Poll: Support for coastal protection, growth limits

Louisiana residents who responded to a post-hurricane planning poll overwhelmingly supported the state’s coastal protection efforts and backed development plans for communities that would limit sprawl and improve transit options.

The Louisiana Recovery Authority, which launched the public poll, hopes the responses will guide growth and recovery projects and spending after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The results were released Tuesday.

A team of national planners and consultants hired by the LRA are using the results to design a regional plan for southern Louisiana to be released in May.

Recovery authority officials want the Legislature to create a statewide planning office under the governor’s Division of Administration to coordinate state construction projects, transportation projects and other development spending with that regional plan.

Currently, those projects aren’t coordinated, and their spending is overseen by different state agencies.

The LRA polling campaign, called “Louisiana Speaks,” asked people to weigh in on their ideas about land use, economic development, transportation and coastal restoration after the hurricanes. More than 23,000 people submitted responses online, by mail or over the phone.

Among the responses of those polled:

• The top three priorities for economic development included attracting and retaining companies, expanding job skills training and strengthening colleges. Business attraction and retention was the top economic development priority, with 59 percent listing it as important.

• Eighty percent said funding and following a statewide coastal restoration and protection plan was very important, with 71 percent saying the concept of community preservation should be a core value for that coastal plan.

• Forty-nine percent said property rights should be balanced with community risk in growth and recovery, with another 39 percent saying the emphasis should be on reducing community risk.

• Fifty-one percent said community development patterns should be modified to limit sprawl and another 30 percent said the growth patterns should be focused on existing cities and towns.

“It’s much more about moving the state forward and changing things,” said Robin Rather, head of the consulting firm that worked on the poll and analyzed the data.

LRA officials said they hope to use the results to show a consensus for recovery efforts as they approach Washington officials and ask for additional hurricane relief funding for coastal protection and mass transit.

The regional plan to be released in May will include guiding principles for recovery and development, but also specific recommendations for regional infrastructure projects and changes to state policies and spending practices.

The LRA also will have a package of proposed state legislation based on the plan, said recovery authority board member Sean Reilly.

But the LRA will have to sell plans for items such as land use patterns, road recommendations and transit suggestions to local officials, business leaders, civic groups and other elected officials. The consensus of those who responded to the poll will show support for the recommendations, said LRA Executive Director Andy Kopplin.

“The coordination has to take place on a mammoth scale,” Kopplin said.

Louisiana Speaks received poll responses from Jan. 22 through Feb. 10 from its online site, inserts distributed through newspapers and public libraries and calls to a toll-free number.

Of the poll respondents, 53 percent filled out the survey online while 42 percent filled out a paper survey. Eighty-four percent were from southern Louisiana. At least one ballot was returned from every parish. Displaced residents in 32 states returned 1,300 ballots. The results spread across age groups. Sixty-six percent of respondents were white and 21 percent were black, according to the data released Tuesday.

Louisiana Speaks was funded with $4.4 million through private donations.