Preservation Resource Center Of New Orleans: Where The Candidates Stand On Historic Preservation, Blight Remediation And Affordable Housing

Press release from the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans:

Nathan Lott

October 21, 2021

Overview

Upcoming municipal elections in New Orleans will be held Nov. 13, with the City Council positions all on the ballot. To assess the candidates’ stand on important issues that impact New Orleans neighborhoods, the Preservation Resource Center reached out to all of the candidates with questions related to land use, blight remediation, historic preservation and over-tourism.

With incumbent Mayor Latoya Cantrell widely expected to win victory ahead of upstart challengers who lack her political background, endorsements and campaign funding, the PRC opted to focus its research and reporting on the City Council races. Because the council oversees land use issues, such as zoning, conditional-use requests and appeals of local historic district commissions, the stakes are high for New Orleans neighborhoods.

Four of seven seats have an incumbent running for reelection: District A, District B, District E and At-Large Division 1. For the open At-Large Division 2 seat, two current council members are running, as is a former state senator, while the District C and District D fields are crowded with newcomers.

District council members have traditionally played an outsized role on land use matters, particularly those affecting the neighborhoods they represent. For that reason, PRC created a candidate questionnaire for all 34 people running across the five districts.

Below the full, verbatim answers to select questions from the 18 district candidates who responded as of press time. Because at-large representatives are elected by voters citywide, we offered those candidates the opportunity to sit down for a recorded conversation. The entirety of the recorded interviews will soon be available to view at PRCNO.org, so voters can hear from the at-large candidates directly about the challenges and opportunities facing our historic city.

All of the district candidates were asked the same five questions below. Though only select questions are printed here because of limited space, the candidates’ answers to all of our questions can be found here.

As a Councilmember who has worked on historical preservation, I want to ensure the rules work as intended and to close preservation loopholes. Councilmembers Banks, Palmer, the HDLC, and I worked on revising the HDLC “demolition” definition. Applicants were skirting the past definition. We changed the demolition definition by prohibiting the raising of a building for habitual space (this also helped as another tool to manage the Doubles to Dorms phenomenon), banning obscuration or removal of more than 50% of any exterior wall and obscuration or removal of more than 50% of roof removal.

My role would be to organize the transfer of ownership from the City to dedicated historical preservation organizations to own and manage these wonderful, old historic buildings in OUR City. OUR City Administration over the past 6 decades has destroyed and neglected every building WE have offered to THEM. Just look at City Hall today. It’s a shambles and a disgrace. The Pontalba Apartments that the City inherited a century ago, stands wounded and neglected. The fabulous and irreplaceable ironwork is pitted, decaying and rusting. The galleries have punctured holes of open exposed support beams. There is plain, hostile, open destruction going on all over the French Quarter today. This is the direct fault of THIS ADMINISTRATION. They all need to be voted OUT. The City Administration cannot BE TRUSTED and should NOT be managing any of OUR city properties. They have neglected and destroyed many of OUR historic buildings based on political pull and disregard for US and OUR City.

Our culture and history are part of the fabric of this city. I believe it should be appreciated and preserved but not commodified. Zoning is a vital part to historical preservation, and I believe the NPP should be expanded so neighbors get a larger say in zoning. Preserving a living history like our culture requires us to support workers and culture bearers. We need to make it easier for artists to perform outdoors safely, which is why I favor the CPC’s recommendation re: permits for live music outdoors. Artists continue to struggle to afford to live in New Orleans, so I would work to recoup money from the Convention Center and New Orleans & Co. to create a fund for culture bearers, musicians, and hospitality workers.

Our historic infrastructure is irreplaceable. When a home is demolished, whether under HDLC or demolition review, we cannot get it back. I will continue to scrutinize appeals, as the HDLC imparts expertise and consistently adheres to their own design guidelines. My office works to find compromises that provide flexibility when mitigating factors arise, but we coordinate with HDLC to make sure no inappropriate precedents are set.

As Councilmember, my primary concern in an HDLC appeal would be the proposed project’s compliance with the CZO and HDLC regulations, community input, impact on the community, and business actualities. The city and stakeholders spent several years drafting the city’s master plan and CZO and we need to follow the law and processes that have been put in place. The current decision-making process in District B seems to be arbitrary and not informed by the realities of the neighborhood. As Councilmember, I will be consistent, transparent, and objective in my decisionmaking on HDLC appeals.

