View Carre'

The City of New Orleans agreed to allow development of four miles of riverfront property that the city currently owns.

At the first quarterly board meeting of the New Orleans Building Corp., the agency that acts as landlord for city-owned property, the board unanimously authorized Mayor C. Ray Nagin to sign an agreement to open 4 miles of property from Jackson to Polland avenues to developers.

The agreement calls for the city and Port to share revenues generated by development. All proceeds from nonmaritime uses will be split between the city and the Port, 75 percent and 25 percent, respectively.

In late February, the Port of New Orleans Dock Board adopted a resolution to encourage nonmaritime riverfront development.

The move encourages developers who frequently say New Orleans' riverfront is one of its greatest yet most underused assets.

This is a great move and long overdue.

For anyone familiar with the city, the Mississippi River can only be easily viewed from a few locations:

• Woldenberg Park
• Riverwalk Mall (still closed due to extensive looting and damage)
• Audubon Zoo
• Algiers Point (which affords the best view of the CBD and Vieux Carre')

But for this development to be successful for both the developers and the city, two things need to be assured.

1. Public access to the riverfront
2. Height restrictions imposed to prevent "walling-off" the rest of the city from the river.

The second concern has already been addressed.

"We want to make sure they're no turf wars," Cummings said, adding that building hieght concerns will be addressed by CPC.

Chapman said height of buildings will be a major concern for areas such as Bywater.

Now if only Jefferson Parish will follow their lead.