Renderings: New Orleans City Park's $400 million plan
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
A rendering of New Orleans City Park's treehouse. Rendering: MVVA via City Park Conservancy
New Orleans City Park unveiled a master plan Wednesday that will take the city's largest public space into the next two decades.
Why it matters: It could take up to $400 million to implement, says City Park Conservancy president and CEO Rebecca Dietz.
The big picture: Many of the projects focus on making the park easier to use while adding access to nature. Some of the big ideas...
- 💦 Skim pool: A very shallow water feature with misters where children and families can play.
- 🧺 Amenity center: An elevated and covered treehouse that can be used for gatherings and as an event space.
- ✨ Artistic light installations: Adding lights under the overpasses to make them safer and more of an attraction.
- 🛝 Children's nature play area: A new playground with a sandpit, misters, logs and natural elements.
- 🚲 Pedestrian plaza: This would partially convert the traffic circle around NOMA into a pedestrian plaza and biking/walking path.
- 🛹 Wheel park for skateboarders, BMX bikers and roller skaters.
- 🌳 Better walking trails, scenic overlooks, lagoon crossovers and improved outdoor gathering spaces.
Zoom in: The plan is going to take years to implement, Dietz told the crowd gathered at Wednesday's unveiling.
- The park is starting now with fixing bathrooms, water fountains, sidewalks and sewer lines.
- Other priorities include improving way-finding signage and developing test plots for native plants.
Zoom out: Park leaders have already started applying for grants to fund the plan.
- They are pursuing state and federal money but will rely heavily on grants from private foundations and donors, Dietz said.
- The park also plans to launch a fundraising campaign.
Catch up quick: The City Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that began managing the park in the 2022, is creating a roadmap for the next 20 to 25 years.
- The last plan, approved after Hurricane Katrina's devastation in 2005, focused on the southern half of the 1,300-acre park.
- This one focuses on the northern half: Couturie Forest, the former golf courses, the lagoons and the acreage on the lakeside of Interstate 610.
- The process started in 2023 and was expected to finish last year.
Yes, but: The planning was put on hold after pushback over the future of Grow Dat Youth Farm.
- Grow Dat and the park eventually reached a long-term agreement, and the park scrapped plans to relocate the youth farm to make room for a new road.
- City Park then rebooted its planning process with more voices involved, including Grow Dat staffers and a youth committee.
- The ideas in the new master plan came from a series of community meetings with hundreds of attendees.
What's next: The two boards that govern the park will vote on the plan at their August meetings.
