City of New Orleans Master Plan and Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance

Since Katrina, New Orleanians have been planning and working hard to recover and rebuild after the devastation of the hurricane and flooding. Now is the time to look beyond the rebuilding process and chart a course for the longer term, so that New Orleans becomes even better than it was before as a place to live, work, play, and visit. Cities traditionally do this through a citywide master plan that articulates a vision, sets goals and priorities, and identifies the path to success – the strategies, initiatives and actions that will guide decisions in future decades – and integrates the master plan with appropriate zoning, capital improvements, city programs, and public-private partnerships.

New Orleans is now focusing on the long-term future and creating a zoning code to help achieve that future. How and where should New Orleans grow in the next twenty years? How can the city bring its unique culture, diversity and historic urban fabric into the 21st century, while creating new opportunities for all New Orleanians? The New Orleans City Planning Commission is preparing a citywide Master Plan to guide the long-term physical development of the city, along with a new, user-friendly Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO). A consultant team led by Goody Clancy and made up of national and New Orleans-based experts will assist the City Planning Commission and the community in creating the Master Plan and new CZO.