Lafourche Parish is located in southeast Louisiana approximately 90 minutes south of Baton Rouge and one hour west of New Orleans. Known for its “longest main street in the world (Bayou Lafourche), the Parish’s culture has been influenced by its Native, Cajun, French and Spanish heritages. The Lafourche Parish landscape features marshes, sandy ridges, bodies of water, and natural levees, home to a wide range of wildlife such as deer, nutria, alligators, fish and shellfish.
APPROACH
Lafourche Parish leadership and planning staff approached CPEX in 2013, seeking a strategy to enhance community safety and increase resiliency, create a livable community, and strengthen the economy. CPEX assisted with the selection of a planning firm and conducted public outreach to engage citizens in the planning process.
PLANNING
The planing process was based on public input to develop a unified community vision and set of guiding principles. The Lafourche Parish Comprehensive Resiliency Plan mines the cultural, historic, demographic, environmental and economic landscapes throughout the parish to identify policy and implementation recommendations along 8 overarching topic areas:
Land Use
Resiliency and Hazard Mitigation
Culture and Recreation
Housing Choices
Transportation Connections
Infrastructure
Economic Development
Coordinating Effectively
OUTCOMES
Approved by the Parish Council on April 8, 2014, the Parish Resiliency Plan has guided Parish leadership through implementing a number of strategies and action steps, including an Employment and Oil Market Analysis, a Multi-Use Path Master Plan and Feasibility Study, and Workforce Housing and Corridor studies.