KENNER, La. — It was standing room only at Heritage Hall Tuesday night as people got a chance to see the ambitious plans for the future of Kenner.
The City hired an architectural consulting firm out of Atlanta to draft some sketches for both the Esplanade Mall and Rivertown.
“It creates a place for people to live,” Thomas Walsh with TSW said. “It also has work and hospitality and all the things the community doesn’t have right now.”
The proposal calls for the removal of most of the Esplanade Mall as we know it. In its place, it adds a combination of townhouses, single family homes, parks and businesses.
Some things might stay, but most would look completely different.
"The Target would stay, the church that is there would stay, so you have those pieces,” Walsh said. “The other pieces probably go away."
The same firm also drafted some plans for what to do with Kenner’s Rivertown neighborhood. They call for multi-family houses right along the river along with more of an emphasis on recreation and restaurants.
"More restaurants in this area -- not to compete with each other, but for all of the restaurants to work together,” Mayor Ben Zahn said. "The city of Kenner is very, very dependent on sales tax. The more sales tax we bring in, the better it is for the City of Kenner."
This public meeting was one of the first times people living here got a chance to see these proposed ideas and there were mixed reviews.
Some residents said the plans looked "wonderful" and that the area needed the new housing and recreation areas, but others were concerned about what new development would mean for the area.
“We are concerned about all of this new development that’s going on,” one woman said. “People are coming in, developing your neighborhood and then they are gone.”
Final proposals will be presented to the City Council in August.