Planners look to make progress on community improvement plans

It could take 10 to 15 years to fully implement community improvement plans to revitalize five north Baton Rouge neighborhoods, so developers are looking to take the first small steps on some projects. Susannah Bing of the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority, which crafted the plans for Scotlandville, Northdale, the Choctaw Drive corridor, Zion City and Melrose East, says the agency is working on projects such as bringing in a farmers’ market to pave the way for eventually attracting a grocery store. Planners are also looking at transforming rights of ways and green spaces along canals into bike paths and walkways so as to better link the areas in north Baton Rouge to downtown and other parts of the city. Bing made her comments last week during a session at the annual Smart Growth conference, which looked at the work that went into developing the community improvement plans. The plans came out of a year-long process that involved extensive meetings with residents in the neighborhoods, to learn what in their view are the needs of the community. These plans tie into the larger FuturEBR land-use plan, now under consideration as the land-use blueprint for the entire parish. Read this and more news in Real Estate Weekly here. —Timothy Boone