FuturEBR

[buckett5425]

Sounds like its terrible for the master planner for Kip Holden. I'm sure the people of St. George could care less.

 

You are more than welcome to make ad hominem statements. 

[itsjustme3]

I'm just saying the guy who is crying about this works for the mayor of Baton Rouge. Of course he's going to be against it. He's biased.

[cajun]

I love the suggestion that the south EBR medical district couldn't possibly happen with St George.....

I have yet to see a viable argument against this that doesn't involve the "but who will pay for our services?" argument from Baton Rouge. Same fear monger tactics as we saw in Atlanta.

Edited November 30, 2013 by cajun

[garrett_225]

Instead of playing scare tactics, the city-parish should be focused on rapidly coming up with a plan to give the people of SEBR the services they deserve based on the amount of taxes they contribute to EBR Parish. 

 

I would love to see all of the issues at hand solved without St. George having to incorporate. Unfortunately, the opposition is not open dialog, nor any options besides the status quo. 

[itsjustme3]

EBR better be ready to make a LOT of cuts. People of St George are tired of their money being used to prop up certain parts of Baton Rouge. Its only a matter of time. Love it!

[richyb83]

If St. George does ever happen...should we expect to see BR annex the Medical corridor/Mall of La/ Perkins Rowe??

Edited December 3, 2013 by richyb83

[all2neat]

Mall of LA and Perkins rowe are part of st george I believe

[richyb83]

Yes I believe they would be part of St. George....however this is land BR should/could have annexed  over 10 years ago...will they make the land grab before St.George does?? The original plan for the new proposed school district was east of I-10...the battle lines will be interesting...St George is going for the money grab Medical Corridor/Perkins Rowe & L'auberge Casino

[richyb83]

Just wanted to revive this older thread

Planning Commission staff supports rezoning site of proposed barge-cleaning facility

The Planning Commission staff is recommending that the commission rezone a 60-acre tract on River Road that is the site of a proposed barge-cleaning facility. The staff recommends rezoning the property from M2, or heavy industrial, to HC1, or heavy commercial—a change that, if adopted by the commission at its meeting tonight and approved later this week by the Metro Council, will effectively kill plans for the controversial facility.

Last month, Metro Council members John Delgado and Chandler Loupe proposed rezoning the property amidst mounting opposition to the barge-cleaning facility, which would be developed by Port Arthur, Texas-based Tubal Cain Marine Services. Along with the zoning change, the city’s FuturEBR land use plan will also have to be amended to change the designated land use from open space to commercial. The Planning Commission staff also supports that change.

https://www.businessreport.com/business/planning-commission-staff-supports-rezoning-site-proposed-barge-cleaning-facility-2

[greg225]

Baton Rouge making slow but steady progress on implementing FuturEBR master plan

 

 

In the four years since the adoption of FuturEBR, the city-parish’s updated master plan for land use and development, more than half of the 577 specific action items needed to fully implement the plan are currently under way, according to a recent report presented to the Planning Commission.

The progress report, completed earlier this summer by the Planning Commission staff, shows that more than 67% of the action items in FuturEBR are under way. Another 10.7% have been initiated, but no work has begun on them yet.

“I feel good about it overall,” says Planning Director Frank Duke.

While the progress is encouraging, only 4.4% of the action items have actually been completed, and nearly 15% haven’t begun at all. Another 2.6% have been reassigned from the agency that was originally tasked with implementing them.

The progress report looks at how far the city has come towards accomplishing the nine goals, implementing the four strategies and completing the 577 action items outlined in FuturEBR. Duke says he’s frustrated that one of the key strategies—aligning the city’s zonings laws with the goals in the plan—is only now getting under way.

“In 2011 when FuturEBR was adopted, it begins with ‘updating the zoning code,’ and we are only just now beginning to get going with that,” says Duke, who has only been at the helm of the Planning Commission since April 2014 and was not involved in the effort until last year.

Aligning the city’s zoning code with the goals in the plan is significant because it will give the plan legal teeth.

