Ideas vary for future of Mississippi coast

? Hurricane Katrina erased much of the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s past, but the deadly storm also created a blank canvas and a historic opportunity for reinventing cities like this once-quaint beach community.

Two years after Katrina claimed more than 200 lives in Mississippi and left behind billions of dollars in damage, teams of visionary urban planners are embedded in Pass Christian and other coastal cities, helping them draft ambitious blueprints for rebuilding the “New Urbanism” way.

New Urbanism – an architectural movement to transform sprawling city blocks into compact, walkable neighborhoods with old-fashioned features – is only one of the dynamics that could define Mississippi’s coastline.

Traditionalists are pursuing a competing vision: Rebuilding the coast largely the way it was before the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane. Part of what has been called the Redneck Riviera, it was an eclectic assembly of glitzy casino barges, brightly painted beach shops and aging motels occasionally broken by stretches of stately old homes with oak shaded lawns overlooking the sandy, manmade beach.

Which vision will the coast resemble in 2015, when Katrina is just a painful, 10-year-old memory?

Questions like that loomed over a recent planning workshop in Pass Christian. Dozens of home and business owners gathered at dusk in a storm-ravaged library to hear city planner Jeff Bounds illustrate his vision for rebuilding Pass Christian’s devastated downtown.

Smaller city blocks with narrower, pedestrian-friendly streets. Buildings that yield better views of the harbor. “Pocket parks” for more green space. Those were some of his ideas for turning the crippled city center into a thriving commercial district.

“You may not agree with us. You may say, ‘No, no, don’t change that. Leave it like it is.’ And we’ll live with it, and that’s fine,” Bounds told the audience. “We’re basically here to point out from a planning perspective what we see as the shortcomings, things that can be improved.”

Bounds ended his presentation with a caveat: “Obviously, money is not growing on trees.”

“Amen!” a voice from the back of the room shouted. Bounds paused a beat, then grinned when he realized the voice belonged to Mayor Leo “Chipper” McDermott, who leaned back in his chair and propped a foot up on a folding table.

Given the modest pace of new construction, many experts say it’s premature to accurately forecast what the Gulf Coast will look on Katrina’s 10th anniversary.

“It will not be the same Mississippi Gulf Coast, I can tell you that,” said Tommy Walman, Gov. Haley Barbour’s housing adviser. “Things already are changing – some for the better and some not so. It depends on how you look at it.”