DELCAMBRE:
BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE COASTAL COMMUNITY
A
prospering coastal village for generations, Delcambre’s
shrimping industry and economy has struggled in recent years.
Then, in September 2005, a 10-foot storm surge from Hurricane
Rita swept through the community creating more hardships, and
flooding all but two dozen of the town’s nearly 1,000 buildings.
Damages totaled
$9.9 million. Businesses along LA 14 closed. The shrimping industry
was crippled further. Two years after the storm, several buildings
still sit empty.
Although weary from Rita’s physical and economic devastation,
a group of businessmen, elected officials and other professionals
see an opportunity to rebuild the town and its prospects. Straddling
Vermilion and Iberia parishes, Delcambre is only about a half-hour
drive from Lafayette, while other coastal communities are an hour
or more away. The Delcambre Canal and Bayou Carlin provide easy
access to the Gulf of Mexico for commercial and recreational activities,
as well as other maritime interests.
Town leaders
want to capitalize on that. They envision a revitalized Delcambre
as a destination with a working waterfront.
A loose coalition
of elected and community leaders formed the Delcambre Town/Ports
Steering Committee, and committee members contacted Louisiana
Sea Grant to see how it could assist. Sea Grant connected the
committee with the landscape architecture program at Louisiana
State University. With Sea Grant funding, LSU senior landscape
architecture students in the fall of 2006 met with Delcambre residents,
walked the town and developed a conceptual redevelopment plan
for the waterfront and surrounding area. Those plans were presented
during a public meeting in November 2006.
Things didn’t
end there. The University of Louisiana’s Community Design
Workshop continued the effort, again with Sea Grant funding. UL
architecture and design students presented their ideas in July
2007.
Overall design
concepts include a public marina, open-air markets, waterfront
residential areas for second homes, al fresco dining, boardwalks,
and possibly a hotel to accommodate tourists. All of the plans
include capitalizing on the town’s annual Shrimp Festival
as an attraction.
Steering
committee members are applying for grants through the local congressional
delegation, Army Corps of Engineers and traditional state and
federal programs. The committee also is soliciting other sources
of support, such as donations of land, parcel swapping, special
taxes, selling fuel and fishing supply concession rights, and
partnerships with the parish and Twin Parish Port Commission.
