Alexandria Daily Town Talk (LA)

November 29, 2008
Author: “RT” Morgan
rtmorgan@thetowntalk.com
(318) 487-6346

Local planner builds city from vision

Not too many people can say they’ve planned and designed a city from the ground up.

Fewer people can say they’ve won awards for that planning and designing.

Alexandria’s Patrick C. Moore, however, can proudly make both of these claims when talking about his firm’s work in the City of Central in East Baton Rouge Parish.

Moore Planning Group LLC, at 301 Jackson St. in downtown Alexandria, was honored along with Central by the Louisiana Municipal Association for the overlay development plan developed by Moore with the city.

The plan “will steer development in the state’s newest city,” the association said in a news release.

Asked how city officials heard about Moore Planning, Central Mayor Shelton “Mac” Watts said he polled other local leaders. Most recommended Moore’s landscape architecture and site planning firm.

Watts’ vision for the bedroom community included directing city growth and maintaining Central’s rural characteristics. All of that on top of developing everything from the ground up, he said.

Moore described his own vision as maintaining the city as “a sanctuary.”

Moore Planning Group -- started in 1982 by Moore and his wife, Randalle -- began working on Central’s development plan in December 2006 and completed it in November 2007. The firm is now overseeing the city’s development.

Moore’s approach to Central -- or any city, for that matter -- includes five phases: community planning, landscape architecture, strategic implementation, economic and resource management and project and program management.

The plan reflects the principles of “smart growth,” a planning philosophy in which Moore is well versed.

The municipal association describes smart growth as a “strategy that ensures both sustainability and fiscal management.”
Watts described the whole process as “pretty unique.”

Other cities and parishes Moore Planning Group has worked with include Alexandria, Pineville, Lake Charles, Crowley, Plaquemine, Avoyelles Parish and Iberville Parish. The firm’s work fills the master plans for Alexandria and Pineville, is seen on the campus of Louisiana College and is reflected in numerous other projects.

“We just love what we do,” said Moore, who recently opened an office in Baton Rouge.

As for his hometown, Moore said, he wants to help Alexandria implement its ambitious development plan known as SPARC, for Special Planned Activity Redevelopment Corridors.

“Whether we get paid or not, I don’t care,” Moore said.

SPARC, the brainchild of first-term Mayor Jacques M. Roy, is built on multiple studies and surveys conducted over the past 20 years and it reflects the priorities and direction articulated in the Alexandria Urban Master Plan of 1999. The master plan was researched, prepared and presented by Moore Planning and the planning and engineering firm of Barron, Heinberg & Brocato, also of Alexandria.

At SPARC’s foundation are plans and funding to rebuild infrastructure citywide, provide incentives for the private sector to invest in select corridors, and to build development capacity in Central Louisiana’s largest city.

“We’re sitting on a gold mine,” Moore said of Alexandria. “But we’re not sitting anymore. We’re marching in a direction.”

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

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Record Number: alx61357524