FUTUREBR Comprehensive Plan & Direct Implementation

East Baton Rouge Parish | 2009-2016

Fregonese Associates led the team for FUTUREBR, the East Baton Rouge Comprehensive Plan update. Comprehensive planning was needed to create an environment for positive change and future sustainability. Three citywide workshops, four small area workshops and a transportation-specific workshop captured citizens’ visions for the future of their parish.

Since adoption in 2011, FA has been intimately involved in implementing many of the first-step recommendations from the Comprehensive Plan. In 2014 and 2015, FA assisted the city in winning two TIGER Grant Awards to complete the planning and initial engineering for a downtown streetcar line. Only 4% of applicants received the TIGER grant. The corridor was identified as an opportunity area in the comprehensive plan and planning provided robust recommendations towards new development, pedestrian-friendly amenities, and new, multi-modal transportation options.

In 2015-2016, FA lead the small area planning process for Downtown and the Nicholson corridor. The plan addressed affordable housing and neighborhood change with the addition of high-capacity transit, and was adopted into the first 5-year FUTUREBR comprehensive plan update. FA identified policies and actions needed for financing the streetcar starter line, including federal grants, and local TIF development districts. FA worked with community leaders to bolster inclusive engagement in Old South Baton Rouge, a historically black neighborhood with high rates of renters and low-income households, located in the corridor.

In addition, FA has authored Development Code amendments that introduce design standards that will simplify the development process and standardize requirements in target areas of the city.