Input sought on Lafourche hire

Lafourche Parish will interview three consultant firms next week as it seeks to hire one of the teams to prepare the parish’s comprehensive plan.

The public is invited to attend the interviews, which will be held at the Plantation Suite of the Donald G. Bollinger Memorial Student Union on the campus of Nicholls State University tomorrow at 3 p.m.

“We want people’s input,” said Karen Vaughn, the parish’s senior planner and lead lady on the comprehensive plan. “It wasn’t a requirement that we do the interviews in a public setting, but we actually chose to hold them publicly because we want everyone in the parish to know this is how this whole process is going to be.”

Lafourche Parish Government and the Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) are in the process of creating a 15-20 year comprehensive plan for the parish to help coordinate future growth and development. It is the first such project of its kind in the parish.

AECOM of Atlanta, Brown & Danos of Baton Rouge and Fregonese Associates of Portland, Ore., are the three finalists out of the six teams to respond to a parish Request for Proposals.

Each team will have 30 minutes of presentation time, which will be followed by a 30-minute question and answer session. Comment cards will be available for public input.

After the interview process, the comprehensive plan selection committee will take about a week before it makes its recommendation to CPEX.

“This is an opportunity for our community to come together and help shape the future of Lafourche Parish,” Parish President Charlotte Randolph said. “We want the public to be involved every step of the way, which starts with hiring a consulting firm to prepare the plan.”

The seven-member selection committee is comprised of Vaughn, Frank Morris, director of Planning and Permitting, Kerry Babin, director of Public Works, Thomas Turner III, director of Community Services, Gretchen Caillouet, director of Grants and Economic Development, Patricia Matherne, planning manager, and Darla Duet, floodplain manager.

Vaughn was unable to offer a preview of the finalists’ strengths and weaknesses. Two of the finalists are from out of state, but whichever of the three the selection committee ultimately chooses will partner with local sub-consultants.

“They all have past experience with preparing comprehensive plans and other major planning studies, but the public interview will be the time where we actually get to hear first hand, other than reading what they put on paper,” Vaughn said.

After the consultant is hired, the planning project should be finalized within 12-18 months, Vaughn said.

The parish is funding $50,000 of the $257,000 project, and made a pro-bono contribution valued at $25,000. A Louisiana Office of Community Development, Comprehensive Resiliency Program grant dedicated to CPEX will pay for the bulk of the project.

The comprehensive plan will not include land-use or zoning regulations.

Vaughn, a native of Michigan, has worked with the parish for 8 months. Prior to her arrival, she spent 20 years in various states working as a community planner. She was adamant about the importance of public input throughout the process.

“Planning, just as a concept, is kind of new to this parish, and we’re going to be spending a lot of time on these public workshops and meetings in hoping to educate people and get them involved,” she said. “I actually think that’s going to be the biggest phase of this project, the public outreach and the public workshops.”