Technical ReportPDF Available

St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana: Bridging the Divide with the South Central Study Area through Resilience

Authors:

Abstract

St. Tammany Parish has spent considerable time developing a philosophy on resilience. Many grant opportunities have emerged because of multiple storm-related events that affected both the parish and the larger region. Those grant opportunities as well as other funding have provided the parish with the ability to study extensively its south central area, also known as Lacombe. The parish asked the panel to look at its resilience philosophy and the studies completed to date to begin to connect the dots on how projected growth should occur within the study area.
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
St. Tammany Parish
Louisiana
December 6–11, 2015
StTammany2016_cover.indd 2 6/13/16 3:15 PM
St. Tammany Parish
Louisiana
Bridging the Divide with the South Central Study Area
through Resilience
December 611, 2015
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
2
About the Urban Land Institute
THE MISSION OF THE URBAN LAND INSTITUTE is
to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in
creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide.
ULI is committed to
Bringing together leaders from across the fields of real
estate and land use policy to exchange best practices
and serve community needs;
Fostering collaboration within and beyond ULI’s
membership through mentoring, dialogue, and problem
solving;
Exploring issues of urbanization, conservation, regen-
eration, land use, capital formation, and sustainable
development;
Advancing land use policies and design practices that
respect the uniqueness of both the built and natural
environments;
Sharing knowledge through education, applied research,
publishing, and electronic media; and
Sustaining a diverse global network of local practice
and advisory efforts that address current and future
challenges.
Established in 1936, the Institute today has more than
38,000 members worldwide, representing the entire spec-
trum of the land use and development disciplines. Profes-
sionals represented include developers, builders, property
owners, investors, architects, public officials, planners,
real estate brokers, appraisers, attorneys, engineers,
financiers, academics, students, and librarians.
ULI relies heavily on the experience of its members. It is
through member involvement and information resources
that ULI has been able to set standards of excellence in
development practice. The Institute has long been rec-
ognized as one of the world’s most respected and widely
quoted sources of objective information on urban planning,
growth, and development.
Cover photo: The Tammany Trace multimodal trail over the
Bogue Falaya in Covington, Louisiana. (Michael A. Stern)
© 2016 by the Urban Land Institute
2001 L Street, NW
Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036-4948
All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of the whole or any
part of the contents without written permission of the copy-
right holder is prohibited.
3
About ULI Advisory Services
THE GOAL OF THE ULI ADVISORY SERVICES program
is to bring the finest expertise in the real estate field to
bear on complex land use planning and development proj-
ects, programs, and policies. Since 1947, this program
has assembled well over 400 ULI-member teams to help
sponsors find creative, practical solutions for issues such
as downtown redevelopment, land management strate-
gies, evaluation of development potential, growth manage-
ment, community revitalization, brownfield redevelopment,
military base reuse, provision of low-cost and affordable
housing, and asset management strategies, among other
matters. A wide variety of public, private, and nonprofit or-
ganizations have contracted for ULI’s advisory services.
Each panel team is composed of highly qualified profession-
als who volunteer their time to ULI. They are chosen for their
knowledge of the panel topic and screened to ensure their
objectivity. ULI’s interdisciplinary panel teams provide a holis-
tic look at development problems. A respected ULI member
who has previous panel experience chairs each panel.
The agenda for a five-day panel assignment is intensive.
It includes an in-depth briefing day composed of a tour of
the site and meetings with sponsor representatives; a day
of hour-long interviews of typically 50 to 75 key commu-
nity representatives; and two days of formulating recom-
mendations. Long nights of discussion precede the panel’s
conclusions. On the final day on site, the panel makes an
oral presentation of its findings and conclusions to the
sponsor. A written report is prepared and published.
Because the sponsoring entities are responsible for signifi-
cant preparation before the panel’s visit, including sending
extensive briefing materials to each member and arranging
for the panel to meet with key local community members
and stakeholders in the project under consideration,
participants in ULI’s five-day panel assignments are able
to make accurate assessments of a sponsor’s issues and
to provide recommendations in a compressed
amount of time.
A major strength of the program is ULI’s unique ability
to draw on the knowledge and expertise of its members,
including land developers and owners, public officials,
academics, representatives of financial institutions, and
others. In fulfillment of the mission of the Urban Land
Institute, this Advisory Services panel report is intended to
provide objective advice that will promote the responsible
use of land to enhance the environment.
ULI Program Staff
Tom Eitler
Senior Vice President, Advisory Services
Beth Silverman
Senior Director, Advisory Services
Daniel Lobo
Director, Awards
Alison Johnson
Program Manager, Content
Kathryn Craig
Senior Associate, Advisory Services
Klade Hare
Senior Associate, Advisory Services
Steven Gu
Associate, Advisory Services
James A. Mulligan
Senior Editor
Joanne Platt, Publications Professionals LLC
Manuscript Editor
Betsy Van Buskirk
Creative Director
Deanna Pineda, Muse Advertising Design
Graphic Designer
Craig Chapman
Senior Director, Publishing Operations
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
4
About Urban Resilience Panels
WITH MUCH EXTREME and damaging weather occur-
ring in recent memory, leaders in cities around the world
are thinking about how to become more resilient in the
face of those challenges. Resilience has taken on many
meanings in many different contexts. The Urban Land In-
stitute has joined a number of partner industries to cre-
ate a shared definition of resilience: the ability to prepare
and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more success-
fully adapt to adverse events. Implied in that definition is
the ability not just to recover and bounce back but also to
bounce forward and thrive.
The Kresge Foundation has provided generous funding
support to ULI to undertake a series of Advisory Services
panels to assess how cities can better prepare for changes
deriving from global climate change. Those changes range
from rising sea levels and exacerbated drought and air
temperatures to more extreme conditions, such as floods
and wildfires.
The objective of such panels is to offer advice and guid-
ance to communities that will assist in their formulation
of plans and policies and that will, in turn, create stronger
responses to and recoveries from such events.
5
Acknowledgments
THE URBAN LAND INSTITUTE WISHES to thank St.
Tammany Parish and Greater New Orleans Inc. for spon-
soring this panel, particularly Jeanne Betbeze, Gina Cam-
po, and Ronnie Simpson, who ensured the panel’s access
to critical information and perspectives and facilitated an
excellent seamless week of work. ULI also appreciates the
time and commitment of St. Tammany Parish President
Patricia Brister who made a considerable amount of time
available for this panel. Thank you for inviting the panel
into your community to share your challenges and to work
toward solutions.
The panel would also like to thank the Kresge Foundation
for its generous support of ULI’s Urban Resilience Pro-
gram, which has made these panels possible. The panel
also extends its thanks to the nearly 60 stakeholders from
St. Tammany Parish. This group of interviewees included
elected officials, local business owners, community
members, and government staff members. Throughout
the week, the ULI panel was continually impressed by St.
Tammany’s rich cultural identity, unbelievable food, and
commitment to improving the parish.
7
Contents
ULI Panel and Project Staff ...............................................................................................................................8
Background and the Panel’s Assignment ..........................................................................................................9
Primary Observations and Recommendations .................................................................................................12
Overview: The Need for Resilience .................................................................................................................13
Creating Economic Resilience .........................................................................................................................15
Tools for a Resilient Future .............................................................................................................................18
The Path to Neighborhood Resilience ..............................................................................................................20
Developing Mobility Resilience ........................................................................................................................23
Building Social Resilience ...............................................................................................................................26
Fostering Environmental Resilience .................................................................................................................29
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................34
About the Panel .............................................................................................................................................35
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
8
ULI Panel and Project Staff
Panel Chair
Jim Heid
Founder
UrbanGreen Inc.
Healdsburg, California
Panel Members
Margaret Kaigh Doyle
Senior Manager, Business Development
Gas Technology Institute
Skillman, New Jersey
Tracy Gabriel
Associate Director for Neighborhood Planning
District of Columbia Office of Planning
Washington, D.C.
Ladd Keith
Director of Academic Initiatives and Student Success
The University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Alan Razak
Principal
AthenianRazak LLC
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Michael A. Stern
Principal
Strada
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Lindsey Willke
Urban Designer
HKS Architects
Salt Lake City, Utah
ULI Project Staff
Sarene Marshall
Executive Director, Center for Sustainability
Beth Silverman
Senior Director, Advisory Services
Paul Angelone
Manager, ULI Washington
Klade Hare
Senior Associate, Advisory Services
9
Background and the Panel’s Assignment
ST. TAMMANY PARISH, LOUISIANA, is located on the
north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, separated from the ma-
jor population centers of New Orleans and Jefferson Parish
by a six-mile bridge on the eastern edge of the lake and the
24-mile Lake Pontchartrain Causeway at the lake’s center.
The parish is included within the Greater New Orleans
metropolitan statistical area.
Construction of the causeway, some 50 years ago,
transformed the parish from a low-density, rural commu-
nity into the fastest-growing parish in Louisiana, with the
fifth-largest population in the state. The parish continues
to experience both the sustained and sudden influx of
residents and businesses from the coastal and flood-prone
areas of southeastern Louisiana, intensifying the strain of
recovery from the major disasters that have hit those areas
over the past ten years.
St. Tammany Parish has been affected by five major
named hurricanes and a catastrophic oil spill: Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita in 2005, Gustav and Ike in 2008, the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, and Hurricane Isaac
in 2012. Although damage from Hurricane Isaac was
substantial in its own right, its impact was particularly
devastating to a community still recovering, economically
and physically, from previous disasters.
The impacts, both direct and indirect, of multiple disasters
have forced St. Tammany to reexamine its vision for the
future and its role in the larger region, specifically with
regard to resilience. The parish has engaged in several
planning efforts using scientific data, stakeholder engage-
ment, and collaborative efforts with several federal, state,
and local agencies to identify specific initiatives, particu-
larly in relation to vulnerable populations. Those agencies
will direct the efforts required to prepare and adapt for
future growth, climate change and sea-level rise, and
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
ST. TAMMANY PARISH
other shocks and stressors that affect communities. St.
