Alexandria Daily Town Talk (LA)

March 17, 2010
Author: Jeff Matthews
jmatthews@thetowntalk.com
(318) 487-6380

Local planner: Alexandria on pace for 'greener' future

To Patrick Moore, "green" means a whole lot more than just being environmentally friendly.

To him, being green for a city means being healthy in areas such as spirit, opportunity and vision. Moore, a noted landscape architect and planner whose Moore Planning Group works mainly with cities on "smart growth," spoke to the Alexandria Rotary Club on Tuesday.

His company promotes growth in economic development, education, infrastructure and livability. If you picture those four areas as joined hoops, finding projects that fit in the center where all four meet is "the Holy Grail of being green."

"You can't spend all your money on just roads and not bother with quality of life issues, or not bother with education, or not bother with economic development," said Nathan Gaspard, project manager at Moore Planning Group, who also spoke Tuesday.

"It starts with vision," Moore said. "Cities are having a hard time figuring out where they are, let alone where they want to go."Where does Alexandria -- where Moore Planning Group has an office, along with one in Baton Rouge -- stand in all that?

"We have definitely come a long way," Moore said. "But I see some challenges there. I think it's time for us to take a breath, stand back and figure out our place in the world." Part of Moore's planning philosophy focuses on finding a center, and not letting competing development take away from it. Which is why he likes the potential of Alexandria's Specially Planned Activity Redevelopment Corridors initiative, designed to spur development on major thoroughfares into downtown. He also favors Alexandria taking a "little wider view" on planning, recognizing that it's a regional hub.

As for a proposed beltway around the Alexandria-Pineville area, he said it's "good long-range planning, but I think we should be focused more on short- and medium-range vision. To me, we have some infill we have to do first. "Think about what the regional hub is -- it's downtown Alexandria and Pineville. It's the living room of our area. It's where we go for medical,banking, entertainment. That's the center, and if you get that right, the rest will follow."

Moore Planning Group
301 Jackson St. Suite 304
Alexandria, La. 71301
Founded: 1982
Principals: Patrick C. Moore and Randalle Hunt Moore
Web site: www.mooreplanninggroup.com
E-mail: info@mooreplanninggroup.com
Telephone: (318) 445-2825