Hardy Swyers, one of the founding members of the Baton Rouge Growth Coalition, has taken over as executive director of the organization. Swyers, who served for two terms as president of the coalition, says it was a “natural progression” for him to take a new role with the organization. “My activities as a developer have slowed down, and this is a way for me to keep my hand in it,” he says.
Swyers has had a number of different roles in the Baton Rouge real estate industry, serving as co-owner and president of C.J. Brown Realtors, then developing 13 subdivisions across the city. He still has a limited role as a developer, overseeing the ongoing conversion of Jefferson Place from an apartment complex to a condominium development and doing another filing of the Woodridge subdivision. But Swyers says that shouldn’t be a conflict with his role as head of the coalition. “These projects are in a sell-out basis,” he says. “I’m just kind of a coordinator.”
Swyers says he wants the coalition to continue serving as a trade organization for the real estate industry. “I think we’ve raised the bar for development in Baton Rouge,” he says. “There’s a lot more responsible growth, rather than urban sprawl.” To help keep smart growth projects continuing in the parish, Swyers wants to bring in the Urban Land Institute to hold joint workshops on development once or twice a year. The ULI is a prominent smart growth organization. Swyers says he also wants to make sure the coalition has input on the updates to the city-parish Horizon Plan, a project that will take up much of the year. “This is nothing earth-shaking,” he says. “It’s a matter of revising different ordinances to fit today’s market.” One project that the Growth Coalition won’t be involved in is the development of a land-use plan in Ascension Parish. “We’ve looked at expanding to be more of a regional group, but we end up pulling back,” Swyers says. “There’s enough work for us in East Baton Rouge Parish.”—Timothy Boone
