Mid-City Mitigation Grant Program unveiled last night

Last evening, with two security guards outside the doors of the First Pentecostal Church's meeting hall on Canal Street (brought in by VA contractor Clark/McCarthy), the VA held its monthly neighborhood meeting with residents affected by the project.

Representatives of the State Historic Preservation Office were on hand, based on a request at the last meeting, and they shared the outlines of a rehabilitation grant program for historic buildings in the Mid-City National Register Historic District here in New Orleans (here's a map that gives some rough idea of the district, LSU/VA site is shown in red).  The program is being implemented in compliance with the Progammatic Agreement that governs the LSU/VA site preparation.

While the official unveiling of the grant program will take place at the August 8, 2011 meeting of the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization, here are the basic, tentative details of the grant program as laid out last evening:

- The total pot of funding equals $1.4 million, made up of contributions from the VA, City of New Orleans, and State of Louisiana
- The total amount of funding that will comprise grant awards is approximately $1 million; some of the funding is for administrative overhead, some has gone to help with funding rehab of moved VA houses in the Mid-City district
- The cap on individual grants to property owners will be $20,000 - the amount awarded can be any amount equal to or lower than that
- The grants will be available to any property owners with contributing historic properties in the Mid-City National Register District, but the district will be tiered into three areas: the area below Broad nearest to the hospitals site, the area between Broad and Carrollton, and the area above Carrollton farthest from the hospitals site.
- A panel of reviewers, seemingly SHPO staff, will review applications and give preference based on a variety of factors including which tier the applicant's property is located in (preference to those closest to and most affected by the LSU/VA hospital project).  It is not clear whether the panel's deliberations will be open to the public or open for public comment.
- Owners will need to provide a scope of work with an application
- Applications will be due on October 14, 2011
- Awards will start to trickle out in about December 2011
- Owners of historic properties that are not contributing due to a building's disrepair will likely be able to apply for funding for repairs that would result in the building become contributing once again
- It sounds like the "first zone" below Broad Street will receive flyers about the grant via a door-to-door walk around, which is good to hear
- The grant will not be a matching grant; owners are welcome to match the grant amount, but they are in no way required to put up funding to get funding
- SHPO staff will hold a grant workshop for residents on August 23 and may host another at some point in September

Here are the provisions in the PA regarding the mitigation fund and grant program (which outline the amount contributed by the various parties):

Tree Treatment

Hurricane Katrina devastated the extensive, mature tree canopy of New Orleans.  An estimated 100,000 trees were lost in the city as a result of Katrina and Rita together, damaging or eliminating at least 70% of the city's tree canopy.

Thus, it was somewhat depressing to watch crews chop down numerous large, mature live oaks and other trees in the VA Footprint.

And now, workers continue to chop down trees in the LSU Footprint...even in areas that won't necessarily be built upon in the first phase of construction (and it's unclear whether a second phase will ever even come into being - the first phase is uncertain enough).  The photo above shows a swath of downed trees that fell to the machinery yesterday.

Conversely, the photo at the top of the post shows extra measures being taken with the remaining live oaks in the VA Footprint.  The tree guards were installed in recent weeks to prevent damage to the trees as construction gets underway. I must say that Clark/McCarthy, the partnership that oversees actual construction in the VA Footprint, now that the VA itself controls the site, has shown itself to be more conscientious in its efforts to head off and mollify concerns than just about any other contractor that I've encountered inside the footprint.  It's not only the partnership's comments at VA neighborhood meetings, but also in some of its tangible efforts at follow through.

That's my impression from limited experience, but it's worth noting.  It's proof that, while the terrible site selection likely won't be reversed, being smart about some of the details of how to proceed with a highly charged, controversial project can impact the level of inflamed public opposition.