Tammany Parish and its partners are prepared not only to
commence the project to protect the community, but also
to engage it to be an integral part in a resilient future.
Study Area
The study area encompasses a bit more than 28,000
acres of predominantly vacant land that has a very flat
topography and is dominated by a pine savannah habitat.
Within that area are four drainage basins: Bayou La-
combe, Big Branch Marsh, Cypress Bayou, and Bayou
Castine. Highway 434 serves as a barrier within the
Bayou Lacombe basin and has altered the watershed as a
consequence. The study area is accessed predominantly
Regional map of St. Tammany
Parish with the study area
shown in light blue.
Lake Pontchartrain
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
10
by state roads, Highway 1088 and Highway 434, from
Interstate 12. Highway 36 crosses Highway 1088 and
Highway 434 at the area’s northern boundary. Interstate
12 forms the southern border of the study area. South of
I-12, storm surge and sea-level rise are a threat to devel-
opment. Because of that threat, the parish is encouraging
development north of I-12.
Additional state roadways are being proposed. Proposed
local road improvements in the area include Dixie Ranch
Road—Highway 434 to Airport Road via Scenic Drive
and Transmitter Road widening and overlay. The study
area also contains St. Tammany Regional Airport. The
airport is a ten-hangar facility with upgrades underway,
including the installation of new hangars, upgrades to
equipment and administrative space, and extension and
expansion of the runway.
The few major landowners in the study area include
Weyerhaeuser/WREDCo, Edward Poitevent, the Salmen
Trust, and the Wadsworth development. Additionally, the
parish and its school board own some land there. A large
portion of the vacant land in the study area is subject to
timber leases and has historically been used as a source
of timber farms. The 7,000-acre Salmen Tract, which is
held by the trust of the same name, has recently come out
of a long-term timber lease. The tract is now being actively
considered for development.
Substantial parts of the study area are protected under the
Clean Water Act and the waters of the United States regu-
lations. A large percentage of the study area consists of
pine savannah wetlands. Thus, any development requires a
Section 404 permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
and likely payment of mitigation credits.
ULI
ULI
ULI
ULI
Development taking place in the study area, showing existing terrain
and tree canopy cover.
Traditional suburban development in the study area. This
development’s households are near each other but do not have
the full benefits of increased density.
Kickoff meeting with the ULI panel, St. Tammany Parish officials, and
other stakeholders.
View of Tammany Trace multimodal trail over the Bogue Falaya in
Covington.
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
11
The Panel’s Assignment
St. Tammany Parish has spent considerable time develop-
ing a philosophy on resilience. Many grant opportunities
have emerged because of multiple storm-related events
that affected both the parish and the larger region. Those
grant opportunities as well as other funding have provided
the parish with the ability to study extensively its south
central area, also known as Lacombe. The parish asked
the panel to look at its resilience philosophy and the stud-
ies completed to date to begin to connect the dots on how
projected growth should occur within the study area.
The parish had the following primary questions:
What are the land use strategies and design recommen-
dations for development in south central St. Tammany
Parish?
How can those proposed strategies and recommenda-
tions improve water quality and drainage within the
study area?
What recommended resilience strategies can be
incorporated into both the immediate study area and the
entire parish?
The panel was also asked to carry out the following
assignments:
Identify the best program for providing the needed
stormwater detention in the study area along with water
quality improvements. Consider the type of detention
that is appropriate for the proposed land uses.
Examine the need for road improvements or alternate
transportation to address increased traffic. Consider
the most cost-effective options for implementation on
the basis of the proposed land uses and development
patterns.
Consider issues regarding the lack of affordable
workforce housing, housing for an aging population, and
relocating populations.
Review and provide feedback on methods for funding
the construction and maintenance of regional ponds or
other natural systems infrastructure, and local infra-
structure necessary in the study area for the proposed
uses, and that maximize public and private funding
sources, including but not limited to impact fees, prop-
erty donation, and capital funding program.
Identify the water quality improvements that the parish
should require, request, or encourage property owners
to incorporate in the construction of local infrastructure.
Evaluate the feasibility of a program for water quality
credits within the area. Should the parish provide credits
for the donation of property for the development of a
regional pond or other natural systems infrastructure?
Should the parish’s impact fee program be restructured
with respect to the calculation and use of transportation,
drainage, and water quality fees?
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
12
THE PANEL DEVELOPED KEY FEEDBACK and recom-
mendations (more specific recommendations and priorities
are included throughout this report).
The panel made the following primary observations:
Growth is imminent. Only the parish can choose
whether growth will produce positive change or will
slowly erode everything valued within the study area.
There are no simple solutions. The hard work,
combined efforts, and search for multiple benefits from a
single action (and single dollar) must continue.
The economic models of the past are not sustainable
or resilient. Public services need to be priced appropri-
ately and must be a requirement for “harvesting benefits
from the parish’s growth.” Concurrently, the parish needs
to be more proactive and realistic in using proven tools to
fund longer-term infrastructure.
The panel offered the following key recommendations:
Collaborate and cooperate for a consistent eco-
nomic development strategy. Redesign a coordinated
economic development program at the local and regional
levels, tied in to the greater southeastern Louisiana
region but that shows a clear vision for St. Tammany
Parish and a unique identity for the “Northshore.”
Refresh the vision and update the comprehensive
plan. A modernized and progressive code with a clearly
articulated vision for the parish’s development is a win-
win for the parish, the developers, and the community.
It will bring predictability, reduce uncertainty, ensure
consistent application of the process, and articulate
expectations for development.
Master plan the study area as a pilot and model for
resilience. Use the south central study area as a model
resilient corridor/community by developing a vision and
zoning overlay that elevates natural systems, integrates
economic development, and innovates for compact
development and stacked benefits.
Develop a portfolio of transportation solutions be-
yond building roads. Reduce automobile dependence
by better using the existing ride-sharing lots, by incentiv-
izing the largest employers in the region to change
commuting behaviors, and by accommodating growth in
a series of new town centers with walkable day-to-day
services.
Deliberately create a range of housing choices. In the
long-range planning efforts, include a variety of hous-
ing types and densities and focus density near jobs to
increase housing affordability. The parish is increasingly
becoming unaffordable, which is decreasing the area’s
resilience and overall quality of life.
Implement the water quality improvement plan
as part of a holistic strategy to address water in
St. Tammany Parish. Integral to implementing the
recommendations of the St. Tammany Parish Watershed
Management Study is the development of a St. Tammany
water quality improvement program.
Implement new funding strategies for necessary
services. Leverage new growth to fund and improve
outdated and fragmented infrastructure through political
and community leadership. Those who benefit must pay
their fair share.
Primary Observations and
Recommendations
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
13
ULI
EARTH’S CLIMATE IS CHANGING in unpredictable
ways. The warmer atmosphere and higher sea levels com-
bined with extreme weather are affecting coastal and in-
land communities alike. Continuing as normal is no longer
possible. Resilience can take on different meanings and
connotations depending on specific circumstances. Com-
munities face different risks, face those risks in different
degrees, and face risks with differing capacities to adapt.
Generally, resilience is viewed as an ability to return to
normal after a shock or stress. However, ULI has looked
to expand this perspective—to view shocks and stresses
as opportunities for a community to bounce forward. Re-
silience involves three interrelated and inextricably linked
aspects: economic, environmental, and social. Those con-
nections are especially critical for communities that stand
to suffer the most from the effects of climate change.
Overview: The Need for Resilience
More often than not, residents of those vulnerable commu-
nities live in often-precarious environmental circumstances
and have fewer social and economic resources at their
disposal to help cushion the blow of adverse events.
While this report was being drafted, severe rainstorms
struck St. Tammany Parish with rainfall totaling nearly ten
inches over several hours and hitting some isolated areas
as fast as three inches per hour. Those storms caused his-
toric flooding on the Bogue Falaya, Tchefuncte, and Bogue
Chitto Rivers. More than 140 roadways were closed, 17
damage assessment teams were formed, and St. Tam-
many Parish President Pat Brister had to remind residents,
Just because you didn’t flood in the past, doesn’t mean
you won’t flood this time.” That flooding highlights the
need for resilience.
Resilience is a three-legged
stool: “the ability to prepare and
plan for, absorb, recover from,
and more successfully adapt to
adverse events.” All parts need
to be addressed in order for a
community to bounce forward.
Environmental Economic
Social
Sustainable energy
Extreme weather protection
Natural resource availability
Jobs/income
Savings, investment
Creditworthiness
Health
Community cohesion
Organizing capacity
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
14
Many of St. Tammany Parish’s development patterns follow
examples offered in ULI’s Resilience Strategies along the
Rural–Urban Transect. This 2015 report uses the transect,
a planning tool, to look at strategies for building community
resilience and how they vary as one looks across the
continuum from rural lands to urban core areas.
ULI
ULI
ULI’s 2015 report Returns on Resilience: The Business Case
provides case studies of developers’ and property owners’
motivation to protect buildings and sites against climate-
related threats, as well as their resilience strategies, their
design and development processes, and their projects’
performance.
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
15
ULI
The regional triangle illustrates
the role St. Tammany Parish
plays in the regional economy
through its equidistance from
New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
THROUGHOUT THE PANEL’S CONVERSATIONS with
stakeholders in St. Tammany Parish, it became clear that
the parish was experiencing growing pains related to its
governance and built environment. These growing pains
require difficult questions to be asked (and answered) that
will set the parish’s future course and by extension the
course for future generations. Once a predominantly rural
community, St. Tammany Parish has over the past two
decades become increasingly suburbanized; if growth
trends continue as expected, the transformation will
undoubtedly continue.
