Donaldsonville Mayor Leroy Sullivan says he is preparing to reconvene the city’s strategic planning committee to measure progress on priorities outlined in the city’s recently completed master plan.
Sullivan says the plan is to bring the committee back together in the coming months to evaluate where Donaldsonville stands and identify goals for the next several years. The master plan, developed by Donaldsonville urban planner Chris Werner after gathering input from the 15-member strategic planning committee and a community quality-of-life survey, is intended to serve as roughly a 10-year roadmap for the city.
“We have that master plan, but let’s see how we can grade ourselves on where we are now and where we want to be in the next 12 months, in the next 24, 36 months, and how do we get there,” Sullivan says.
He said the city has already begun tackling some of the plan’s recommendations, including cleaning up blighted properties and abandoned vehicles, while acknowledging that larger infrastructure projects will require additional funding.
The master plan was created after residents ranked 10 quality-of-life issues based on both importance and satisfaction after 700 surveys were mailed to residents. Beautification emerged as residents’ highest priority, followed closely by blight remediation. New business development, public transportation and the local job market rounded out the top five concerns. The survey also found the largest gap between what residents consider important and how satisfied they are with current conditions was in beautification, followed by blight.
The plan notes that Donaldsonville’s 2025 population was estimated at 6,350, down from the 6,695 reported in the 2020 Census.
Many of the plan’s recommendations focus on preparing Donaldsonville for billions of dollars in planned nearby industrial investment while preserving the city’s historic character. Proposed initiatives include expanding beautification efforts, strengthening code enforcement to combat blight, encouraging redevelopment of vacant buildings, promoting new business recruitment, preserving historic structures and improving housing availability for workers expected to move into the area.
The plan also recommends keeping the strategic planning committee active to pursue opportunities that expand the city’s tax base and improve quality of life. It identifies transportation improvements, natural gas capacity, water infrastructure and electrical service as critical investments needed to support anticipated industrial growth.
Sullivan says continued progress on infrastructure and citywide cleanup will help position Donaldsonville for additional residential and commercial investment.
“As we continue to improve the infrastructure, as we continue to make the city cleaner, improve on that, and let people know that we’re open for business, then everything in the master plan will fall into place,” he says.
