Date of Award
Summer 8-2014
Degree Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Geography and Geology
First Advisor
David H. Holt
Advisor Department
Geography and Geology
Abstract
After Hurricane Katrina hit the Mississippi Coast, Master Concept Plans (MCPs) that emphasized smart growth and new urbanism were created to reduce sprawl on the coast. This study seeks to find the reality of these plans by examining what has actually been implemented from the MCPs eight years after Hurricane Katrina. This study was conducted in the Mississippi coastal cities of Long Beach and D’Iberville. The MCPs were georeferenced, digitized, and overlaid on top of current land use parcel data using a Geographic Information System (GIS). Parcels were selected and categorized based on each proposed plan and compared to current land use coding to determine the state of implementation and noncompliance of the MCPs. Results indicate that the majority of implementation of the proposed plans were already in place before the MCPs, while the least implemented areas, Civic Spaces and Hotel/Casinos, still need to be converted. The total cost to buy parcels that did not match the proposed zone is higher than the city’s annual budgets creating a financial barrier to implementation. The results show that the MCPs are not working as planned and are not practical because the partial recovery along the coast has locked parcel land use making the MCPs difficult to implement in their entirety, while leapfrogging areas are inadvertently causing development outside the MCP areas.
Copyright
Copyright for this thesis is owned by the author. It may be freely accessed by all users. However, any reuse or reproduction not covered by the exceptions of the Fair Use or Educational Use clauses of U.S. Copyright Law or without permission of the copyright holder may be a violation of federal law. Contact the administrator if you have additional questions.
Recommended Citation
Nicholson, Heather, "Smart Growth and New Urbanism: The Implementation of Development Plans Eight Years after Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast" (2014). Honors Theses. 260.
https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/260