The overarching question is what form that growth will
take. An overwhelming majority of stakeholders told the
panel that they do not want more unchecked, unplanned
suburban development. Achieving a different outcome will
require a change in how the parish manages the develop-
ment process. There is precedent for such change in the
parish itself: the decision to undergo the difficult process
of converting from the old Police Jury system to a home
rule charter. The citizens and administration realized
that the parish had outgrown its old form of government
because it inadequately addressed the issues that confront
its dynamic, changing environment. So they did something
about it. In the same way, deciding to plan for—instead of
reacting to—growth is a way to control growth proactively
instead of giving it the control.
The Parish’s Role in the Region
The two major population centers of New Orleans and
Baton Rouge are the anchors of the state, and the panel
thinks that the parish, and the Northshore as a whole,
should not aspire to become a third. However, the North-
shore—including the parish—has an important role to
play in the region’s need to address pressing resiliency
issues, a role that has changed with new and forecasted
changes in the climate. Clearly, the parish wishes to be
more than a bedroom community or just an escape route
from New Orleans and the South Shore. Instead, the
parish can be a subregion with its own character that
both distinguishes it and makes it an indispensable part of
southeastern Louisiana.
As St. Tammany Parish is already finding, it can be a
destination for jobs and industry that seek to remain in
the region but migrate to a different environment. To this
end, the parish could, with careful management, reinforce
its current advantages and position itself as a center of
excellence that is different from its southern neighbor New
Orleans, stressing a lifestyle centered on small communi-
ties with character, excellent schools, access to recreation,
and other attributes. It can also capture businesses and
residents who may have become uncomfortable with what
is perceived as a vulnerable hazard area closer to the
south. They might otherwise leave the region completely
unless a viable local alternative can be found.
Creating Economic Resilience
N
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
16
ULI PAN EL CREATE D FROM A VARIE TY OF SOU RCES
Growth Projections and Land
Consumption Implications
The U.S. Census Bureau projects that St. Tammany Par-
ish’s population will almost double in the next 15 years.
Many interviewees thought that projection too high, but
it is not difficult to imagine how it—or an even greater
one—could materialize. Even if actual growth is not that
high, or the time frame over which such growth will occur
is much longer, population growth in the parish is clearly
going to continue.
The changes that come with increased population—in
demographics, land use, traffic patterns, and the need for
services, among others—will have a huge effect on land
consumption in the parish. An increase of 225,423 people
translates into roughly 85,000 new households, equivalent
to 25 towns the size of Covington. Under current develop-
ment strategies, that growth would consume about 50
percent of available land for future development.
At the same time, new and continuing constraints on land
use have imposed greater limits on how growth occurs:
the storm-based redlining of land south of I-12, increas-
ingly expensive restrictions on the use of wetlands, and
the choke points of water and sewer infrastructure and
roadways. The challenge is to maintain the Northshore’s
character while addressing these pressure points com-
prehensively. The panel learned that residents think it will
be possible—though difficult—to do that while retaining
what they like about St. Tammany Parish. By better using
smart-growth techniques and slightly increasing density,
there is more opportunity to grow in a more sustainable
way: “villages-in-the-woods.” Under this strategy, only 6
percent of available land for future development would be
consumed. (See table below.)
Growth Consumption Calculation
Parish total
acres
Already
urbanized
in acresa
High protection
landsb
Available for
future
development
Units
per acre
New development
for 85,000 units
% of remaining
acreage
consumed
Trend approach 546,560 123,814 189,000 233,746 0.71c119,000 50.9
Village-in-the-
woods strategy 546,560 123,814 189,000 233,746 6.00d14,167 6.1
a. Source: Design Workshop calculation using National Land Cover Database data.
b. Source: Design Workshop calculation based on Trust for Public Land Greenprint study.
c. Calculated by dividing already urbanized area by total existing units of 88,000 per briefing book.
d. Estimated gross density within development areas. Note that this is still below the industry standard of eight units per acre for minimum level of sustainable development.
Covington
Covington
Covington
Covington
Covington
Covington
Covington
Covington
Covington
Covington
Covington
Covington Covington
Covington
Covington
Covington
Covington
Covington Covington CovingtonCovington
Covington Covington
Covington
Covington
Covington
Covington
The U.S. Census Bureau
estimates that the population
of St. Tammany Parish wll
increase by 225,423 over the
next 15 years, which translates
into roughly 85,000 new
households or 25 towns the size
of Covington.
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
17
ULI
Leadership and Connection
The panel applauds the parish’s determination to maintain
its own distinct identity within the region. Its self-reliance
and independence are deeply embedded in its culture.
That factor has created a friction point as the desire for
autonomy at the personal and local levels sometimes
conflicts with the effects of in-migration and growth, as
the Northshore is inexorably becoming more integrated
into the regional economy and culture. There is no ques-
tion that the parish has long been codependent with the
greater region; the current struggle seems to be finding
equilibrium between independence and reliance on (and
contribution to) the greater southeastern Louisiana region.
Recognizing that accommodating the kind of growth
anticipated for the region is certain to be controversial no
matter what the approach, it is critically important that
government take the lead in this outreach, which requires
strong political will and perhaps a bit of risk taking. The
good news is that the parish is already a recognized leader
in that regard—the presence of the panel is only one
instance of the calls to action. Now, the parish has the
chance to further engage in best practices to extend its
lead. The examples set here will very likely be emulated in
other regional parishes that are not nearly as far along as
St. Tammany Parish.
A Focus on Economic Development
St. Tammany Parish has an identity that is uniquely
Northshore. If it manages its growth wisely, the parish
can maintain that identity, which makes it an attractive
choice among those available in southeastern Louisiana
for residents and businesses. A strong, singular identity
represents a strong, singular marketing opportunity for the
parish. Essentially, that marketing opportunity amounts to
branding, which can be a compelling asset in economic
development.
The panel learned, however, that current economic de-
velopment on the Northshore is scattered among multiple
small private efforts that are not well coordinated. Bringing
together those disjointed economic development efforts
into a united cooperative effort will yield many benefits,
particularly if they are further coordinated at multiple
levels: local, regional (i.e., the Northshore parishes), and
metaregional (i.e., southeastern Louisiana). This task is
clearly best initiated by local government, which has the
ability to tap into higher levels of organization—up to the
state and national levels—and to provide a venue for
many disparate stakeholders to collaborate. The goals of
the economic development program can focus on jobs
and industry, of course, and should work with an eye
toward enhancing the area’s economic and social diversity.
Regions with diverse live/work/play environments do the
best job of attracting the workforce of the future, at all
income levels.
Recommendations
The panel recommends the following:
Take a long-term view for accommodating growth. Con-
sider various timescales, including five years, ten years,
50 years, and 100 years. The parish is building a place
where its residents’ children and grandchildren will be
able (and want ) to live.
Redesign a coordinated economic development program
at the local and regional levels, tied in to the greater
southeastern Louisiana region.
Ensure that government takes a strong lead in this
effort, which will entail many hard decisions that will
inevitably not please everyone.
The ULI panel forming recommendations.
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
18
Tools for a Resilient Future
ONCE A BEDROOM COMMUNITY and now the fastest-
growing parish in the state, St. Tammany Parish is at a
crossroads in its development to address resiliency in its
broadest form. The parish has an opportunity to leverage
anticipated growth to create sustainable development pat-
terns that learn from the past and proactively set the fu-
ture. This approach could be not only a parish-wide model,
but also a model within similar communities across the
Gulf Coast states. At the center of the three elements of
resilience—economic, social, and environmental—is land
use. Land use and development decisions should be made
in ways that enhance the three elements simultaneously in
order to ensure stacked benefits.
Although St. Tammany Parish has many positive aspects
with regard to resilience and forward thinking, the panel
observed that resilience was being used as “an end to a
means” to secure additional grant dollars and funding.
However, if resilience is not looked at comprehensively
and in terms of how it fits into every aspect of parish-wide
decisions, the potential exists for further growth that is
inconsistent with the quality of life that the parish cur-
rently offers.
Over the long term as the climate continues to change,
there will be more extreme weather and sea-level rise.
That factor will make it more difficult to live in New
Orleans, Slidell, and other areas within the parish south of
I-12. Now is the critical time to engage with the community
to build a comprehensive vision and plan to ensure that
all of the parish’s hazard mitigation, development, and
infrastructure plans and policies help build resilience. In
addition, development should be limited south of I-12.
Managing future growth patterns can provide one answer,
as can the path that is taken to implementation. Within
the parish, establishing a process that is transparent and
open to all is important. Because not everyone will agree,
that transparency can be fraught and maybe even a bit
frightening and can take more time. The panel heard from
many stakeholders that there is a certain amount of plan-
ning fatigue related to planning growth in the parish, which
if true will make it difficult to engage a broad constituency.
The consensus is that now is the time to act, and that ac-
tion begins with establishing a concrete vision and strategy
to address the many implications of growth in the parish.
For that reason, the panel suggests that outreach take the
form not of more planning studies but rather of education
and engagement on how and why the decisions to move
forward have been made, and by carefully outlining the
long-term benefits the parish will realize.
Master Planning versus Zoning
An unplanned pattern of development leads to high costs,
including increased traffic, disjointed infrastructure, land
consumption, very few “places” or centers of activity, and
strains in affordability. To start addressing those issues,
the parish has worked to develop comprehensive zoning;
however, that zoning is not a comprehensive or master
plan. Zoning is a good first step, but it does not provide the
level of development guidance that will help St. Tammany
Parish reach its economic development and quality-of-life
goals—or the significant natural sensitivities and infra-
structure needs.
