BILOXI, Miss. — A detailed rebuilding plan calls for revitalization of East Biloxi’s historic neighborhoods to provide a critical need: mixed-income housing for long-time residents and for the tourist industry workforce powering the city’s post-Hurricane Katrina recovery.

The action plan offers the city, its businesses and citizens a planning framework for balanced and specific land-use guidelines and recommends their swift adoption.

The report, commissioned by Mayor A.J. Holloway and prepared by Living Cities Inc. and Goody Clancy, was presented to the Biloxi City Council today.  Titled Moving Forward: Recommendations for Rebuilding East Biloxi, the report has four main recommendations:

1. Respond to the significant opportunity presented by the nature and scale of the impending economic development, fueled by the gaming and entertainment industries.
2. Shepherd growth by putting a land-use road map in place.
3. Strengthen the city’s tools for managing development.
4. Make affordable housing a cornerstone of the coming economic recovery.

Holloway said, “We’re working toward a realistic plan to rebuild Biloxi, including the hard-hit eastern end of our city.”

“Our goal is to have a plan that includes a realistic timetable and realistic price tag, and a plan that takes into account the views of the diverse population we have here in Biloxi,” said Holloway.

Biloxi is the second-largest of the 11 South Mississippi communities slammed in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

Participating in the presentation were Living Cities CEO Reese Fayde and Gulf Coast consultant Gordon Brigham.  Living Cities is an investor collaborative of 16 major financial institutions, foundations, and a government agency that has invested almost $375 million in 23 urban neighborhoods throughout the county since 1991.  Goody Clancy is an award-winning architecture, planning and preservation firm from Boston.

Funding for the report came from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (a founding partner of Living Cities), the Mississippi Development Authority and the Biloxi business community. 

“We are particularly impressed that the governor, the mayor and the City Council are poised to act and that they collectively pushed for the delivery of this report,” said Fayde.  “Biloxi has two of the three ingredients needed to cultivate major economic development – strong investment and a predictable customer base.  This report says the missing piece is an expanded workforce that needs affordable homes.”

“This is an action plan for East Biloxi – a balanced road map for rebuilding the city’s economic heart and keeping intact its cultural soul,” said Alberto Ibargüen, president of Knight Foundation.  “The plan’s recommendations provide the information needed by the city, its businesses and the long-time residents of East Biloxi to make their own informed decisions in the immediate future.” 

The report builds on the long-range rebuilding approach inspired by the Governor’s Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal and is closely linked to the recommendations presented to Mayor Holloway by the Biloxi Reviving the Renaissance Committee, established by the mayor and chaired by retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Clark Griffith.

The planning framework anticipates East Biloxi building on its pre-Katrina direction, ultimately becoming a tourist, entertainment and gaming destination of national stature.

To accommodate the workforce, the land use planning framework anticipates a total of  5,500 housing units, up from 3,500 units before the storm, including single-family houses, townhouses and multifamily units reflecting designs sympathetic to the city’s historic architecture.  New lower-density housing would be incorporated into the fabric of existing neighborhoods on less flood-prone higher ground.  Housing would be targeted to serve residents at every income level.  Other elements include:

• A vital, attractive downtown incorporating housing and cultural attractions.
• A seafood village on the Back Bay waterfront that combines berthing space for the commercial fishing fleet, seafood restaurants and retail outlets, and commercial processing space.
• A public waterfront with continuous access and bikeways linking the city’s waterfront destinations.
• A new “central park” in the heart of the peninsula located on low-lying land most vulnerable to flooding.
• A continuous loop boulevard that links East Biloxi’s major destinations to the regional transportation network.
• New development sympathetic to Biloxi’s character and heritage and builds on its architectural traditions.
• An overall approach to land use that mitigates the potential for future flood damage.