Design center to help Miss. rebuild

New urbanists are working to establish a design and development center in Mississippi that would help the state’s Gulf Coast communities rebuild wisely. The center’s focus would be on “helping communities work with the development industry to improve the designs of the larger-scale projects involving condos, casinos, retail development, and the like,” says Charles Bohl, director of the Knight Program in Community Building at the University of Miami. Although those projects are considered critical to economic development, they “threaten to overwhelm local staff and decision makers,” Bohl says. Plans for a center moved forward during a strategic planning workshop in Gulfport August 7-8, which dealt with questions such as what sort of center might be used as a model. One Web site www.designcorps.org listed 47 US design centers. Some only provide volunteer assistance and focus on initial designs, and others have operational arms capable of participating in development activities. A number of participants in a Mississippi renewal listserv, including Nathan Norris of PlaceMakers, argued that design is not enough and that development is an essential focus of a center. The Mississippi Renewal Forum last October looked toward the establishment of “a central coordinating and communications center” that would facilitate the flow of information on recovery and rebuilding issues. Bohl says, “The scale of the rebuilding challenge in Mississippi will require attention to (public and private) finance, hazard mitigation, insurance, and other technical areas at a level unprecedented for design centers and neighborhood resource centers.” Bohl says the center serving Mississippi’s Gulf Coast would also coordinate the many offers of assistance coming from individuals and organizations such as CNU, Urban Land Institute, American Planning Association, American Institute of Architects, and academia that have offered their expertise for short periods. Many projects could benefit from design assistance, if the owners are willing to accept it. Casinos are returning to the coast in a big way. New urbanists have criticized casino plans in Biloxi, which has the most gambling halls, for not contributing much to the overall community.