Development Review

LPBF is the only organization that closely monitors development proposals in Basin’s sixteen parishes. Projects of serious concern are those that may have damaging repercussions due to their size, design, or location, or because they pose a threat to our natural resources or quality of life. LPBF reviews state and regional regulatory processes for these developments, issuing written comments for the public record and participating in public hearings and meetings when appropriate.

Since 2003 LPBF has posted the comments it has submitted on development proposals. View them now.

A Citizen’s Guide to Protecting Wetlands in the Pontchartrain Basin (handbook)-

Discussion Points for Public Comments on Environmental Permits - Part 1 Part 2

Form Letter Request to Receive Notices of Development Projects

Our Vanishing Wetlands: How Citizens Can Protect Wetlands (brochure)

Sprawl, Smart Growth, and Citizen Action

How communities grow and develop is critical to the health of the Pontchartrain Basin. Unfortunately, one of our region’s biggest challenges is sprawl – poorly planned development that spreads out from urban areas, like Metro New Orleans and Baton Rouge. 

Sprawl is forever changing our lands and waterways as small farms, forests, and wetlands are being converted into subdivisions, shopping centers, and business complexes. Sprawl produces five to seven times more pollution than a forest and nearly twice as much as more compact development*.

The Pontchartrain Basin is home to the three fastest growing parishes in the state – Ascension, Livingston, and St. Tammany. Sprawl is the product of much of this growth, and is threatening the progress that has been made in cleaning up Lake Pontchartrain.

Growing Smarter: Guidelines for Low Impact Development in the Pontchartrain Basin (Guide)

Land Protection: Ways to Conserve Land (brochure)

Our Community, Our Future, Our Choice: How Land Use Planning Can Get Us There (brochure coming soon)

Sprawl: Paving Away Our Future (brochure)

While our region needs development to continue to grow and prosper, it must be done in a smart way. Smart Growth is an approach gaining momentum to address sprawl through proper land use planning. Smart Growth is well-planned development that revitalizes communities, provides transportation choices, keeps housing affordable, and protects natural areas and farmland.

Citizens play a crucial role in shaping the future of our region by providing input on how the local landscape will change and grow. With your support LPBF will continue its efforts to stop sprawl and encourage Smart Growth. Find out more and get involved now.

*Source: Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 2006, www.cbf.org.

Cypress Forests in Danger

Land Conservation Awareness Campaign

LPBF launched an awareness campaign in May 2004 to educate the public about sprawl and its impacts on Basin resources as well as the importance of land conservation and options available for protecting green space. Communities across the United States are implementing a variety of approaches to protect land and other natural resources.

Citizens are realizing that a balance can be reached between growing the economy and protecting green space. Clearly, there is a small window of opportunity to save what makes southeast Louisiana so unique – now is the time to protect our resources.

Land Protection: Ways to Conserve Land (brochure)

Public Service Announcements:

St. Tammany Greenprinting

In 2006, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) initiated a Greenprinting process to identify and prioritize land conservation goals in St. Tammany Parish. LPBF participated as a stakeholder and served as a technical advisor throughout the year-long process.

The stakeholders identified five conservation goals, which they later prioritized:

- Protect Critical and Sensitive Areas
- Mitigate Floods and Manage Stormwater
- Establish a Network of Parks
- Maintain Rural Character
- Protect and Restore Wetlands

The Greenprint concluded in January 2007 with a series of maps that reflected the land conservation priorities. Efforts are now underway to develop a permanent funding source to pursue the protection of the map’s high priority areas.

Priority Conservation Areas in the Lake Pontchartrain Estuary Zone

LPBF and the Nature Conservancy partnered to to identify priority areas within the Lake Pontchartrain Estuary that significantly contribute to the ecological integrity of the region, in addition to existing conservation areas within the estuary. This does not suggest that areas not identified are unimportant for conservation. However, it is meant to focus limited conservation resources to work in cooperative ways with landowners of areas that may be most important from an ecological standpoint.

*This map serves as a guide only. We respect private property rights and wish to work only with willing landowners.

Small - 1.5Mb(pdf)
Large - 25.9Mb(pdf)

St. Tammany Parish Habitat Change Report & Maps

In 2002, LPBF publicly released a report commissioned by the University of New Orleans - Coastal Research Laboratory to assess habitat change in St. Tammany Parish. The report, titled, Urbanization Effects on Habitat Change in St. Tammany Parish, used state-of-the-art mapping technology, known as Geographic Information Systems, to document the amount of habitat that had been altered between 1982 to 2000.

The study found that over 52,000 acres of habitat were altered over the eighteen year period. This is equivalent to a land area twice the size of Metairie, or paving over 80% of the Bayou Lacombe Watershed. The majority of this habitat change was due directly to urbanization (i.e. sprawl).

More Resources from LPBF: