Posted on 09/23/2006 4:27:12 AM PDT by mcg2000
PASCAGOULA - Unlike many other Coast cities, Pascagoula is moving ahead with plans developed through the renewal and recovery sessions sponsored by the governor's office and community leaders.
The city is partnering with developers to build new homes that draw on the vision New Urbanists have for rebuilding the Coast. In addition, the city is putting an emphasis on its long-term plans for recreation, and is entering into a lease-purchase agreement to buy government-subsidized property for a new community center and retail shops.
Pascagoula was among the first South Mississippi cities to adopt FEMA's new elevation requirements, and its residents and council have long since collaborated and agreed on a comprehensive plan to rebuild the city after Katrina.
The city is on the verge of adopting SmartCode and has issued nearly 7,000 building permits since the storm left 95 percent of the city underwater. Residential construction is evident near the beach and in other key parts of the city.
Cleanup appears virtually complete, with only a small amount of debris still to be removed.
And plans for a more urbanized community complete with mixed-use development along the waterfronts are starting to take shape.
All of the plans, City Manager Kay Kell said, are key to bringing more residents to the city long known for its industry.
"We want to give people a reason to want to live here," Kell said in a meeting with the Sun Herald this week. "I think that is going to be the key to Pascagoula's future."
Beating the odds
Pascagoula's accomplishments so far have been achieved despite the fact that up to 450 homes were lost, 2,000 others were severely damaged and 600-plus more were demolished.
The estimated damage to the city was $22 million.
Kell said pre-storm planning has helped the city rebound quickly. Pascagoula was the only South Mississippi city to have a disaster contract in place when Katrina hit last year.
City leaders credit their success with staying focused on the job at hand and having more than 320 employees who have stayed on the job despite their own losses.
Kell said the city has not lost a single employee since the storm.
City officials also credit their pre-storm plans to revamp the riverfront with mixed-use development as one of the reasons they are making great progress.
Before the storm struck, city leaders had already started visiting other coastal cities, such as Gulf Shores and Pensacola, to get ideas on how to revamp their waterfront to have more mixed-use development.
What's in store
As many other South Mississippi cities continue the debate over adopting FEMA's new elevation requirements or new budget proposals, Pascagoula is busy taking action.
The city is working toward a more urbanized community, complete with tourist attractions. Playgrounds are getting much-needed face-lifts, and the city even has plans to build a "Splashpad," a high-tech area that uses streams of water to amuse children.
The city has made a commitment to residents to spend $762,500 for 76 acres north of the soccer complex on Old Mobile Highway to make way for a central sportsplex that will have softball fields, a skate park, walking tracks and a golf course.
Other plans are in store for Carver Village, a low-income housing complex the city will buy through a lease-purchase agreement. The city plans to build a new community center there and lease some of the remaining property for new business.
In five years, Mayor Matthew Avara predicts, the city will have a new look, with mixed-use areas along the waterfronts that will have small businesses, retail shops and restaurants.
But the key to the city's future success, Kell said, is waterfront development, especially along the east side of the Pascagoula River, where the city plans to have boating, shops, restaurants and housing.
Other plans call for moving the wastewater-treatment plant, relocating utilities underground and rezoning riverfront property now zoned commercial.
Did Trent reach a settlement with his insurance company yet?
Meanwhile, in New Orleans, the Superdome is set to reopen this weekend after a $185 million Lysol scrubbing.
Mississippi can thank their lucky stars that Haley barber was in charge when disaster struck.
barber=Barber
Ya don't suppose that Pascagoula being home to the US Navy Seabee's had anything to do with it.
For the uninformed, the seabees are the navy's builders and carpenters.
Barber = Barbour
;-)
Mississippians got no time for playing Blame games.New Orleansians got no concept of anything else.
The city is on the verge of adopting SmartCode...
The SmartCode: A Weapon to Fight the Sprawl War
According to its lead author, Andrés Duany, the SmartCode is based on the traditional neighborhood model as it varies along the urban-to-rural Transect, "a natural law that can be observed anywhere," he said.
In keeping with the new urbanist principle that the neighborhood is the basic unit of urban form, the SmartCode provides design criteria for streets, blocks, open spaces and buildings based on their geographic location from rural preserve to urban core. Municipalities can now adopt the SmartCode as a replacement for the aging zoning ordinances often criticized by new urbanists for perpetuating sprawl.
CNU: Congress for the New Urbanism is an organization which promotes the restoration of cities and the creation of human-oriented livable communities.
New Urbanists aim to reform all aspects of real estate development. New Urbanists support regional planning for open space, appropriate architecture...
errr... The Seabee base is in Gulfport, about 35 miles West of Pascagoula. They only spent a brief time in Pascagoula, running the heavy equipment for debris removal from 11 of the schools that were heavily damaged.
The concentrated their efforts, well to the west of Pascagoula, where the devastation was catastrophic.
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