News Roundup

Recovery in Jeopardy, Some Say: Dearth of Workers Threatens Big Plans

The Times-Picayune
Saturday, July 22, 2006
By Michelle Krupa

Unless the New Orleans City Council authorizes more employees for the City Planning Commission and Safety and Permits Department, delays in the planning review process could force developers to scrap billions of dollars worth of projects, potentially dealing a blow to the city’s recovery, a group of prominent business people told council members this week.

The group, which included developers, real estate brokers and architects, presented a list of 30 projects, including a Poydras Street hotel and condominium tower proposed by New York real estate magnate Donald Trump, that they said have been submitted to the city but not yet scheduled for a public hearing because of backlogs in understaffed city departments.

Because developers cannot keep projects alive indefinitely, especially in light of a 2008 deadline when projects must be put into commerce to qualify for federal tax incentives prompted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, such a delay could mean the death of developments crucial to New Orleans’ revival.

“At this rate, the city cannot be rebuilt,” architect Peter Trapolin said. “Developers are going to back off projects if they can’t get the projects moving.”

The city also needs more planners to revise its comprehensive zoning ordinance to include recent changes to federal base-flood-elevation maps, said Zella May, a longtime member of the Downtown Development District board. More code inspectors also will be needed to make sure residents are complying with new rules, she said.

Problems could be averted and billions of dollars in investment salvaged if the council were to vote to spend several hundred thousand dollars to fill salaried positions left vacant after the city laid off 3,000 workers in the wake of Katrina, business leaders said.

The City Planning Commission, for instance, needs a staff of 40 employees in the post-Katrina world, business leaders said. Yet the department has just nine employees, down from 25 before the Aug. 29 storm.

“A small amount of money in pay is holding up billions of dollars for our city,” developer Angelo Farrell said.

Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, who chairs the council’s Budget, Audit and Board of Review Committee, said she understands that the payoff for hiring more staff could be exponential. But she stressed the dire financial straits that the city still faces nearly a year after the catastrophic hurricane.

“As with everything in the budget, we need to make sure that in trying to boost up one department, we’re not tearing down others,” Hedge-Morrell said.

Brenda Hatfield, chief administrative officer to Mayor Ray Nagin, said the city has placed a priority on public safety, sanitation and street repairs. But she said Nagin has asked her to review staffing levels at the planning commission.

Council President Oliver Thomas asked Hatfield to draw up a budget for the addition of staff to City Hall departments that generate revenue or spur economic development. That list, he said, could help officials persuade state and federal agencies to assist the city in nontraditional ways, such as reimbursing certain salaries.

“If you can prove through these (staffing) deficiencies that we are losing billions of dollars of investment, maybe we can get some policy waivers or some amendments,” he said.

Council Vice President Arnie Fielkow pledged to join other local governments and corporate groups to lobby for a one-year extension, to 2009, of the qualifying deadline for certain tax incentives available through the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act.

Further, Stephen Braquet, president of the New Orleans chapter of the American Institute of Architects, said he has called on his group’s members to volunteer to review plans for the city pro bono, an offer Hatfield said she would not be able to refuse.