“It’s the part of the plan the Planning Commission really can control so in that sense it is easy,” Duke says. “But to do it right you are have to get a lot of input and talk to a lot of people so in that sense it’s hard.”   https://www.businessreport.com/article/baton-rouge-making-slow-steady-progress-implementing-futurebr-master-plan

[greg225]

Some Webb Park residents trying to remove bike lanes along Glenmore, Hundred Oak    

A group of residents in the Webb Park neighborhood is meeting tonight to discuss the possibility of removing the bike lanes along Hundred Oaks and Glenmore avenues that have been in place for nearly nine years. The group is also circulating a petition and hopes to gather enough signatures to bring the matter to the city-parish for action.

The lanes have become a source of controversy in the neighborhood in recent weeks—ever since the Baton Rouge Police Department issued tickets to a handful of violators parked in the bike lanes. Ironically, cycling enthusiasts, who were upset about violators parking in the bike lanes, brought the matter to the BRPD’s attention.

“Finally someone said something about it,” says Mike Martin, of Bike Baton Rouge. “It is patently illegal to park in a bike lane, but if you don’t enforce it then suddenly you start enforcing it, it catches people by surprise.”

Gene Groves is one of those Glenmore residents caught by surprise. He says he lived for nine years “in peace and harmony” with the bike lanes, though he occasionally parked in the lane that fronts his home. Groves says he thought it was legal. Now that he knows it’s not, he’s no longer sure bike lanes are a good idea.

“If someone told you you couldn’t park in front of your house, what would you say?” Groves asks.

A BRPD spokesman didn’t have the exact number of tickets that have been issued, though he says it’s just a few. City-parish Chief Traffic Engineer Ingolf Partenheimer says the law clearly prohibits parking in a bike lane.

“It’s a transit lane so parking in it is like parking in the middle of the street,” he says.

Partenheimer says his department is trying to come up with a solution that will satisfy residents on both sides of the issue. Metro Councilmember C. Denise Marcelle, who represents the district, is also trying to find a solution. She plans to attend tonight’s meeting, which is only open to members of the Webb Park Civic Association, and is bringing representatives from the Parish Attorney’s Office and the permits office to answer questions.

“I don’t want to see the bike paths removed,” she says. “This has been working for nine years. There has got to be a compromise.”

Officials with the Center for Planning Excellence, who have been working with the neighborhood on a variety of planning and smart street initiatives for the past several years, say they understand the complicated dynamics of the situation. But they point out that Baton Rouge’s FuturEBR master plan calls for more bike- and pedestrian-friendly streets and roads.   https://www.businessreport.com/article/webb-park-residents-trying-remove-bike-lanes-along-glenmore-hundred-oaks

[Mr. Burnham]

I'm in this area, and yes the bike lanes are nice, but a lot of people here throw big parties and parking in bike lines is sometimes necessary. If people have a problem with that...well then screw the bike lanes and give us sidewalks.

[greg225]

I'm in this area, and yes the bike lanes are nice, but a lot of people here throw big parties and parking in bike lines is sometimes necessary. If people have a problem with that...well then screw the bike lanes and give us sidewalks.

I was looking at the bike lanes what could solve the problem is to narrow the bike lanes to allow roadside parking.

[Antrell Williams]

Just because people aren't used to bike lanes being more frequently used doesn't mean they should be ignorant of the law, or common sense, of parking in a bike lane. I certainly believe that BRPD could have given the residents a notice of enforcement just to be courteous but removing them is just going backwards. I do believe that the city is a little at fault for not properly labeling the bike lanes. A green or red lane with arrows and signage would make a world of difference and make everyone safer.

[greg225]

Just because people aren't used to bike lanes being more frequently used doesn't mean they should be ignorant of the law, or common sense, of parking in a bike lane. I certainly believe that BRPD could have given the residents a notice of enforcement just to be courteous but removing them is just going backwards. I do believe that the city is a little at fault for not properly labeling the bike lanes. A green or red lane with arrows and signage would make a world of difference and make everyone safer.

From what I saw on the news it had the bike symbol in the lane, and it had signage that said no parking at anytime. I think the bike lanes could be narrowed to allow roadside parking maybe that would work for everyone in that neighborhood.

Edited September 28, 2015 by greg225

[all2neat]

Remove the bike lanes, typical backward thinking. 