I believe that there are experts on the HDLC who bring needed experiences with these issues. While I would be inclined to weigh their decisions heavily into my own, I would take the initiative to investigate appeals and collect information that may not be part of the factors considered by HDLC before voting to uphold their decision. I believe it is my duty to personally reach out to applicants, talk with others in the neighborhood and consider all appeals carefully. Matters before HDLC require an affirmative vote of 8 members, and it’s important that the bar is high. While regulations prohibit ex parte communications between members of HDLC and applicants, not every applicant has the same ability to present a qualified application to the board. The complex regulations that are required for approval, even if met, can sometimes not be fully communicated in an application. When it comes to enforcing violations of regulations, and the Council’s role, I will take the job very seriously. If we lose what is special about New Orleans, we can never get it back.

No response: Rosalind “Roz” Reed-Thibodeaux – I

Illegal dumping and blighted properties are all too common in District C and it makes our world class city look like a third world country. I want to stop illegal dumping by creating designated sites and lining them with large dumpsters for people to dump their belongings. I also want to solve the issue of blighted properties in our community by placing an emphasis on involving and partnering with community groups to tackle the problem together.

To move more blighted and vacant houses and lots into the hands of people who would bring them back to life, I would start with the following:

I would definitely like to move more blighted properties into the right hands to bring them back to life. New Orleans owns many blighted buildings that could easily be turned into affordable housing. Starting with the old charity hospital.

There are a number of ways: performance improvements with (proactive) code enforcement inspections and adjudication, empowering community members with the knowledge about how to acquire blight near them and how to restore it, lowering barriers to acquisition for citizens, investing in public acquisition and restoration, and building an economy that retains young populations ready to build lives in New Orleans starting with buying and renovating a blighted New Orleans home.

By expanding access to the Community Land Trust program, we can help more citizens purchase and fix blighted property. The current program constraints do not help middle income people, those likely to be interested in fixing blighted properties, because the income requirements are too strict.

We can develop public-private partnerships for affordable housing, as well as leveraging disaster recovery funds. We can also research the advantage of introducing land banks to see if it will be an asset tool to acquire, maintain and facilitate problem properties back into the productive use.

No response: Stephanie Bridges – D

My role will protect our rich and beautiful culture on every level and in every form of architecture to our cultural barriers. By listening to those who are the stewards, experts, and people that create and work within the historical institute.

Cultural and Historic preservation is what keeps New Orleans, New Orleans. My focus would be to lean on experts, put people first and to promote and create equitable polices to centers the residents and businesses in our city.

New Orleans is one of the oldest cities in North America. Therefore her culture and many of her structures, and neighborhoods are of historic importance and must be preserved when at all possible. As a member of the New Orleans City Council, I support and will advocate the preservation of New Orleans architecture and culture. One of the best ways to achieve this is by addressing blight in our historic neighborhoods through the use of code enforcement and tax credits for redevelopment.

I would focus on ensuring that the historic parts of District D retain their architectural significance and integrity while also ensuring that the culture bearers who give these life and vitality are able to retain their quality of life. As such, I will specifically focus on addressing overtourism, particularly in the Treme, the 7th Ward and other culturally and architecturally significant areas.

No response: Chelsea Ardoin – R; Morgan Clevenger – D; Anthony Doby – no party; Kevin Griffin-Clark – D; Mark “Johari” Lawes – D; Robert “Bob” Murray – D; Keith “KP” Parker – D; Timolynn “Tim” Sams – D; Dulaine Troy Vining – D; Kourtney Youngblood – D

City Hall needs to be where the people are at. City Hall should serve as an army [to] revitalize communities. City Hall should come to New Orleans East. With the existence of City Hall in the East, it will attract developments to the East as well as it will increase sale taxes and property taxes for the city of New Orleans.

No response: John Bagneris – D, Minchon Copelin, Vanessa “Gueringer” Johnson – D, Aaron Miller – D, Oliver M Thomas – D.

This press release was produced by the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans. The views expressed here are the author’s own.