Louisiana Land Use Toolkit 3.0

The Louisiana Land Use Toolkit was created by the Center of Planning Excellence (CPEX), as a model development code to support economically, culturally, and environmentally sustainable development for communities of Louisiana. The Toolkit applies “Smart Growth” principles to future development planning, aiming to create resilient communities, revitalized neighborhoods, increased land value, affordable housing, and protected rural, natural, and open space areas. The Toolkit is a free, online resource designed for Louisiana parishes and municipalities to tailor to local needs by adopting a zoning code, a subdivision code, or an individual ordinance — or to be customized into a complete development code.

The Toolkit was drafted to serve as a flexible planning and zoning framework that can be adapted in diverse Louisiana jurisdictions to a variety of different environments or neighborhood characteristics. There are specific rules for six distinct “context areas” of: Natural, Rural, Suburban, Urban, Center, and Special. The model codes take into account the unique culture, traditional development patterns, and building types in Louisiana, as well as the requirements of Louisiana law