Next Up: Developers to Look at Ideas

By DAVID TORTORANO

dtortorano@sunherald.com

BILOXI - Enter the developers.

A day after plans were introduced for a new South Mississippi, developers from across the region converge on the Isle of Capri Casino Hotel to take a look at the designs.

How many will show up and how many will be interested is anybody's guess. More than 2,000 developers from across the region were invited.

The meeting follows by one day Monday's heavily attended closing session of the six-day Mississippi Renewal Forum, where leaders from 11 communities battered by Hurricane Katrina looked at detailed plans for their cities.

The designs spotlighted Monday reflect new urbanism, which calls for walkable communities with mixed uses, including affordable housing. The architects worked closely with local designers to ensure the styles hark back to the Mississippi styles of the past.

Former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale, who heads the Governor's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal, said the new urbanists are a "wonderful group of people."

Barksdale, a Mississippi philanthropist who along with the Knight Foundation is funding the governor's commission overseeing the rebuilding, said the designers worked day and night like "architects on steroids."

Andres Duany, founding principal of Duany Plater-Zyberk of Miami, led the huge effort to come up with new designs for 11 cities that would incorporate the essence of each community. They did it in part by talking at length with local residents and poring over old pictures.

"All I did was be confident that it could be done," Duany said about the undertaking, which involved 200 designers, architects, code specialists, engineers and others. He said they put together "first-rate designs for regular folks."

Duany, considered the father of new urbanism, said many of the participants in the design teams were from the Coast and some of them lost everything, yet they still continued to work. That's an indication of the "spirit of Mississippi," he said.

Duany urged those in the room to raise their expectations. Every chain outlet has better and worse models, he said, and South Mississippi should not settle for less.

"Here what you're getting is the low-end Wal-Mart. And the reason is that they think you will expect it," said Duany.

"If you have the mentality that your city is a beggar, that you're grateful for the jobs and the tax base, they will give you the low-end model," he said.

"But if you say, we're too good for that, if you demand that you get the high-end model, then you will get that."

The plans that are being shown to local people are simply possibilities for the rebuilding. Coast cities may or may not adopt the plans, even though the designs fit together as a coherent package.

Gov. Haley Barbour, who gave only brief opening comments because he wanted to see the result of the planners' work, said local people will be making the decision. But Duany and his team helped "illuminate the choices."

The designers who came are all advocates of smart growth and new urbanism, which seeks to build walkable communities that minimize the use of autos as an alternative to urban sprawl.

They use a charrette - an intense brainstorming session - to develop plans based on feedback from the community. But the event in Biloxi was the largest ever undertaken and attracted the interest of the national media.

What appeared to be near-nonstop work was done primarily in the ballroom at the hotel. Eleven teams for each of the cities along with specialized teams for broader issues, such as transportation, sat around tables to discuss issues and to put the ideas on paper.

Despite the upbeat presentation, the major issue that continues to overshadow the work is the concern over new standards that may be required from FEMA. The agency last week issued an advisory warning that flood insurance rate maps will likely push the high hazard zone farther inland, and that buildings in those zones will have to be elevated many more feet.

The forum, which is just one part of the governor's commission's broad effort to rebuild South Mississippi, ended Monday. Team leaders will be working for the next two weeks at home to prepare a final report.

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What's next TODAY Developers gather at Isle of Capri Casino Hotel to meet with officials about the rebuilding of South Mississippi. Harrison County town hall meeting, 1-3 p.m., Orange Grove Community Center, U.S. 49, Gulfport. THURSDAY Jackson County town hall meeting, 8:30-10:30 a.m., Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Gautier; Pearl River County town hall meeting, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Magnolia Columns, 217 S. Curran Ave., Picayune. OCT. 27 Hancock County town hall meeting, 3:30-5 p.m., Main Street Methodist Church, corner of Main and 2nd Street, Bay St. Louis.