[Mr. Burnham]

This is a bloody neighborhood! It's not like people are randomly parking on Government Street. They are parking by their houses or friends houses. Either take the bikelanes off of smaller more intimate neighborhood streets and do sidewalk improvements so they can be used, provide an exemption, or pay for the instalation of front lawn parking spaces. 

Personally I would love to see more bike lanes in the city, but we have to be smart with them just as we need to be smart with roads. They way bikelanes have been installed and implemented in our neighborhoods has led to great confusion and ridiculous charges. There are many different ways to fix this problem other than giving people tickets for parking somewhere they didn't even know a bike lane existed. 

On Glenmore is probably the worst street with regards to the bike lane issue. A lot of people throw parties and thus need parking, in most cases, literally the only option is to park in the street. I would also be willing to bet that most of these tickets come from people parking for parties.

Edited September 30, 2015 by mr. bernham

[greg225]

Meeting to discuss Webb Park bike lanes set for Monday evening  

Representatives from the Center for Planning Excellence, the Department of Public Works and the Planning Department will join Metro Councilwoman C. Denise Marcelle at a public meeting Monday on Monday to discuss the bike lanes on Glenmore and Hundred Oaks avenues that recently have become a source of controversy in the Webb Park neighborhood.

Though the bike lanes have been in place for nine years, only recently has the Baton Rouge Police Department begun to enforce the no-parking provision that applies to the bike lanes. That has inflamed some long-time residents of Glenmore and Hundred Oaks, who say they don’t dislike bike lanes but want the flexibility to park in front of their homes when necessary.

Cycling enthusiasts—concerned about the growing number of violators who were parking in the bike lanes—called attention to the matter in early August, demanding that BRPD officers issue tickets to violators. In the weeks since, petitions have circulated in the neighborhood calling for the removal of the bike lanes.

Monday’s meeting is open to the public and will be held at 5:30 p.m at Ingleside Methodist Church, 4264 Capital Heights Ave.

Webb Park residents with specific questions should send a concise list via email to [email protected] no later than 5 p.m. Thursday.  Others are encouraged to submit topics of concern to Marcelle’s council office by phone, 225-389-3182, or by email to [email protected].

A meeting held last Wednesday by the Webb Park Civic Association regarding the bike lanes lasted about two hours and got heated at times, but association president Blake May told Daily Report the forum was productive and served as an opportunity for both sides of the issue to discuss the source of the dispute and possible compromises.     https://www.businessreport.com/article/meeting-discuss-webb-park-bike-lanes-set-monday-evening

[Mr. Burnham]

Meeting to discuss Webb Park bike lanes set for Monday evening  

Representatives from the Center for Planning Excellence, the Department of Public Works and the Planning Department will join Metro Councilwoman C. Denise Marcelle at a public meeting Monday on Monday to discuss the bike lanes on Glenmore and Hundred Oaks avenues that recently have become a source of controversy in the Webb Park neighborhood.

Though the bike lanes have been in place for nine years, only recently has the Baton Rouge Police Department begun to enforce the no-parking provision that applies to the bike lanes. That has inflamed some long-time residents of Glenmore and Hundred Oaks, who say they don’t dislike bike lanes but want the flexibility to park in front of their homes when necessary.

Cycling enthusiasts—concerned about the growing number of violators who were parking in the bike lanes—called attention to the matter in early August, demanding that BRPD officers issue tickets to violators. In the weeks since, petitions have circulated in the neighborhood calling for the removal of the bike lanes.

Monday’s meeting is open to the public and will be held at 5:30 p.m at Ingleside Methodist Church, 4264 Capital Heights Ave.

Webb Park residents with specific questions should send a concise list via email to [email protected] no later than 5 p.m. Thursday.  Others are encouraged to submit topics of concern to Marcelle’s council office by phone, 225-389-3182, or by email to [email protected].

A meeting held last Wednesday by the Webb Park Civic Association regarding the bike lanes lasted about two hours and got heated at times, but association president Blake May told Daily Report the forum was productive and served as an opportunity for both sides of the issue to discuss the source of the dispute and possible compromises.     https://www.businessreport.com/article/meeting-discuss-webb-park-bike-lanes-set-monday-evening

I'll be there. 

