To facilitate citizen participation and land use and demographic data collection,
planners divided the unincorporated area of Jefferson Parish into fourteen (14) separate
planning districts. The existing parish parcel map was used as a base map, which did
not include streets, canals, levees, and other rights-of-way. Two (2) graduate assistants
from the University of New Orleans College of Urban and Public Affairs (UNO) visited
each of the more than one hundred fifty thousand (150,000) individual parcels throughout
unincorporated Jefferson Parish. Using the American Planning Association's Land-Based
Classification Standards (LBCS) as the land use code, the UNO surveyors recorded land
use data for each parcel. The data was then entered into a series of ArcView Geographic
Information System (GIS) based files provided by the Jefferson Parish GIS Department,
and compatible with the parish's GIS platform. Entering the data into the GIS allows
the creation of detailed land use tables by acreage for individual land uses, as well
as the capacity to produce detailed land use maps.
Note—
These districts do not include the parish's six (6) municipalities: Kenner, Harahan,
Westwago, Gretna, Lafitte, and Grand Isle.
The land use analysis is an overview of land use patterns focusing on the amount in
acres, type, and relationship of both residential and nonresidential land uses for
each of the fourteen (14) planning districts. Residential density also was calculated
for the main LBCS residential categories. To aid spatial analysis of land use patterns,
maps were created for both residential and nonresidential land uses for each planning
district, the East and West Banks, and the entire parish. In the Elmwood and Harvey
Canal areas, the two (2) predominately commercial and industrial planning districts,
an additional map was created using more detailed LBCS codes for commercial and industrial
land uses. Land use and density calculations are net; they do not include any land
allocated for roads, drainage, or any rights-of-way, which is not currently in the
parish GIS.
