The Gentilly Resilience District (GRD) is a combination of resilience programs and projects funded by the National Disaster Resilience grant - in the targeted area of Gentilly. These projects are being designed to reduce flood risk, slow land subsidence, improve energy reliability and spur neighborhood revitalization.
The St. Bernard Neighborhood Campus is one of several in the GRD project portfolio, being designed with multiple benefits. This project will increase the number of native plantings for shade and habitatat, which will decrease urban heat effects and reduce flooding by storing stormwater on site before slowly releasing it into the drainage system. And while adrressing the environmental challenges of the community is paramount, the project also aims to demonstrate that resilient neighborhood-scale stormwater management can provide benefits far beyond the initial investment by revitalizing community access to varied recreational amenities.
This project will be constructed in three phases – Phase I is anticipated to begin late summer 2020 and will be focused on the multi-functional athletic fields. This will not only provide the community with a recreational amenity but will also serve the enhanced purpose of reducing flooding by storing up to 5 million gallons of stormwater in underground detention basins.
The proposed 60% design was presented by the design team for review in December 2019 You can check out the full presentation here.