The parish’s comprehensive plan is now nearly 15 years
old and predates the uptick in growth and impacts from
the disasters that have occurred over the past decade.
There is a need both to get ahead of future development
and to “catch up”: to ensure that the wealth of planning
and technical work completed does not stay on the shelf.
Doing so will provide a key opportunity to articulate the
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
19
SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats)
analysis philosophy to be better able to unify and capture
the recommendations of those studies.
Planning is about augmenting the values and highlighting
the areas that make St. Tammany Parish a great place.
The stakeholder interviews mentioned the quality of life,
natural beauty and recreational amenities, safety, and
good-quality schools. Looking back at the completed stud-
ies also presents the opportunity to develop a new vision
for St. Tammany Parish, to update the comprehensive
plan, and to develop a modernized and progressive code. A
modernized and progressive code and a clearly articulated
vision for the parish’s development are a certain win for
the parish, the developers, and the community and will
provide predictability, reduce uncertainty, and ensure
consistent application of the process and articulated
expectations for development.
Recommendations
The panel recommends the following:
Limit development south of I-12 and encourage devel-
opment north of I-12 within the study area.
Build on the update of the Unified Development Code,
and survey the existing plans to consolidate key recom-
mendations; initiate a vision framework for a resilient
future.
Create guidelines for major corridors of the public realm
that support placemaking, and set sustainability goals
that are responsive to both resiliency and the rural
context and heritage.
Conduct a lessons-learned evaluation of at least two
recent large-scale developments with a resiliency/SWOT
analysis lens.
Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve
Montgomery County, Maryland, which borders
Washington, D.C., to the north, has traditionally been
home to an agricultural and rural economy. In the 1980s,
a third of the county, or more than 93,000 acres, was
designated an agricultural reserve to preserve that cultural
heritage and wide open spaces.
The agricultural reserve or rural density transfer (RDT )
zone downzoned the density within this area but allows a
landowner to transfer one unit per five acres to another
portion of the county that is designated as a growth area.
That transfer of development rights offsets property or
equity loss by being located within the RDT zone. The
agricultural reserve has allowed for 85 percent of the land
within the RDT zone to be farmed continuously, and 90
percent is preserved under a variety of agricultural land
preservation easements and programs.
Over the past 30 years, additional land protections and
programs have been established to ensure that even with
rapid growth of the metropolitan Washington region, the
historic character and the quality of life of Montgomery
County is not lost.
To learn more about this program, see Montgomery
County Office of Agriculture, “Agricultural Preservation”
web page, www.montgomerycountymd.gov/agservices/
agpreservation.html.
The Montgomery County (Maryland) Agricultural Reserve and other areas conserved through the county’s
preservation program. Land that was preserved has provided bonus density to existing urban areas.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY GOVERNMENT, MARYLAND
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
20
ST. TAMMANY PARISH has the opportunity to build on
the historic principles of its historic towns and villages,
such as Slidell, Madisonville, and Covington, to enhance its
placemaking efforts for the future. Such enhancement is
the most appropriate response to the tremendous growth
the area is confronting, because it will build the long-term
value and diversity that the parish seeks. By focusing on
building good, walkable neighborhoods that enhance op-
portunities for diverse social interaction, the parish will
be better able to promote public health and foster eco-
nomic development by creating a public realm that is cur-
rently lacking in the community, except in certain isolated
locations.
To build that public realm, the parish should follow the
examples of success from Covington and other places:
For streets and other public spaces—shared spaces
that accommodate diversity and promote social interac-
tion—ensure that all new roads function as complete
streets that organize urban neighborhood grid networks,
including sidewalks and street trees, and that organize
homes and workplaces into interconnected towns and
villages.
Use water as a connection. Historic landings and river
access systems can be used as models for extending
bike, boat, and pedestrian networks into new areas of
the parish, further connecting the disparate neighbor-
hoods.
Use the model of previously successful traditional
neighborhood developments like TerraBella, but expand
on them by increasing their mixed-use nature, includ-
ing workplaces, in the neighborhood design to create
stronger local connections, to foster walking and reduce
automobile dependence, and to promote public health.
Use native flora and fauna, such as cypress or longleaf
pine, within tree buffer areas.
The Path to Neighborhood Resilience
ULIULIULI
Big Branch Bayou near the study area.
Covington, Louisiana, side street that could be a model for village-
in-the-woods development. The trees help manage stormwater and
improve water quality.
A strip development such as is common in St. Tammany Parish.
Future development should be more walkable to help encourage
fewer car trips.
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
21
The study area can become a model resilience corridor/
community by better developing a vision and zoning
overlay that elevates natural systems, integrates economic
development, and innovates for compact development
stacked benefits.
Alternative Development Scenarios
There are two paths that St. Tammany Parish can take
while looking at future development. The parish could ei-
ther continue to use the conventional development pattern
per the existing zoning or better incorporate the historic
and traditional principles of the parish’s past with creating
a village-in-the-woods development pattern.
Conventional Development Pattern per Existing
Zoning
Per the parish’s existing zoning, the study area would be
largely developed as continuous, undifferentiated single-
family subdivisions with large pockets of industrial and
commercial development at the periphery. This develop-
ment pattern has several disadvantages that limit the
parish’s potential:
It results in a fragmented and disconnected system of
natural habitats that will not promote ecological health.
Wetland mitigation will be difficult, if not impossible,
to achieve, given current U.S. Army Corps of Engineer
regulations.
A dispersed and individualized system of stormwater
detention ponds will be hard to manage and maintain
over the long term.
Individually developed and managed water and waste-
water systems will pose similar challenges to long-term
water and wastewater management.
Current traffic and transportation challenges of single-
use, disconnected development are exacerbated.
There is no enhancement or development of the public
realm of the parish.
ULI
The current development
pattern in St. Tammany Parish
creates fragmented communities
and exacerbates existing
development challenges.
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
22
More focused, mixed-use development patterns will
promote public health through walkable/bikeable neigh-
borhoods by creating an interconnected street and road
network that will reduce traffic demands.
It will establish a new character of the public realm
that encourages public interaction and social diversity
through the physical form of the neighborhoods.
Recommendations
The panel recommends the following:
Build community support for preservation of natural
resources and climate adaptation.
Extend multimodal connectivity throughout the parish.
For example, the Tammany Trace multimodal trail could
be extended throughout the parish to provide additional
mobility options for residents.
Use the south central study area as a model resilient
corridor/community by developing a vision and zon-
ing overlay that elevates natural systems, integrates
economic development, and innovates for compact
development and stacked benefits.
Build on the existing urban fabric of historical places for
infill development, mixed-use communities, and place-
making.
The proposed village-in-the-
woods development strategies
are a smart-growth approach
that would create a more
interconnected and resilient St.
Tammany Parish.
ULI
Village-in-the-Woods Neighborhood Alternative
Development
An alternative, smart-growth approach to development
will present numerous advantages over the conventional
development pattern:
It will enhance storm resilience by using the natural
infrastructure of streams, wetlands, and waterways as
an integral part of the overall stormwater management
system.
It will increase development potential for the greater site
by managing these issues holistically.
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
23
MANY TIMES THROUGHOUT the panel’s interviews,
traffic and congestion were considered the Achilles’ heel to
growth. More than just hearing these concerns, the pan-
el experienced firsthand the challenges of peak rush-hour
traffic and congestion in the morning and evening.
Traffic bottlenecks, congested intersections, and gridlock
are not unique to St. Tammany Parish. Across the country,
many places that have grown rapidly and in relatively
unbounded landscapes are now experiencing considerable
transportation challenges. Although the problem is most
visibly manifested in long waits at traffic lights or increased
commute times, the solution cannot be found in a one-line
response.
One axiom about traffic and roadways, gathered from
experience around the country, is wider roads only bring
more traffic.
Although adding more lanes may offer some temporary
relief, the mobility challenges facing St. Tammany Parish
are multifaceted and require a longer-term shift in strategy
and thinking. The path to mobility resilience includes a
range of techniques, many of which are identified in other
sections of this report.
Mobility Is Quality of Life
The panel recognizes that in the near term these solutions
will not resolve the immediate challenge many face in
Typical traffic congestion on a
weekday at 5:30 p.m.
GOOGLE MAPS
Developing Mobility Resilience
3/22/2016 Trafc - Google Maps
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.4400281,-90.0942319,12.09z/data=!5m1!1e1 1/1
Google Maps
Map data ©2016 Google 2 mi
Typical trafc
Fast Slow
S M T W TF S
Thursday, 5:25 PM
8 AM 12 PM 4 PM 8 PM
Trafc
Lake Pontchartrain
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
24
“Need a Bike? Carmel’s Got an
App for That”
In April 2015, Carmel, Indiana, an Indianapolis suburb,
contracted with Zagster to provide a flexible bike-
sharing program to better connect the downtown, arts
district, Monon Greenway rail trail, and neighborhood
parks. Initially, the program began only in Carmel with
two docking stations and 22 bicycles (six adult tricycles)
but in the last year has grown to two additional cities
with nine stations and 70 bicycles (eight adult tricycles).
Even with a small startup and the winter season, nearly
3,000 rides have been made, and over 1,600 new
members have joined. The bike-sharing program is
designed to promote recreational and “bike tourism,”
but it also helps those who live and work near a docking
station. The city estimates that a majority of the rides
generated would not have occurred had the bike-sharing
program not been in place.
Zagster, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, company,
manages the program and leases the equipment to
Carmel. The city pays Zagster $1,300 per year per
bicycle and a one-time fee of $8,600 to set up the
docks and equipment. The cost for the user is $3 an
hour with a limit of $24 for 24 hours. Memberships
can be purchased that allow a user to ride for less than
an hour without being charged ($15 per month or $75
annually). A bike lock is included with each rental so the
bicycle does not need to be docked if the rider wants to
stop at one of the many community businesses.
