With generous support from the JP Morgan Chase Foundation, CPEX produced this guide to document the progress in Old South Baton Rouge and share practical strategies which could be replicated and implemented in other communities.

Louisiana Speaks is a long-term planning initiative of the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) that is supported with private funds provided through the LRA Support Foundation. In the wake of the destruction caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Louisiana Speaks initiative works toward the development of a sustainable, long-term vision for South Louisiana.

In 2005, CPEX hired RKG Associates and a team of consultants to create a Strategic Neighborhood Revitalization and Economic Development Plan that identified strategies and implementation steps to generate reinvestment in the Old South Baton Rouge (OSBR) neighborhood, a historic but disinvested community between downtown Baton Rouge and Louisiana State University.

Communities across coastal Louisiana now have access to strategies and development standards that can reduce risk of flooding and protect valuable land, wetlands and bayous.

The Toolkit is a model development code written for local governments in Louisiana to download and tailor for their local conditions, and to apply the results to guide future growth in a sustainable manner. No community is one size fits all and their development codes shouldn’t be either.

Plan Baton Rouge began in 1998 as an initiative of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation designed to infuse Smart Growth principles into the revitalization of downtown Baton Rouge, making it a livable, sustainable, productive regional center. Phases I and II of the plan can be downloaded from the Downtown Development District website.