[cajun]

Just because people aren't used to bike lanes being more frequently used doesn't mean they should be ignorant of the law, or common sense, of parking in a bike lane. I certainly believe that BRPD could have given the residents a notice of enforcement just to be courteous but removing them is just going backwards. I do believe that the city is a little at fault for not properly labeling the bike lanes. A green or red lane with arrows and signage would make a world of difference and make everyone safer.

Cyclists should complain about automobile drivers being ignorant of the law.   I should know....as an avid cyclist, I see many of my peers ignore stop signs and creep along the gutter at intersections to get ahead of traffic.   

People like that are the reason I stick to public trails for exercise.  They are ruining it for us.

Remove the bike lanes, typical backward thinking. 

One could argue that installing them without a plan to capture revenue from cyclists is backwards thinking especially if it involves removing capacity for motorized vehicles that generate revenue through gas taxes, registration fees, etc.   Cyclists want the privileges of an automobile driver with the responsibility of a pedestrian.   

Sidewalks are a far superior and fair investment than bike lanes IMO.  

I'd rather see street parking installed along with parking meters.  Keep traffic moving slowly enough that cyclists can safely travel with motorized traffic.   I would never advocate for ticketing an automobile driver for parking because cyclists complain.   I've broken so many traffic laws with my bike and I'm never ticketed.  

In the south, I can assure you that 95% or more of the people using the bike lane are doing so for exercise and recreation....not to actually get somewhere.  No one trecks through that kind of weather when they are expected to show up at a place and be halfway presentable when they arrive.

Edited October 1, 2015 by cajun

[Mr. Burnham]

So wait...are you saying people should have to pay to park outside of their own homes? That's the root of this problem and most of the streets in this part of town do not have sidewalks or the ones we have are in very bad shape so we made bikelanes so people could ride their bikes in our neighborhoods then we find we can not park outside of our homes because it's in the bikelanes. 

 

It's just a crapty situation TBH. 

 

I would love to see more bikelanes, but I would rather see more sidewalks in the older neighborhoods that need roadside parking. 

[Antrell Williams]

Sidewalks for bikes? is that legal in this case?

[greg225]

Glenmore Avenue residents and Baton Rouge cycling community at odds over use of dedicated bike lanes                                                        Glenmore homeowners push for removal of path     

Gene Groves has lived on Glenmore Avenue for 40 years. He has a driveway where he parks his car, but, occasionally, when friends and family visit, they park on the street.

 

But Groves’ street is lined with dedicated bike lanes. So when homeowners and their guests park on the curbs, they’re actually illegally parking in a path for cyclists and pedestrians.

And therein lies the source of a tense debate that has pitted the Glenmore Avenue homeowners and the cycling community against each other over whose interests should prevail.

Glenmore residents have, for years, allowed cars to park on the curb in the lanes near their homes. But recently, some avid cyclists started taking notice, alerting police to the illegal parking.

Now, residents say that given the option of being ticketed for parking near their homes or having bike lanes, they pick parking. More than 50 Glenmore residents signed a petition making up more than 90 percent of the homeowners along the route saying they’d like to see the bike lane removed.

The lane has been there since 2006, and it’s about three-quarters of a mile long. If removed, it would be the first time Baton Rouge, which has been working over the past years to expand its bike path network, will have erased one of the lanes.

Cyclists have responded in droves, organizing an Internet petition with nearly 500 names on it as of Friday afternoon, many from people outside of the capital region. They say removing a bike lane would be a step backward for Baton Rouge, a city riddled with traffic and striving for better connectivity.

“I would say taking a public right-of-way for private use is just wrong,” said Bike Baton Rouge board member Mark Martin. “To take a bike lane and turn it into parking, endangering cyclists who want to use that area as a connector, is moving backwards.”

Martin said the properties have long driveways and suggested wealthy people in the neighborhoods were just uncomfortable with having “the help,” such as maids and construction workers, park vehicles on their property.

“If the lawn man shows up, instead of pulling into their curvaceous driveways, which are two cars wide, and go all the way back to the end of the lot, they want them to park in the road,” Martin said.

Baton Rouge chief traffic engineer Ingolf Partenheimer said city-parish officials are interested in listening to the concerns of all of the stakeholders and aren’t ruling out any options.