For more information about Carmel, Indiana’s bike-
sharing program, visit www.carmel.in.gov/index.
aspx?page=514.
today’s automobile-dominated parish. The region needs
additional north–south connectors and increased vehicle
mobility to strengthen day-to-day access—as well as to
improve resilience in times of evacuation or emergency.
But any future road planning must be done holistically and
with an eye toward balance and stacked benefits. One
dollar invested in pavement must provide two or three
times its cost in wide community benefits for resilience:
economic, social, and environmental.
The panel believes the answer lies in part in redefining
the basic building blocks of development, and in so doing
changing the distances that parish residents (and nonpar-
ish residents, for that matter) must travel to accomplish
their day-to-day tasks. This approach proposes to create
multiple new “small-town nodes” or villages-in-the-woods
in new development areas such as the study area, con-
nected by roads, trails, and, eventually, small-scale public
transport (or even driverless cars!). Because each of those
nodes would contain everyday services within walking
distance of their centers, the number of daily vehicle trips
could be reduced and the pressure on roadways imposed
by heavy cross-parish trips lessened. This approach
depends on a very long-term view of what the parish will
look like when those 85,000 households have been added.
Mobility networks are not just a transportation strategy;
they are an economic development strategy. Today’s high-
quality employers are going where the talent is, rather than
the talent going where the jobs are located. And those tal-
ented people want opportunities to work and have a quality
of life where they do not have to drive long distances and
where they have access to alternative transportation.
Shifting away from sole reliance on the automobile requires
first understanding that the “road you are on will not end
well.” Leaders, their staffs, and the community must work
together to commit to a nuanced, layered, and diligent
process to build—over a decade or two—a connected
mobility network. That mobility network is vastly different
from a road or transportation network. St. Tammany Parish
has a significant opportunity to create a unique language
of walkways and trails that define the parish as forward
thinking and committed to a tangible expression of what
makes it a different, unique, and good place to settle.
If successful, St. Tammany Parish can retain, and likely
improve, its quality of life. The parish will also strengthen
community health and resilience and reduce long-term
maintenance costs and the environmental impacts associ-
ated with a region dominated by asphalt and cars.
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
25
Recommendations
The panel recommends the following:
Create more live/work/play environments where, ideally,
people can walk to at least one or two destinations daily
and can travel short distances when they drive.
Strategically attract and locate more jobs within the par-
ish that provide appropriate levels of household income
and career growth, thereby minimizing long commutes
across the bridge to New Orleans and across the parish.
Require more fine-grained land use mixes through
proper planning and zoning to bring live/work/play
components into proximity of one another.
Increase opportunities for non-single-car transport by
encouraging and supporting the expansion of third-
party ride-sharing, bike-sharing, and on-demand driver
programs, such as Lyft, Uber, BCycle, and Zagster.
Think generationally when designing neighborhoods and
road networks, so rubber-tire multimodal transportation
options can operate efficiently when the community is
ready.
Work diligently to expand pedestrian and bicycle
alternatives to vehicular travel. For example, continually
expand the success of the Tammany Trace and require
integrated, connected pedestrian networks in new
developments that link the population and destinations
but that are appropriate to the rural character of St.
Tammany Parish.
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
26
THE ST. TAMMANY PARISH COMMUNITY is an at-
tractive place with several often-cited positive factors,
including overall quality of life, good educational opportuni-
ties, safety, and the strength of its residents. Although the
quality of life is an overarching theme, it includes abundant
natural beauty and outdoor recreational opportunities.
St. Tammany Parish also has a highly regarded public
school system that draws new residents, particularly fami-
lies with small children. New investments have shown a
dedication to expanding education, including the construc-
tion of Northshore Technical Community College, which
focuses on science, technology, engineering, and math-
ematics, and a planned advanced technology high school.
Safety—in both the lack of crime and neighborhood
cohesion—is cited as a point of pride in the community as
well. Finally, the strength of individuals in the community
against adverse challenges is another point of pride. There
is a spirit of cooperation in the parish, of coming together
and pulling through after natural disasters.
Although St. Tammany Parish has been perceived as
a wealthy suburb of New Orleans, part of the commu-
nity has urgent needs. According to the St. Tammany
Parish Department of Health and Human Services,
changes in demographics, including growing diversity
and a larger aging population, will increase those needs
in several areas.
Poverty in the parish reached 14 percent in 2012, with
child poverty at 20 percent. Affordable rental housing is
also scarce, creating hardships for young families start-
ing in the community and also for the workforce, largely
concentrated in the public sector, retail, and health care.
The dependence on automobiles as the sole form of trans-
portation to needed services exacerbates these issues, as
the vulnerable residents of the community are often those
without access to vehicles or the ability to use bicycles on
the parish’s multimodal Tammany Trace trail.
Building Social Resilience
ULI
ULI
ULI’s Building Healthy Places Initiative highlights 21 tasks to improve the physical activity, food, water,
environment, and social health of a community.
More detailed examples can be found in ULI’s
Building Healthy Places Toolkit.
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
27
Built Environment and Health
As it grows and changes, St. Tammany Parish has op-
portunities to affect the health and wellness of its existing
and future residents through careful planning and design.
Increasing evidence correlates health with the built envi-
ronment. At the scale of individual homes and neighbor-
hoods to the scale of the larger region, future growth in St.
Tammany Parish can have a positive influence on health.
Building on the parish’s existing assets, including its
natural open space and quality of life, while addressing
growing concerns related to housing and transportation,
a coordinated community health effort could leverage
funding while providing a metric for success. Individual
and community health issues in the parish include obesity,
diabetes, and related chronic diseases, as well as mental
health issues related to depression, anxiety, and suicide.
Lifestyles driven in part by land use patterns contribute
to poor health, creating a lack of mobility and traf-
fic congestion and discouraging healthy alternatives to
transportation, such as walking and biking. Fragmented,
undifferentiated development can exacerbate physical and
mental isolation, which creates risks in times of disaster.
A critical path to building resilience can be addressed at the
natural intersection of health and the built environment. St.
Tammany Parish has successfully begun to invest in mental
health services and should continue to be proactive in this
area. The parish should consider future locations of mental
health and other health services in relation to the most
vulnerable populations. Recreational amenities such as the
Tammany Trace contribute to positive health outcomes, and
future recreational planning should provide outdoor access
with a broader connected network of paths, trails, and open
space. Incorporating resilience planning and placemaking
through the natural and built environments is an opportunity
to enhance everyday lifestyles and health while planning
smartly for disaster events.
Housing Choices
Housing choices are currently limited in St. Tammany
Parish, creating a key area of opportunity for improvement
in the community. Fifty-two percent of the housing stock
was built after the 1990s and comprises predominately
large-lot single-family homes in limited-access residential
subdivisions. The focus on single-family homes has led to
a situation where available rental opportunities are more
expensive than owning a home. That factor puts St. Tam-
many Parish out of reach for young families who want to
buy their first home, many of whom have critical jobs in the
parish, such as in government or health care.
Moreover, in such a housing environment, a single crisis
such as a job loss can quickly leave a family with children
homeless, which is a real concern within the parish. About
1,100 of the 38,000 school-age children in St. Tammany
Park Prescriptions
In Washington, D.C., pediatricians have begun prescribing
park time. An inventory of District-wide parks was
created to provide health care professionals with a tool to
show which parks to prescribe near where children live.
This inventory has the potential to influence future park
planning. (See ParkRx website, www.aapdc.org/prx /.)
CONTACT INFORMATION:
(202)
HOURS:
9AM - sunset
Pets: Not Allowed
GETTING THERE:
Metro: 17 minute walk from
New York Avenue Metro (green
and yellow lines)
Bus: 8 bus stops within 2
block radius:
NE Montello Av & NE Neal St
NE Florida Ave & NE Montello
Ave
NE Montello Av & NE Owen Pl
NE Trinidad Av & NE Neal St
NE Florida Ave & NE 12th St
NE Florida Av & NE 13th St
NE K St & NE 12th St
NE Florida Ave & NE Trinid
Parking: street, limited
Yes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Fountain, Great playground
Joseph E. Cole Park/Wheatley Ed. Campus
National Park Service
PARK GRADES:
Cleanliness: A
Accessibility: A
Activity Level: High
1299 Neal St NE
Washington, DC 20002
Things to Do!
Play basketball, soccer, run on the track!
SPORTS AMENITIES: Basketball Court, Soccer Field, Track, New basketball
courts (2); new soccer/open field (turf); new playground equipment (2 areas--one
for older children and one for younger)
PLAYGROUND: Very clean playground in good condition
PATH Difficulty Rating: Easy (one foot)
Path (2 - 4 ft wide, About 1 mile; concrete (only good for walking or running) long)
has a Flat/Gentle slope.
Loop Paths are clean and in good condition.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
Park Information
Restrooms: No restrooms available
Drinking fountains: No drinking fountains available
SIZE Larger than football field
SAFETY Lighting, Perceived to be safe in daytime
PARK EXTRAS Benches, picnic tab les, and trashcans all available
AESTHETICS The park is barely shaded by trees and buildings. Very new,
very clean. In a fairly quiet neighborhood.
A description of the Joseph E. Cole Park/Wheatley
Education Campus found through the Park Rx search
includes park grades and a list of park amenities.
AMERI CAN ACAD EMY OF PEDI ATRICS DI STRICT OF C OLUMBI A CHAPTE R, PARK RX
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
28
Parish have faced homelessness, and 48 percent of all
school-age children receive free lunches at school. Current
services, such as the short-term voucher system for hotels
and programs that lend tents to the homeless, are insuf-
ficient to meet the urgent need of those families.
