Carrollton Shopping Center
Retail center plans draw critics
Carrollton residents want to be involved
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
By Kate Moran
Several neighborhood leaders approached the city’s Industrial Development Board on Tuesday to ask that the agency hold off on approving bonds for a major shopping center on Carrollton Avenue until the developer better acquaints residents with the project.
The development team, led by Jeffrey Feil of New York, plans to rebuild a shopping center on Carrollton near Xavier University that suffered heavy damage during Hurricane Katrina. The new mall would encompass 200,000 square feet of retail space and possibly include a bookstore and pet store.
Several residents of the Carrollton area said they support the shopping center but want more information about how the developers would manage traffic patterns and how their project would jibe with the Unified New Orleans Plan that civic groups spent so many hours crafting.
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“Because it is such a vital project and is going to be financed in large part by public money, there should be public dialogue about its design,” said Paul Baricos, a neighborhood leader from the Carrollton-Hollygrove area.
The developer has requested the $40 million in bonds through the city’s Industrial Development Board to support construction of the shopping center. The board held a public hearing on the matter Tuesday but did not take any action.
Several board members noted that they do not have direct authority over some of the issues that concern the neighborhood groups, including traffic flow. They directed the residents to their City Council member and to other city agencies.
Karen Gadbois, an activist from the northwest part of Carrollton, said the developers had failed to talk to neighborhood groups about how the project would affect their quality of life. She submitted a letter from eight civic leaders who requested that the developer incorporate local businesses in addition to national chains in the shopping center, among other concerns.
Mark Madderra, a representative for the developer, said the owners are trying to find tenants that can afford to pay rent at a level that would support the rebuilding of the shopping center, which was mostly demolished after the storm.
He said decisions about “infrastructure, access and traffic patterns” would come later. “It’s not a quick process,” he said.
“The concerns of the neighborhood about how people are going to get in and out, that’s critical to everyone involved,” Madderra said. “No tenant is going to commit unless they think the people who are potentially using the center can get into it.”
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:48 am
Let’s just get the time line straight.
The developer is saying that the way the process goes is to secure tenants first.
Then, once he’s promised tenants the parameters of their retail spaces and negotiated the terms of the leases - which the developer claims it NEEDS to do to know if the rehab money will be there - then, and only then do the neighbors get “input.”
“[D]ecisions about ‘infrastructure, access and traffic patterns’ would come later.”
So, when the neighbors agree - and it is likely they will - to require the development to reconstitute a street wall, to limit parking to the rear of the buildings, to provide neighborhood traffic outlets to the shopping centers, and perhaps even to restrict building acreage to avoid the negative environmental impact of big box developments by requiring multiple stories . . . then the developer goes back to the tenants and expects THEM to conform to the neighborhood requirements at the same price?
No, that’s not how it works for developments.
Developers make their own plans, contribute to the necessary campaigns and then hammer the plan down the throats of the people or convince a few traitors to work the rubber stamp.
“Neighborhood input” is something they work around not something they work to include.
Neighbors of Carrollton should oppose ALL development and only furnish compromises to those willing to actually meet all of the quality of life REQUIREMENTS that the neighborhood deserves.
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:53 pm
“Neighbors of Carrollton should oppose ALL development and only furnish compromises to those willing to actually meet all of the quality of life REQUIREMENTS that the neighborhood deserves.”
Here’s a project that’s going to benefit people all over the city by providing a nice, convenient place to buy well-known products without driving all the way to Jefferson Parish. It will be a good source of sales tax, which will put more money into the city, which could be used for more police officers, better roads, etc. But, because the parking lots will be in front of the stores, you want to scrap the whole project. Way to go.
You would think that maybe drugs, crime, and blighted property, to name a few, would affect the “quality of life” more than NEW DEVELOPMENT! Most people would think that new development would actually be a GOOD thing! But, if you really don’t want it there, I’m sure you could buy the property from the developers and put whatever you want in its place.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:59 am
It is not just the parking lot in front of the store dp.
It is a more complex than that. Perhaps if you were travelling Carrollton Ave yesterday and were caught in the underpass due to flooding you may understand our concerns for infrastructure repairs to be included in this plan. If you need to take the bus and wait in that area perhaps you would understand, or if you were a student at Xavier and attempting to cross the street you may get a better idea of what the concerns are.
If a Neighborhood is powerless to be included in the redevelopment of the Neighborhood then why did we bother attending multiple meetings for planning?
The issues of crime, blight and drugs we address as an organization as best we can.