Isle De Jean Charles Resettlement Planning

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• What's involved in the community-resettlement process
• Why the coastal conditions along the Louisiana coast will likely engender future migrations, and what other coastal environments around the country and world can learn from the Isle De Jean Charles resettlement
• Economic- and cultural-sustainability strategies proposed for the new community, and adaptable to other communities

MORE SESSION DETAILS

Isle de Jean Charles — a coastal community in remote Terrebonne Parish (county), Louisiana — has lost more than 90 percent of its land mass over nearly three generations. Looking forward, the island itself is expected to disappear completely over the next 50 years – or upon the next significant tropical impact. Using a $48.3 million HUD grant, the State of Louisiana is working with the island community to conduct the first publicly funded, climate change-induced resettlement in American history. Learn about the project’s progress to date, with specific emphasis on initial outreach, engagement, and physical survey work completed in anticipation of residents’ retreat, as well as an overview of an extensive site-selection process which the state, along with its partners, conducted in advance of acquiring a parcel on which the newly resettled community will be founded. Finally, explore the comprehensive master planning work underway to design and program the newly resettled community, including the development of housing, infrastructure, economic-development, and job-training opportunities, as well as community real estate ownership structures. This master plan will also envision programming around the “long goodbye” expected to take place in the years to come as the existing island erodes away.