But cyclists say it’s a safety issue. Louisiana has the third-highest rate of bicyclist deaths in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This year, the capital region has seen a handful of cyclist and pedestrian deaths and injuries from people hit by cars. In June, Elisabeth Oliver, a 63-year-old LSU professor was killed in East Feliciana Parish while walking her broken bike on a rural road. In August, Clifford Gouner was struck and killed on Goodwood Boulevard. Gordon Mese, a Mid City business owner, was honoring Gouner in a bike ride vigil the following day when he was struck and badly injured.

Groves said the neighborhood complained nine years ago about heavy traffic down their street, and the city-parish responded by implementing speed humps and restriping the street with the narrower lines, creating paths along the sides.

He said residents were told the narrower road would slow traffic and give people space to walk, jog and bike along the road.

“Before they did it, we asked, ‘Will this restrict our ability to park on our curb in front of our house?’ ” Groves said. “Their answer was, ‘Absolutely not.’ ”

A few years later, the paths got a face-lift that included additional signage identifying them specifically as bike lanes.

Groves said residents of the street have lived in harmony with cyclists for years and only recently began receiving warnings from law enforcement to stop parking in the lanes because of complaints from people outside their neighborhood.

“It’s people who don’t live here, who we’ve invited into our neighborhood so they could ride their bikes and see our beautiful lawns, and now they’re calling the police on us,” Groves said.

Groves said he and others in the neighborhoods are open to a compromise, but short of being able to park on their curbs, they would be advocating for the removal of the lanes.

The online petition posted by the cycling community — “Save Glenmore Avenue Bike Lanes” — has become a sounding board for cycling enthusiasts who want Baton Rouge to continue strides to make the city’s streets safer for bikes.

“Those lanes give me a rare moment of riding around BR without having to worry about being run over at any given time,” wrote Clyde Bates on the petition. “To get rid of them would be a travesty for the general public.”

Another supporter in the neighborhood, Sarah Schramm, said she rides her bike to work every day.

“I wish every street on my route had a bike lane,” she wrote. “We need to accommodate more transportation options, not reduce them.”

Sarah Dupree, another resident who lives on Glenmore, took to the petition to express her frustration with cyclists who were unsympathetic to what she considers to be a property right.

She noted that the residents of Glenmore pay “hefty mortgages” and they deserve the right to “work, pick up carpool, have people over to celebrate life and death without getting a ticket on our cars.”

She added that cyclists are no longer welcomed in the neighborhood.

“Get a grip and ride elsewhere. Because, you are not welcome in front of our house,” she wrote.

Lt. Jonny Dunnam, spokesman for Baton Rouge Police Department, said he was not aware of any tickets written to people in the Glenmore area for parking in bike lanes. However, he said, there was an instance recently where an officer was sent to the street to ask a construction worker to stay out of the bike lanes.

But Dunnam acknowledged that parking in the bike lanes is a violation of the law and said officers were not purposely turning a blind eye to it.

On Monday, a public meeting is scheduled to discuss the issue with representatives from the Center for Planning Excellence, city-parish staff and Councilwoman C. Denise Marcelle. The meeting is at 5:30 p.m. at Ingleside Methodist Church.

Marcelle said she will propose a compromise to narrow the median and widen the street to allow enough space for both parking and bike lanes. But she said she doesn’t want to see the bike lanes removed.

“That would be my last suggestion that we get rid of the bike lanes,” Marcelle said.

“If we want to talk about walkable communities, saving the environment, saving on gas and having exercise for healthy communities, then we’ve got to talk about bikes and walking.”

Partenheimer said Friday he doesn’t yet have cost estimates for changes to the median. But Marcelle was undeterred.

“We gotta do what we gotta do,” she said. “They pay a lot of taxes.”    http://theadvocate.com/news/13599892-123/glenmore-avenue-residents-and-baton     

[Mr. Burnham]

That comment about "the help" sickens me beyond belief! Our driveways are not that long and most of the time fill up forcing others to park on the side of the road. Why can't we just widen the roads and narrow the bikelane?

[greg225]

That comment about "the help" sickens me beyond belief! Our driveways are not that long and most of the time fill up forcing others to park on the side of the road. Why can't we just widen the roads and narrow the bikelane?

Widen the road, add parking lanes, sidewalks and narrow the bike lanes can be done, but some neighbors may be against giving up their property to do it.