Longer-term solutions to the affordable housing crisis
require a new land use pattern for the future. An increase
in density in key areas, those closest to jobs, will increase
the type of housing choices available to the St. Tammany
community. Housing choice in a community is critical, as it
allows families to start small, increase in size with children,
and then shrink again after children move out and start
their own families. A greater mix of densities and housing
types, placed closer and more accessible to jobs, will help
reduce individual transportation costs and community-
wide traffic and will increase housing affordability.
Furthermore, by creating additional housing options, com-
munities become more resilient. For example, the Cleveland
Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, is working with surrounding neigh-
borhoods to provide workforce housing. Employees can walk
to work, which increases their ability to quickly respond in
an emergency and contributes to their everyday lifestyle.
Aging Population
The panel heard from many stakeholders about their desire
to accommodate the growing senior population, including the
ability to keep elderly parents nearby. Additionally, like many
communities across the country, the aging baby boomer
generation will create the need to plan for this population. In
a disaster, land use conditions exacerbate mobility options,
disproportionally affecting senior citizens. Keeping seniors as
an active part of the community is good not only for their own
health but also for the greater good of the community and
its families. The parish should plan for easily accessible daily
services and consider the location where these populations
should live in relation to services. Ideally, that area should be
outside of an immediate evacuation zone. Successful plans in
other communities have engaged seniors in disaster planning
to ensure that they have the knowledge that they and their
families need to respond in a worst-case scenario.
Recommendations
The panel recommends the following:
Increase the number of affordable and workforce housing
units within St. Tammany Parish. The parish is becom-
ing increasingly unaffordable and will likely continue to
be unless additional housing options are created. More
affordable options can increase the quality of life for all
residents, especially seniors and those with families.
Focus on reducing parish-wide obesity. Although St.
Tammany Parish is considered the healthiest parish in
Louisiana, the state is one of the least healthy in the na-
tion according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Align future transportation planning with the most vul-
nerable populations in mind, and seek ways to improve
the service provided by COAST (Council on Aging, St.
Tammany) to ensure that its program is self-sustaining.
Increase social cohesion. Knowing one’s neighbors and
having places to congregate are critical factors, since in
many cases neighbors respond in a crisis before the first
responders arrive.
Encourage physicians to discuss mental health at every
primary care visit. Suicide in St. Tammany Parish occurs
predominantly among wealthier white males, but trends
identified by the Department of Health and Human
Services show an increase in the number of women
committing suicide. Disasters typically have a two-year
lag; plan for getting ahead of the problem immediately
after a disaster occurs.
The Groves is an affordable
housing development in St.
Tammany Parish. Increased
housing diversity is needed to
ensure that the parish remains
economically resilient.
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
29
ST. TAMMANY PARISH IS HOME to numerous sce-
nic rivers, streams, and bayous. One of the overarch-
ing themes stemming from the interviews with the parish
stakeholders can be summed up in one sentence: “St.
Tammany Parish equals water.” This theme was reinforced
during the panel’s tour of the study area. The panel re-
viewed a number of documents dealing with water in the
parish, including the South Central Study Area Plan (2011),
the St. Tammany Parish Watershed Management Study
(2014), the outline of a water quality improvement program
for St. Tammany Parish (2015), and the Drainage Impact
Fee Study for St. Tammany Parish (2012).
The panel endorses the recommendations of the St.
Tammany Parish Watershed Management Study, which
addresses overarching study area issues, especially those
questions the panel was asked. The framework and issues
regarding “water” can be divided into four categories:
(a) natural water, (b) stormwater, (c) wastewater, and
(d) potable/reclaimed water. Natural water and stormwater
quantity is a constraint or concern, whereas the major
issues with wastewater and potable/reclaimed water are
quality related. For St. Tammany Parish to address water
issues, they cannot be isolated.
The recommendations in chapter 7 of the Watershed
Management Study report addresses both water quantity
and quality in St. Tammany Parish. Those recommenda-
tions include changes to local wastewater and drainage
ordinances; implementation of a number of regulatory
changes, including the adoption of the Louisiana Depart-
ment of Environmental Quality’s Outstanding Natural
Resource Program; and participation in the department’s
ecoregion-based use attainability analysis revised dis-
solved oxygen criteria.
Integral to implementing the recommendations of the St.
Tammany Parish Watershed Management Study is the
development of a water quality improvement program for
St. Tammany Parish. That program is still being developed.
Any decisions relative to wastewater, stormwater, and
conservation and any regulatory revisions should carefully
consider the information in these studies that have been
undertaken on behalf of the parish. The panel encourages
a subsequent review of the South Central Study Area Plan
by any consultant the parish hires to implement a water
quality improvement program. The St. Tammany water
quality improvement program is still in outline form.
Green Infrastructure in
St. Tammany Parish
Programs that incentivize businesses and residents to in-
stall water management features such as green infrastruc-
ture on private property include grants, rebates, and credit
programs. By encouraging private sector participation,
such programs can help communities install retrofits more
cost efficiently and meet stormwater and groundwater
goals more quickly. In smaller or more rural developing
communities, funding and valuation of green infrastructure
can be viewed as a barrier to implementation of an effec-
tive stormwater management approach.
There are ways to reduce capital costs and to plan more
effectively for long-term operations and maintenance. Reli-
able benefit/cost analysis helps communities adequately
plan for green infrastructure implementation and long-term
operations and maintenance. As those programs mature,
more data will become available about the life-cycle costs
and savings of this approach.
Green infrastructure encompasses many practices that
retain runoff on site, from bioretention and green roofs to
Fostering Environmental Resilience
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
30
Building a Network to Preserve Natural Assets and Prevent Flooding
Climate change is a major threat to the Houston-
Galveston area. In July 2015, the Risky Business Project
published a report titled Come Heat and High Water:
Climate Risk in the Southeastern U.S. and Texas. That
report found that by 2050 (a) Texas will have double the
days exceeding 95 degrees; (b) about 4,500 additional
heat-related deaths will occur annually in the region,
with nearly half that increase coming in the next five to
15 years; (c) Galveston will experience a sea-level rise
of up to two feet; (d) storm-related losses along the
coast will increase by $650 million per year; and (e) both
worker productivity and crop yields will decrease in the
Southeast.
To address current and potential future impacts of climate
change, local leaders in the Houston-Galveston area came
together to complete a green infrastructure and ecosystem
service planning initiative for the entire region, since they
realized that climate change was a regional problem not an
individual community’s problem. Originally, the plan began
with eight core counties but increased to 13 counties.
Since this area is vast, the plan needed to incorporate
multiple types of ecosystems, such as prairies, tidal
wetlands, nontidal wetlands, bottomland forest, upland
forest, and water bodies and floodplains. Each of those
landscapes is connected by a system of linkages or
corridors with an effort to identify “high-quality” areas.
This effort is believed to be able to increase the region’s
water quality, air quality, water supply, stormwater
management, and flood protection and to help sequester
carbon.
The program has public support. In a survey by the
Houston-Galveston Area Council, 95 percent of
respondents agreed that steps should be taken to
preserve the region’s wetlands, forests, prairies, and
shorelines.
For additional information on this program, see the
Conservation Fund’s “Ecosystem Services for Houston-
Galveston” web page, www.conservationfund.org/
projects/green-infrastructure-plans-for-houston-galveston.
porous pavements. Many such practices are detailed in the
Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan (livingwithwater.
com) and rely on the natural processes of infiltration and
evapotranspiration and use soils as a filter to treat and
manage stormwater and groundwater.
Green infrastructure type, performance requirements, and
sizing are important and often-analyzed cost consid-
erations. Communities frequently examine such cost-
efficiency metrics as the cost per square meter of green
infrastructure, the cost per liter of storage provided, or
the cost per gram of pollutant removed. Many local and
site-specific factors, such as land value and environmental
conditions, can heavily influence costs and make them
more variable.
Low-Impact Design
One option for the study area would be to implement low-
impact development (LID) measures. LID is an innovative
stormwater management approach whose basic principle
is modeled after nature: manage rainfall at the source us-
ing uniformly distributed decentralized microscale controls.
LID’s goal is to mimic a site’s predevelopment hydrology by
using design techniques that infiltrate, filter, store, evapo-
rate, and detain runoff close to its source. Techniques are
based on the premise that stormwater management should
not be viewed as stormwater disposal. Instead of convey-
ing and managing or treating stormwater in large, costly
end-of-pipe facilities located at the bottom of drainage
areas, LID addresses stormwater through small, cost-
effective landscape features located at the lot level. Those
landscape features, known as integrated management
practices, are the building blocks of LID.
Almost all components of the urban environment have the
potential to serve as integrated management practices.
They include not only open space but also rooftops,
streetscapes, parking lots, sidewalks, and medians. LID
is a versatile approach that can be applied equally well to
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
31
Dealing with Stormwater Runoff in Small Cities
In April 2011, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, released its
comprehensive Green Infrastructure Plan that offered a
vision of providing more livable, sustainable communities
and solutions to combat stormwater pollution. The 25-year
plan is designed to address the city’s billion gallons of
stormwater runoff that mixes with raw sewage and flows
annually into the Congesta River and eventually reaches
the Chesapeake Bay.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began
enforcing its limits on nitrogen, phosphorous, and
sediment pollution with a $37,500-per-day fine, so
Lancaster needed to act. Because of the high cost of
gray infrastructure, the city developed a two-part strategy
that increases the efficiency and capacity of existing
infrastructure and employs green infrastructure to manage
additional stormwater. This green infrastructure approach
provides a higher return on investments and provides
multiple benefits:
Environmental—recharges groundwater and provides
natural stormwater management, reduced energy
usage, and improved water quality
Social—beautifies and increases recreational
opportunities, improves health through cleaner air and
water, and improves psychological well-being
Economic—reduces future costs of stormwater
management and increases property values
To fund the plan, Lancaster has a utility structure or
“stormwater utility” that allocates the costs of stormwater
management and water pollution control on the basis
of the amount of impervious surface area on each
parcel. This stormwater utility can be lowered if the
property owners install green infrastructure to reduce
the stormwater runoff of impervious service areas. Some
rebates, grants, and credits are provided to property
owners since stormwater facilities are being installed on
private property.
