Jefferson Parrish plan completed but not released

by Sammi Sontag
INWEEKLY…

Last week, Scott Lagueux, director of waterfront planning for Moffatt & Nichol, said at the Port of Pensacola visioning public forums that he believe one of the reasons Mayor Ashton Hayward hired his consulting firm was because of its work on the Bucktown Harbor Marina in Jefferson Parish, La., outside of New Orleans.

Bucktown Harbor Marina previously catered to commercial fishermen and recreational boaters with no available public space, according an article written by to Jenny Peterson, a staff writer for “Bizz New Orleans.”

So Councilwoman Jennifer Van Vrancken headed a community outreach project and asked Moffatt & Nichol to advise the District on transforming the marina into a space the community wanted.

“They (Moffatt & Nichol) dealt with a lot of waterfronts and had a lot of experience,” Van Vrancken told Inweekly in telephone interview last week. “They also did a lot of work with local engineering companies and folks in the community spoke highly about them, which is how we found out about Moffatt & Nichol.”

The firm created surveys that asked people what they were looking for in the Marina, she said. The District had over a thousand constituents respond and share their views about revamping the area.

“The entire process was quite open,” Van Vrancken said. “And I think the process we went through was quantifying and successful. I had such a positive experience working with Moffatt & Nichol.”

The official Bucktown Harbor Marian plan is currently complete, yet Councilwoman Van Vrancken has not released the plans to the public.

“There’s no exact date to release the final copy,” she said. “But it’s in very short order. We’re excited to bring these visions to life.”

She stressed that her district already has a project underway, “a learning boardwalk,” as she called it. But she is looking for grant money to continue with future projects.

“With the Jefferson Parish community outreach and master plan, there was a specific path the community wanted us to follow,” Lagueux said. “Each survey asked for the same thing more or less. We had about 44 or 48 projects we could propose to the community, but we picked the immediate seven projects that we think should be completed first.”

Lagueux explained that each district in Jefferson Parish has full reign over his or her district, meaning each council member has the ability to create or kill projects in his or her area. Each have a level of autonomy, and Councilwoman Van Vrancken took the lead to provide this survey for her constituents and to push forward with the marina’s future, he said.

“Again, I don’t have control over when I present my final report to the city council, or if I even present it,” Lagueux said. “And the Bucktown plan’s have been done for about a month and a half, but they’re trying to coordinate with everybody so that’s why it hasn’t been released.”