New Orleans Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance

Printed: 10/15/2024 12:58:37 AM

18.17 GC Greenway Corridor Design Overlay District

18.17.A Applicability   

The GC Greenway Corridor Design Overlay District is intended as an overlay district to promote an active public edge by ensuring pedestrian and bicycle-oriented design in new development and redevelopment on lots fronting officially designated greenways. The GC Greenway Corridor Design Overlay District applies to the following areas:

1. All lots within blocks located adjacent to or across a public right-of-way from the Lafitte Greenway. For the purposes of this section, the Lafitte Greenway is defined as: (1.) the area bounded by Basin Street, Lafitte Avenue, North Jefferson Davis Parkway, and St. Louis Street; and (2) the entirety of the St. Louis Street right-of-way between North Jefferson Davis Parkway and Canal Boulevard.

18.17.B Development Plan and Design Review Required   

Development plan and design review is required for any new structure, addition, or enlargement in accordance with the thresholds of applicability in Section 4.5.

18.17.C Additional Design Review Approval Standards   

In addition to the site plan and design review standards of Section 4.5, the following additional approval standards shall be considered:

1.  New development should promote safe, convenient and attractive pedestrian and bicycle access to the greenway.

2. Main pedestrian entrances of new developments shall be oriented, wherever possible, toward the greenway and toward major streets that intersect the greenway, and shall be clearly articulated through façade variations, overhangs, and/or other design elements.

3. Curb cuts and loading and service areas shall not be located adjacent to or facing the greenway or along major streets intersecting the greenway, wherever possible. Where curb cuts, loading and service areas and vehicular parking must be located adjacent to or facing a greenway or on a major street intersecting the greenway, they shall be designed to minimize conflicts between motorized vehicles and pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

4.  Building façades shall contain variation in façade materials, and shall employ offsets, fenestration, bays and balconies, etc. in order to eliminate blank walls, enhance the architectural character of development in the greenway corridor, and encourage passive surveillance of the greenway. The ground floor walls of commercial uses shall maintain a transparency of forty percent (40%). Windows shall be constructed of clear or lightly tinted glass. Tinting above twenty percent (20%) or reflective glass is prohibited.

5.  Surface parking lots shall be set back a minimum of ten feet (10’) from a property line adjacent to or facing a greenway, with a landscape buffer provided.

6. No billboard may be erected, constructed, altered, maintained, or relocated within the GC Greenway Corridor Design Overlay District.

7. Neon signage is prohibited on the interior or exterior of windows, other than an “open” sign.