Friday, the Governor held a press conference unveiling the major LA SAFE flood resilience projects, which included a project in St. John the Baptist Parish.

Through grants, the state will invest nearly $40 million throughout six parishes.

LA SAFE — Louisiana’s Strategic Adaptions for Future Environments — held five rounds of public community meetings from March to December of 2017.

Residents were asked to review six proposed pilot projects in their parish and rank them according to their opinion of each’s value.

The meetings were held across Jefferson, Lafourche, Plaquemines, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany and Terrebonne parishes. St. John Parish also solicited electronic feedback for those who were unable to attend the public meetings.

The project that was selected, Airline and Main Complete Streets project, is a “Resilient Infrastructure and Community Nonstructural Mitigation/Flood Risk Reduction project” that encompasses a 1.3-mile street improvement on Airline Highway in LaPlace and a .3-mile improvement on Main Street.

The goal was to plan for future heightened flood risk in a low risk area by incorporating storm water management strategies into public infrastructure projects that also provide enhanced transportation options.

Currently, off-street pedestrian and cyclist paths, a green median and shade trees are being proposed as the first phase of the development. Additional proposed improvements include sidewalks, permeable parking, native plantings and historic light poles and banners.

The goals of these designs are to alleviate drainage systems in the immediate area and help reduce flooding, as well as improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists.

The plan also connects to the Mississippi River levee trail and encourages use and redevelopment of historic Main Street.

Aesthetics also play a vital role in economic growth for residential and commercial development. I commend our Planning & Zoning Director, Alex Carter, and her staff on planning the LA Safe initiatives most of last year.

I’m excited for the opportunity that has been presented and look forward to pursuing more dollars for drainage and infrastructure needs.

This project has a dictated timeline and is divided into phases that must be completed by the end of 2022.

Slow progress is still indeed progress.

Flood protection continues to be a major concern throughout our entire parish. St. John Parish is closer than we ever have been before for the West Shore Levee. We are working on multiple projects right now that will be beneficial to not only our West Shore levee but surrounding communities in our parish.

We continue to assess the needs of our community and work towards solutions when funding becomes available. Like LA SAFE, we need to be more strategic in how we approach major projects that affect a multitude of issues.

Utilizing grant dollars or any dollars to apply towards projects that will improve flood risks, public safety, aesthetics and economic activity is not just growth, it’s smart growth.

We have to be proactive in planning the future development of our home, St. John Parish.

Michael P. Wright is St. John the Baptist Parish Council District 5 representative. Contact him at District5@sjbparish.com or m.wright@sjbparish.com.