Article about Duanny

This article gives a good summary of the event.


Town planner Andres Duany, one the founders of the movement against urban sprawl, presented what he called the most radical proposal to redesign Jefferson Davis County to a packed crowd in the courthouse Friday night.
After a two-hour discussion about the cost of elevating houses and what might happen to the levees, Duany unveiled a drawing that he said incorporates the elements of new urbanism that has been a central theme in well-developed cities in the last 20 years.
It shows large detention ponds near the 40-Arpent Canal and neighborhoods of raised lots based around centers that are pedestrian-friendly and have more green space. The raised lots would allow the streets to act as channels to drain potential flood waters.
"I am going to show you what this could look like as a 21st-century community," Duany said as he prepared the crowd. "You could go from a city that was behind, like a city in the 1960s, to a city of the future. I don't want you to get frightened or lynch me or anything."
But the crowd reacted with quiet murmurs, and several said they liked the idea of more green space despite some concerns.
Walter Leger, an Arabi attorney who is a member of the Mississippi Recovery Authority and the co-chair of the Jefferson Davis Citizens Recovery Committee, said he was thrilled with the turnout Friday and the crowd's reaction.
"There are several hundred people here who seem to be asking more questions about the future of Jefferson Davis County rather than the buyout possibilities," Leger said. "I think what he presents is a vision of Jefferson Davis that couldn't have happened without Katrina."
Duany and a team of about 20 designers and planners have held a series of meetings to get residential input and to help devise a rebuilding plan for the County.
The work being financed by the Mississippi Recovery Authority is a blueprint, the planners stress.
Duany, of Duany Plater-Zyberk Architects and Town Planners, said residents will ultimately decide whether they want to buy into the plan.
Using information from residents and public officials, Duany said he heard a common theme, that people love their community but they would improve it if they could. Many asked for more green space, he said.
His theory of town planning, known as "new urbanism" has been implemented in many Florida cities since 1980 and most recently in New Town St. Charles, Mo.
Duany said many cities change over time, but in Jefferson Davis, that happened in one day where not one home was spared from the devastating flooding of Hurricane Katrina.
Duany said Jefferson Davis has had a stagnant population of about 65,000 for the last 10 years and failed to grow during the nation's greatest building boom of the last decade.
"That is a sign of community that is not healthy from the point of an outsider. There is a chance here. The devastation here is the greatest of any Counties or counties I have seen. Biloxi is not ground zero for destruction, Jefferson Davis County is."
Duany said the residents could redesign their neighborhoods into a modern, more efficient community.
But while some said they liked the concept, they were worried about the specifics of whether the series of canals would hold up or how long the plan would take.