FEMA Section 106
Public Notice Regarding Historic Review of Privately-Owned Residential Buildings Proposed for Demolition in Orleans Parish, Louisiana – Non-Collapsed Buildings Seeking Comment.

Public Comment

533-35 S. Alexander St. Facade

Click to see the rest of the set of photos. And the trash pile in back.

We have been taking photos of houses from the FEMA list in Mid- City this week and the best thing Mid-City could do is to take a pro-active approach to contacting the owners of the homes and finding out what the train of their thought is regarding their house. Often, owners don’t feel like they have the energy to investigate options. Some are waiting for Road Home awards and are giving up. We are alerting FEMA to review demolitions in cases where the FEMA criteria for damage on the city’s damage wizard is less than the required 50%.

Today, Bart Everson actually got a positive response from FEMA regarding his public comment online. This is a watershed breakthrough! We have never had a response to the public comment online until now.

Here is the photo of 3319-20 Iberville St.

3319 Bienville

Here is what the State Historic Preservation Officer reported to Bart:

“We appreciate your comments regarding suggested alternatives to
demolition of 3319-21 Iberville Street, New Orleans, LA 70119. You will be pleased to learn that FEMA has removed this property from our demolition list, and it is therefore no longer part of our
undertaking.
We still encourage you to contact the property owner to either purchase the property or to advocate for the property’s renovation, as the building is considered eligible for the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing resource to an historic district. Your suggestion of the Historic Building Grant
Program as a source of funding can be pursued by the property owner if the program’s application deadline has not yet passed.”

The homes in MidCity will come up for review in the HCDRC (Housing Conservation District Review Committee) meetings which are every two weeks on Monday.

It would also be good to have Mid City representatives take turns at showing up in the cases you want to argue. Options are approval, deferrals, and denials. Denials can be appealed to the city council within 10 days. We post the agendas for the HCDRC meetings as soon as we get them.

These are the principles to be considered when evaluating property for demolition at HCDRC: Please review if you feel there is a property in question. HCDRC Principles

I am very encouraged by this response today, I will be posting some Mid City properties on SH this weekend.