For additional information, see the city of Lancaster’s
“Green Infrastructure” web page, http://cityoflancasterpa.
com/business/green-infrastructure.
new development, urban retrofits, and redevelopment and
revitalization projects.
Green Infrastructure and Water
Quality Credits
In many places, the primary driver in a stormwater credit
system is Clean Water Act compliance. A water quality
credit allows for stormwater retention trading between
properties and lets developers comply with new regula-
tions at the least cost. Pilot programs involving state and
federal regulators will allow “green infrastructure” as an
alternative to traditional water quality management. The
framework for a “best practice” on how to determine the
appropriate scale and efficacy is still being formulated in
larger cities. Green infrastructure programs are in their
early stages in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, and
in smaller cities, such as Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and
Oswego, New York.
Even the larger municipalities often lack the internal
capacity and expertise to manage a comprehensive green
infrastructure program, which are critical to the program’s
success. Often a third-party facilitator may be needed to
measure and create a functioning green infrastructure
market.
Green Infrastructure on private property is still in its in-
fancy in many areas, and aggregation to reach an accurate
scale can be difficult. Long-term performance of green
infrastructure and a subsequent water quality credit sys-
tem predicated on certain ownership structure can inhibit
future development opportunities and present maintenance
challenges. It is the panel’s opinion that St. Tammany Par-
ish should include the development of a framework provid-
ing credits for the donation of property for development of
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
32
a regional pond or other natural systems infrastructure as
part of the parish’s water quality improvement program.
Impact Fees
Just like other local governments, St. Tammany Parish
has limited options for generating the money it needs to
buildand expand infrastructure, including roads, drainage
systems, and wastewater treatment. New developments
call for infrastructure expansion, and many jurisdictions
require those creating the demand to pay their fair share.
Although increasing property taxes may be an option for
bringing in more revenue, it is one that often prompts
aggressive opposition from homeowners and business
owners. To help pay forgrowth, some government agen-
cies chargeimpact feeson new development. An impact
fee is a one-time charge imposed on new construction,
such as housing developments or office complexes, and
isdesigned to offset the financial impact the project will
have on local infrastructure.
In 2012, Duncan Associates conducted a drainage impact
fee study for St. Tammany Parish. The study’s primary
purpose was to update the parish’s drainage impact fees.
The study also calculated updated fees in lieu of on-site
detention, most of which apply to the lower parts of the
watershed and addressed the issue of revenue credits.
Currently, St. Tammany Parish charges an impact fee
through an ordinance, but funds are being used project
by project. A centralized or decentralized (or combination
of the two) wastewater treatment solution needs to be
implemented, but it is best made at the local level where
the planning decisions can take into account the specifics
of the system. By better using already-existing tools, the
parish can better implement some of the recommenda-
tions within the St. Tammany Parish Watershed Manage-
ment Study.
Community Facilities District
One option for development in the study area is the estab-
lishment of a Community Facilities District. A Community
Seton Urban District
The Seton Urban District is a suburban community in
southeastern Calgary, Alberta, that was developed as
a planned community with multiple landowners. The
community is one of the most comprehensive mixed-
use developments in North America and, by 2030, is
expected to serve the equivalent of Alberta’s third-largest
city with 120,000 residents inhabiting the area. Seton’s
plan includes over 2 million square feet of office and retail
space, a 16-acre regional park, and public amenities
centered on a main street. This community was created
in partnership between the city of Calgary, home builder
Brookfield Residential, and existing landowners. Calgary
required the developers and landowners to work together
to design and pay for a community-wide infrastructure
plan. That decision resulted in a much better overall
design than if each parcel of land was developed as a
separate tract.
For more information, see Brookfield Residential, “The
Seton Urban District” web page, www.setonurbandistrict.
com/index.php/about/.
URBANGREEN/ULI PANEL
Seton Urban District plan showing how individual landowners
can partner to create a well-planned community.
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
33
Facilities District is set up by local government agencies to
obtain community funding for public works, services, im-
provements, and development. Funding is used for building
parks, roadways, sewers, stormwater drainage, signage,
streetlights, landscaping, and related improvements.
Recommendations
The panel recommends the following:
Implement the water quality improvement plan. This
plan should consider solutions for both the natural and
built environments. Incorporate green infrastructure and
low-impact design. Accept that water will be a part of
any development and should be incorporated into the
planning.
Institute an “infrastructure first policy” for greenfield
development. Ensure that infrastructure is funded and
under construction before major investments.
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
34
Conclusion
THE PANEL FOUND THAT its time in St. Tammany Par-
ish exceeded its expectations. The panel learned about the
challenges, both natural and constructed, that the parish
faces. The panel applauds the parish’s leadership and or-
ganizational acumen. The parish has accomplished much
in a very short time. Although the parish is still early in its
evolution as a jurisdiction, it has had to deal with the chal-
lenges that emerged from unforeseen growth and the
consequences of that growth, while also addressing the
unintended consequences of land use decisions made pri-
or to its charter.
St. Tammany Parish faces no small challenges. No simple
answers and single-bullet solutions exist. Complexity
and hard work lay ahead. There will be tough decisions,
changed ways of working, and new costs that must be
borne by all. Those issues will require constant delibera-
tion, new ways of doing business, and the creation of
new tools to change the patterns of development that
seriously threaten the parish’s economic foundation and
its valuable way of life. However, St. Tammany Parish has
something that many other communities do not: the engine
for growth. How the parish chooses to direct, harness, and
shape that growth is a critical tool for what it will look like
in 20 years.
The following are the top recommendations for creating
resiliency in St. Tammany Parish:
Think generationally in planning, funding, and imple-
mentation, which every year will move the parish closer
to a long-term vision of what it wants to be and what it
will need to get there.
To capture new, high-quality jobs and new households,
think and act strategically and with one voice—to tell a
differentiated and compelling story.
Create wonderful new live/work/play “villages-in-
the-woods”—balanced with acres of protected and
connected natural infrastructure that builds long-term
resilience.
Establish more integrated, walkable, and compact
places that ensure the ability to maintain the setting that
is the essence of those places.
Harness and direct growth to increase prosperity and
generate a stronger, more resilient local economy—
while increasing opportunities for dignified housing and
broad educational opportunities for all.
Leverage new growth to fund and improve outdated and
fragmented infrastructure through leadership and the
political will to require those who benefit to pay their fair
share.
The panel believes that St. Tammany Parish has a bright
future—but only if the parish gets it right.
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
35
About the Panel
Jim Heid
Panel Chair
Healdsburg, California
Heid is a developer, strategic real estate adviser, and
sustainable development consultant. He is known for his
ability to effectively distill the complex layers of community
design and real estate development into understandable
concepts that lead to actionable outcomes.
An active member of ULI, Heid has written numerous
articles and publications on the subject of sustainable
community development and resilience, including a recent
white paper titled Resilience Strategies along the Rural–
Urban Transect. He is a founding member of the Responsi-
ble Property Investment Council, coinstructor for programs
in sustainable community development and mixed-use
development, and founder of the Small Scale Developers
Forum under ULI’s Real Estate Entrepreneur Programs.
He has been responsible for developing large-scale com-
munity and regional sustainability programs, including the
Pearl Rating System for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and
currently serves as an expert adviser to BioRegional’s One
Planet Living program.
Since 1994, Heid has participated in ULI Advisory Services
panel assignments spanning all property types and geog-
raphies. His contributions have included the city of Los An-
geles’s CleanTech review, urban regeneration assignments
in Chicago, Illinois, Columbus, Ohio, and last year, in the
Buffalo City metropolitan municipality in South Africa. With
a special focus on large-scale regional land and commu-
nity assignments, he has served in Blaine County, Idaho,
and Amelia Island and Port St. Lucie, Florida. In 2011,
Heid chaired a complex international panel assembled at
the invitation of the mayor of Moscow, Russia, to review
and advise on the proposed regional expansion strategy
for the highly urbanized city. And last year, he chaired one
of ULI’s resiliency panels for a complex regional review of
strategies in three Northern Colorado communities: Estes
Park, Fort Collins, and Loveland.
His firm, UrbanGreen (www.urbangreen.net), advises
legacy landowners, governments, real estate developers,
and capital market providers seeking tangible answers to
the rapidly evolving discussion surrounding sustainable
and resilient land development. Current projects include
providing sustainability and development advisory services
for the Queen Lili’uokalani Trust on a large mixed-use,
mixed-income development in Kona, Hawaii; providing
conservation development expertise to a third-generation
Canadian ranch family embarking on the development of
3,000 acres in the Bow River Valley; and providing vision-
ing and planning support to a publicly traded company
working on three master-planned communities within its
270,000-acre landholding outside Los Angeles, California.
Heid spent five years of his early career working in New
Orleans (1982–1987) as a landscape architect. Before
founding UrbanGreen, he worked as an urban designer/
land planner and real estate strategist with Design Work-
shop (1987–1993) and EDAW (1994–2000), where he
also served as chief operating officer.
Initially trained as a landscape architect at the University
of Idaho, Heid went on to earn a master of science in real
estate development from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology as a way to more effectively integrate the
realms of economics, development, and design.
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
36
Margaret Kaigh Doyle
Skillman, New Jersey
Doyle has over three decades in the maritime and energy
sectors. As part of the corporate development team at Gas
Technology Institute, she is responsible for the develop-
ment and stewardship of all of GTI’s liquefied natural gas
(LNG) training programs, including small-scale applications
of LNG as a transportation fuel.
