Current Projects
The links at right give details about Current Projects going on in D’Iberville.
Background
In 2005 the City of D’Iberville was emerging from the fledgling, new incorporation to a professional, ever-growing city. City officials were beginning to plan for a better D’Iberville when the worst natural disaster ever to strike the United States struck a devastating blow to the small town on August 29, 2005.
That October, Governor Haley Barbour’s Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal brought planners and architects from around the country to the Gulf Coast for a charrette, an intense, creative, brainstorming and planning session designed to give Gulf Coast residents and leaders a vision of what their recovery and rebuilding could be. The goal of the charrette was to provide a vision for how Gulf Coast cities could not only recover and rebuild, but use the opportunity to build back smarter and better, using the theories and practices of Smart Code and New Urbanism.
The City of D’Iberville remains one of the few cities on the Coast that has remained committed to bringing the ideas of the charrette, to fruition. Between October of 2005 and June, 2006 the city held its own version of charrettes and public Town Hall meetings, presenting the vision for its future, developed with Jaime Correa, the planner assigned to D’Iberville at the original charrette, to its citizens. That vision can be seen in the adopted 2006 Citizens Master Plan. Citizens’ Master Plan for D’Iberville (June 2006)[pdf]
The Citizen’s Master Plan concentrates on the section of the city called Old Town by long-term residents. Taken in conjunction with the City’s Comprehensive Plan and goals for economic development, a vision for growth is produced focusing on two, major regions:
- the northern Retail Region, around the I-110 and I-10 interchange and
- the southern Waterfront Region facing the Back Bay.
The Retail Region is well under way, with the existing Lakeview Shopping Center and its recent expansions and the newly build Promenade Shopping Center.
The plan for a working Waterfront includes a functioning Marina and the ever-present hope of a major casino development. It also includes the re-development of the Old Town section of town. The idea is to develop a French-Market-styled area with mixed-use developments and tourist attractions. The Town Green and Visitor’s Center is an important step in the completion of that goal.
The projects featured in the links at right are the direct result of the careful planning of the charrette. The process of smart growth is sometimes slow and challenging, but the City of D’Iberville is committed to its vision of a positive future for its citizens. With thoughtful, careful growth and development the city can reach its goals of a better future.
