Redevelopment authority poised to help implement next master plan

FuturEBR, the still-evolving update to East Baton Rouge Parish’s Horizon Plan, likely will be reviewed and acted upon by the Planning Commission and Metro Council this summer. Coincidentally, the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority, which will help implement the plan, has been coming into its own while the master plan has been developed. “The timing of it all, particularly with our five community-improvement plans, has just dovetailed,” says authority CEO Walter Monsour. “I think had we planned it, we couldn’t have planned it any better.” The authority held its first board meeting in 2008, hired Monsour as its first employee in 2009, and selected its first target areas for redevelopment last year. It seeks to revitalize neighborhoods by converting abandoned and blighted properties to productive uses. FuturEBR hopes to encourage more people to live in the city, in part to alleviate traffic congestion, and making the city’s neighborhoods more attractive will be a necessary part of that process. John Fregonese, lead planner for FuturEBR, says his team is incorporating plans the authority did for Scotlandville and Zion City, to name two specific areas. “I’m excited that there’s a greater force than me that’s pulling all this together,” Monsour says. —David Jacobs