Midtown Metairie
My urban planning proposal for the commercial core of Metairie, Louisiana's most populous unincorporated community.1
Why Metairie needs a plan.
Metairie is the most populous unincorporated community in Louisiana and one of the largest in the United States. It has over 140,000 residents but no mayor, no city council, and no planning authority of its own. Jefferson Parish governs it,1 which makes coordinated planning hard.
Most of Metairie was built around the car: commercial strips, surface parking, and single-use zoning typical of mid-century suburbs. Veterans Memorial Boulevard, the main corridor, is six lanes4 lined with strip malls, fast food restaurants, and office parks. There is almost no protected bike infrastructure, limited transit, and little public space.
Two projects in progress, the Fat City Leisure Park and the Clearview City Center conversion, give the parish a chance to change that. My proposal shows how those two investments could anchor a more walkable, better connected commercial core between them.
Two projects already in progress.
Fat City Leisure Park
A park planned for the Fat City district, funded mostly with federal Community Development Block Grant money (about $11.7 million) plus about $5.4 million from the state. The district's backers see it as a catalyst for turning the aging nightlife strip into a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood.2
Clearview City Center
Conversion of the Clearview Shopping Center into a mixed-use town center with apartments, a hotel, retail, office space, and an event green.3
What the full proposal will cover.
The proposal has four sections. These are the topics and recommendations I'm working on.
Transit & Mobility
- Dedicated bus lanes on Veterans Memorial Blvd
- Protected bike infrastructure connecting Fat City to Clearview
- Pedestrian-priority zones in commercial cores
- Shared parking structures to reduce surface lot dependency
Mixed-Use Development
- Form-based code recommendations for Veterans corridor
- Missing middle housing typologies for residential streets
- Ground-floor commercial activation requirements
- Affordable housing set-aside framework
Public Space & Environment
- Linear park along Metairie drainage canal
- Community green spaces on underutilized parcels
- Urban tree canopy expansion program
- Stormwater management through green infrastructure
Governance & Identity
- Community identity and placemaking strategy
- Special taxing district feasibility analysis
- Coordinated development review process
- Long-term capital improvement framework
I'm still working on the full proposal, including maps, policy recommendations, and design guidelines. I'll post it here when it's done.
Sources
- 1Metairie, Louisiana · Wikipedia143,507 residents (2020 Census); unincorporated, governed by Jefferson Parish; fifth-largest CDP in the U.S. and the largest outside Clark County, Nevada; Fat City bars and nightclubs of the 1970s and early 1980s.
- 2Metairie Plans $17M Fat City Leisure Park And Parking · Hoodline, Jul 19, 2026About $17M total: ~$11.7M federal CDBG and ~$5.4M state; planned features; end-of-2027 target opening.
- 3$100 Million Project Will Repurpose Suburban Mall As Open-Air City Center · Engineering News-Record, Dec 17, 2019$100M; 260+ apartments, a hotel, ~100,000 sq ft of office, a 14,000 sq ft event green.
- 4Veterans Memorial Boulevard · WikipediaSix-lane thoroughfare through Kenner and Metairie.
- 5Metairie · Visit Jefferson ParishFat City is just off Veterans Memorial Boulevard, adjacent to Lakeside Shopping Center.
- 6Construction of First Phase of Clearview Redevelopment Begins · Biz New Orleans, Sep 2, 2020Phase-one construction at Clearview Parkway and Veterans Boulevard.