses, and developers!

This out-of-scale, inappropriate design is being proposed at the iconic corner of Rampart and Canal, at the gateway to the French Quarter, a neighborhood which is valuable not just to those who live and work here, but to the entire city.  This project will have an effect on everyone - as VCPORA described in Why 1031 Canal Matters.

Please, if you haven't already, show the City Council that you care about protecting the French Quarter; that you care about the Master Plan; and send in an email.

And please join us on Thursday for the City Council vote.  We've been told that the matter will come up after 1 p.m.  Also, the council has placed a 15 minute time limit each for supporters and opponents to speak - what we really need are people in the audience, to show support for the Master Plan and protecting the French Quarter!

On Thursday, September 22, the City Council will take up a proposal to allow a 190’ tower in the French Quarter, at the corner of Rampart and Canal.  While VCPORA supports the redevelopment of that parcel, we cannot and do not support the specifics of the plans that are under consideration.  We believe that the proposed building’s design would harm the character, charm and tout ensemble of our neighborhood, but just as importantly, that approval of this plan would seriously undermine the Master Plan via a huge override of its companion Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance.
 
 
Please tell the City Council that we want to end the era of ad hoc planning and what Council President Jackie Clarkson has called the practice of developers “kissing the ring” to get what they want. Ask them respectfully to vote against this proposal by the developer of 1031 Canal.


Dear City Council Members:

I’m writing to urge you to vote against the proposal to allow a massive 190’ building at the corner of Canal and Rampart Streets.

The City Planning Commission staff’s recommendation – based on the new proposed Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO) – is for a height limit of 120’ on Canal Street and 70’ on Iberville Street.  An approval for anything in excess of those heights would violate the spirit and intent of the Master Plan, which was supposed to end the practice of allowing parcel-by-parcel zoning changes, ushering in an era of fairness and predictability to our land use decisions.

Citizens voted to enshrine the Master Plan in the City Charter to ensure that it could not be tinkered with.  Changes, when needed, should be made to entire districts, not for individual properties and their property owners.  That’s not good planning and it’s not fair.

A vote for this project would break faith with the tens of thousands of citizens who want to create a local economy driven by a strong efficient planning process.

Please, vote no to this 1031 Canal proposal – to protect the invaluable, irreplaceable French Quarter, and to demonstrate support for the Master Plan and CZO!

Regards,    

Dear Neighbors and friends,
 
A lot has been written about 1031 Canal Street, at the corner with North Rampart.  VCPORA would like to share with you why this issue should be of interest to all of us who love New Orleans.
 
Isn’t redevelopment of that corner good?  OF COURSE!  VCPORA wholeheartedly supports redevelopment of that parcel, as I’m sure you do!
 
So, doesn’t that mean that we have to accept this proposal?  As a community, we can do much better.  With the reopening of the Saenger and Joy Theaters, the coming Rampart Streetcar, and the redevelopment of the Iberville Housing Development, the only thing that might stop that corner from redeveloping is, frankly, greed.  That area is so prime for development, it’s hard to believe that someone will not develop it.
 
Fairness – and the Master Plan – dictate that the rules should be followed.  As a community, New Orleans citizens voted to change the Master Plan because we wanted to stop the project-specific “spot zoning.”  Why would should this developer be given a pass to good public policy?
 
Is that corner part of the French Quarter?  The boundaries of the National (note, not city) Historic Landmark district go to the center of Canal Street – and that designation is the most important that this country can bestow on a site.  (Other National Historic Landmarks include the Brooklyn Bridge, the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, and the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe.)
 
What’s wrong with tall and dense buildings?  The important thing is context.  Virtually all respected urban planners agree that the low rise of the old French Quarter should gradually slope up in height and density as you go farther away from the French Quarter.  That’s why unlimited height is allowed on Poydras Street, not Canal.  Planners urge that there NOT be a cliff of non-historic high rise buildings at the edge of the Quarter.  Transition matters.
 
Can’t we just grant an exception here?  Why do the rules apply to some and not to others?  Fairness matters. When the public voted for the city charter change for the Master Plan, they said, “Stop the ‘spot zoning.’  Stop changing the rules for one developer at a time.”  That’s exactly what the current 1031 Canal Street proposal would do.  It’s not fair to others who do play by the rules, and it is blatant disregard for the Master Plan. This would be a terrible precedent.  It’s the “old way” of city government.  We are hopeful that our current leaders recognize that planning = fairness = progress.
 
Why turn down an investment like this?  Experts agree that in the long run, these kinds of exceptions are harmful to the real estate market because they encourage speculation, which can lead to vacancies and blight.  But don’t take our word for it – listen to David Dixon of Goody Clancy, the nationally respected planning firm who headed the Master Planning process for our city:  When in New Orleans, he explained that when a city is well known for giving massive variances to the Master Plan and Zoning Ordinance, this actually pushes up the value of the properties in those areas, which then pushes up the cost of buying these properties, which then pushes up the developers’ demands (like height and mass) needed to “make the numbers work.”
 
He continued, if you have a city system in which the rules are known in advance, and everyone plays by the same rules, not only is it more fair, the market finds its own balance and you’ll find MORE projects being developed.  In other words, this “greed temptation”, if you’ll excuse our phrase, actually leads to lack of development!
 
Why should 1031 Canal matter to you?  This is the first major challenge to the Master Plan since its adoption.  Let’s continue the progress made by this city since Katrina.  Let’s not go back to the old way of doing business here.  I hope you’ll agree with me, we can do better, and we must do better.
 

Carol Allen
President
Vieux Carre Property Owners, Residents & Associates, Inc.
July 24, 2011