ANNUAL PLAN

Fiscal Year 2013 Annual Plan: Integrated Ecosystem Restoration and Hurricane Protection in Coastal Louisiana

Origin of the Annual Plan
Session of 2005 (Act 8), the Louisiana Legislature mandated the integration of hurricane protection activities (e.g., levee construction) and coastal restoration activities (e.g., river diversions or marsh creation). Act 8 also created the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) and tasked it with oversight of these activities.

In 2007, in response to Act 8’s directive, the State released Integrated Ecosystem Restoration and Hurricane Protection: Louisiana’s Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast (2007 Master Plan). The 2007 Master Plan established four planning objectives as benchmarks for implementing coastal protection and restoration projects and identified large-scale measures needed to achieve a sustainable coast. The 2007 Master Plan was passed unanimously in the Louisiana Legislature and its primacy was subsequently reaffirmed by Gov. Bobby Jindal in Executive Order BJ2008-7, which directed all State agencies to administer their activities, to the maximum extent possible, in accordance with the Master Plan’s recommendations.

Although the 2007 Master Plan broke new ground by identifying a strategy for achieving a sustainable coast, it was not intended to address the numerous complex issues that coastal Louisiana faces. To accommodate the dynamic nature of coastal processes, Act 8 specifies that the Master Plan is a living document that will be updated approximately every five years. These updates will incorporate new data and planning tools as they become available. To comply with the man- date set forth in Act 8, the first update of the Master Plan must be submitted to the Louisiana Legislature in March 2012.

Act 523 of the 2009 Regular Legislative Session directed the CPRA to produce an Annual Plan each year that inventories integrated coastal protection projects, presents implementation schedules for these projects, and identifies funding schedules and budgets.*

Evolution of the Annual Plan
Historically, the State’s Annual Plans for coastal projects provided: 1) an inventory of projects for which the State planned to expend money and resources for a given fiscal year, and 2) recommendations for allocating Coastal Protection and Restoration Funds to those projects. The FY 2010 Annual Plan was the first plan to address the new integrated planning and prioritization directives specified in Act 8. The FY 2013 Annual Plan fulfills the legislative mandate of Act 8 by presenting CPRA’s three-year program for funding and implementing projects during FY 2013–FY 2015.

Additionally, the FY 2013 Annual Plan builds on the process first begun in the FY 2010 plan and provides an expanded discussion of CPRA’s progress in protecting and restoring the coast. Section Two provides a summary of the challenges encountered during FY 2012; Section Three outlines an implementation plan for FY 2013; Section Four gives fiscal projections for FY 2013 to 2015; Section Five previews the new Coastal Master Plan; and the Appendices provide detailed information on CPRA projects, programs and initiatives.

The Annual Plan for Coastal Protection and Restoration describes projects and actions that will be undertaken by the state and its partners each fiscal year. The annual plan also forecasts project priorities and budgets up to three years into the future. Finally, the annual plan describes both the progress we have made and the challenges we have encountered in seeking to implement the guidance offered in the coastal master plan. In all of these ways, the annual plan describes the year to year implementation of the master plan. Because the master plan presents large scale, coast-wide priorities and is only updated every five years, the detailed coverage of projects in the annual plan provides important information about what coastal residents can expect.

For more information about Louisiana’s 2012 Coastal Master Plan, please visit www.coastalmasterplan.la.gov.