Before joining GTI, Doyle was the vice president of devel-
opment and LNG solutions at the U.S. Maritime Resource
Center. She is a longstanding member of the U.S. Coast
Guard Chemical Transportation Advisory Committee and
chairs the CTAC subcommittee tasked with developing
recommendations for safety standards for the design of
vessels carrying natural gas as a cargo or a fuel. Doyle
also participates on the U.S. delegation to the International
Maritime Organization on LNG matters.
Before joining the resource center, Doyle was general
manager of the Marine Response Alliance, a consortium
of the world’s foremost emergency towing, lightering,
salvage, and marine firefighting companies. She is best
known for her work at the International Association of
Independent Tanker Owners as well as for serving as
the executive director of the Chemical Carriers Associa-
tion for more than a decade. Throughout her tenure with
the tanker owners’ group and CCA, Doyle represented
85 percent of the worldwide chemical tanker fleet at the
international, federal, and state levels.
A graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings
Point, New York, Doyle holds advanced degrees from
Pennsylvania State University and George Washington
University. She is a three-time recipient of the U.S. Coast
Guard Public Service Commendation. In 2010, she re-
ceived the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s Outstanding
Professional Achievement Award.
Tracy Gabriel
Washington, D.C.
Gabriel is an innovative urbanist, planner, and problem
solver committed to place-based solutions to complex
urban challenges and to building great places and sustain-
able neighborhoods. She has over a decade of experi-
ence managing large-scale projects in New York City and
Washington, D.C. Currently, Gabriel is associate director at
the D.C. Office of Planning where she directs all neighbor-
hood and community-based planning work, including small
area plans, neighborhood and corridor plans, revitalization
plans, and studies and planning initiatives throughout the
District of Columbia. Projects sit at the nexus of community
revitalization, economic development, and physical design
and include plans for the redevelopment of federal assets,
such as Walter Reed Medical Center and St. Elizabeths
Hospital; plans for neighborhoods undergoing transition,
such as Southwest, Mid City East, and Anacostia; strategic
studies, such as the transformation of the District’s indus-
trial land; and neighborhood retail revitalization. She also
spearheads the implementation of neighborhood resiliency
and sustainability policy and has applied the EcoDistrict
model for community development. She has managed a
range of tactical urbanism, public art, and creative place-
making projects.
Before joining the D.C. Office of Planning, Gabriel was vice
president for development at the New York City Economic
Development Corporation where she managed large-scale
and high-profile development projects and neighborhood-
wide initiatives, such as plans for the Queens waterfront,
Willets Point, Long Island City, and the Applied Science/
Cornell campus. Her projects spanned oversight for
planning, design, and land use approval processes and
integrated real estate, infrastructure, and capital planning
in connection with mixed-use redevelopment and open
space.
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
37
Gabriel began her career as a planning and real estate
consultant at Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates focused
on downtown, waterfront revitalization, and neighborhood
planning. She graduated summa cum laude from George
Washington University and received her master’s in city
planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Gabriel was a Fulbright Scholar, completing economic
development research in Damascus, Syria.
Ladd Keith
Tucson, Arizona
Keith is a planning faculty member and leads the sustain-
able built environments degree program at the University of
Arizona’s College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape
Architecture. His research interests are in the integration of
climate change adaptation science and policy for the urban
planning and design of cities. He has taught a number of
courses, including Sustainable Development, Sustainable
Design and Planning, Public Participation and Dispute
Resolution, Regional Planning, and Planning Theory.
An active member of the Urban Land Institute, Keith cur-
rently serves on the ULI Center for Sustainability Advisory
Board as well as on the Sustainable Development Council.
In the past, he was the chair of ULI Southern Arizona as
well as a founding member of the ULI Southern Arizona
Young Leaders Group and ULI NEXT.
Keith currently serves on the city of Tucson’s Planning
Commission, where he was elected chair in 2013 and led
the Plan Tucson: General and Sustainability Plan public
participation process, which was ratified by voters and will
guide city planning policy for the next decade. He has also
served on the subcommittee for the Infill Incentive District
and has worked on the Unified Development Code, the
Sustainable Land Use Code update, and Urban Agriculture
Code updates.
Keith is a native Tucsonan and a graduate of the University
of Arizona with a master of science in planning. Before
earning his master’s degree, he received a bachelor of arts
in media arts with a minor in Japanese.
Alan Razak
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Razak is a principal of AthenianRazak LLC, a Philadelphia-
based company that consults on, creates, and manages
real property. He has four decades of commercial real
estate experience, encompassing development and
project management, finance, architectural design, and
consulting. His diverse real estate background includes
managing the development process, both as owner and
as a consultant as owner’s representative, on projects
that include residential, office, and commercial, as well
as specialized expertise in data centers and other highly
technical facilities.
AthenianRazak was formed in 2011 in a merger of
Athenian Properties and Razak Company, which Razak
founded and led. He was responsible for the develop-
ment of Main Line Jaguar Land Rover, Pembroke North
Condominium, 5035 Ritter Road for the Administrative
Office of Pennsylvania Courts, the Curtis Institute of Mu-
sic’s Lenfest Hall, and other projects. He has also led real
estate consulting and development assignments for such
clients as the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, Walnut
Street Theatre, Swarthmore College, the Rock School of
Dance, Natural Lands Trust, CSX, Conrail, Digital Realty,
Berkadia, Vanguard Group of Mutual Funds, Montgomery
County (Pennsylvania), Drexel University, and the city of
Philadelphia, among others. He currently leads the team
that is developing a new $82 million practice facility and
corporate headquarters for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Before forming Razak Company in 2003, Razak was a
principal with a Philadelphia real estate consulting and
investment advisory firm, consulting on a broad variety of
assignments across the spectrum of real estate issues.
Throughout the 1980s, as a partner at developer Rouse
& Associates, he managed such high-profile projects as
a 400,000-square-foot Washington, D.C., office building
and the development of a 20-acre Penn’s Landing urban
mixed-use project.
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
38
He began his career as an architect, working on the design
of multifamily residential, commercial, and health care
projects in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest, and for
purely sentimental reasons he maintains his status as a
registered architect in Pennsylvania. Razak has served on
the Central Philadelphia Development Corporation’s board
of directors, is chairman of the board of the Philadelphia
Shakespeare Theatre, and is a full member of the Urban
Land Institute, where he developed and currently teaches
several workshops for real estate practitioners internation-
ally. He holds a bachelor’s degree in arts and design from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a master’s
degree in architecture from the University of Washington,
and an MBA with a concentration in real estate from the
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Michael A. Stern
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Stern leads cross-disciplinary design firm Strada’s efforts
in urban design, master planning, site design, and land-
scape design. He has been involved in aspects of planning,
urbanism, and public landscapes throughout his career.
The focus of his work has been to improve the quality
of urban environments through the practical application
of sound design principles rooted in enduring values of
urbanism. That pursuit has led him through a broad range
and scale of projects, from urban garden design to plan-
ning new edge cities.
A native New Yorker, Stern came to Pittsburgh in the
1990s and became involved in major urban design
and planning efforts for the city. He led the Pittsburgh
Downtown Plan, the first comprehensive master plan for
the greater downtown area in 35 years, and the Pittsburgh
Regional Parks Master Plan. Those documents are still
touchstones more than a decade after their completion.
In 2014, Stern moved to Philadelphia to help lead Strada’s
office there. His charge is twofold: to assist with the ongo-
ing integration of both offices and to expand the services
in the Philadelphia area to include urban design and land-
scape architecture—his primary design roles in the firm.
In addition to his project work at Strada, Stern has lectured
widely. He has published and edited numerous articles and
journals on planning, urban design, and landscape design
theory. Stern earned his master of landscape architecture
from Harvard University Graduate School of Design and his
bachelor of arts in anthropology from Grinnell College.
Lindsey Willke
Salt Lake City, Utah
Willke is driven by a passion to enhance the quality of the
public realm through sustainable urbanism and community
design. She believes strongly that considering human fac-
tors at an urban level can and should inform all planning
and design work. Her diverse background in sustainability,
urban design, community engagement, and architecture
gives her a deep understanding of the importance of
people to place, landscape, and contextual design and
how those elements inform one another.
Willke joined HKS Architects in 2012 as an urban and
architectural designer. She has been a key contributor to
the firm through her research focusing on the intersection
of community planning and health. Many of her projects
reflect this approach, concentrating on how health can
be a catalyst for urban growth and renewal or even a
component of resilient planning at a community level.
She has presented on community resiliency planning with
the American Meteorological Society and published a
white paper through the American Institute of Architects’
Academy of Architecture for Health titled “The Health and
Wellness of People and Communities.”
Willke’s current project in Cleveland is a 52-acre health
care campus undergoing a major transformation. She is
working with the hospital administration, city organizations,
and the project team to redesign a campus that positively
affects the adjacent neighborhoods and ultimately the
health of the Cleveland community.
Before joining HKS, Willke worked as an urban designer at
evolveEA in Pittsburgh. There, she helped lead grass-roots
community efforts in ecodistrict design and planning,
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, December 6–11, 2015
39
working closely with community leaders to shape a vision
for resilient Pittsburgh neighborhoods.
Willke received a bachelor of science in architecture from
the Georgia Institute of Technology and a master’s degree
in architecture from Clemson University. After completing
her degrees in architecture, she went on to pursue a mas-
ter’s degree in urban design at the University of Colorado
Denver. In 2011, Willke received a fellowship in urban
design at Carnegie Mellon University where she continued
her studies in sustainable urban design and community
capacity building.
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
A ULI Advisory Services Panel Report
Printed on recycled paper.
2001 L Street, NW
Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036
StTammany2016_cover.indd 1 6/13/16 3:15 PM
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.