Policy aimed at blocking any New Orleans City Hall relocation gets council approval

New Orleans mayors will have to get City Council approval to move City Hall to the Municipal Auditorium or anywhere else under a new zoning policy that received preliminary approval from councilmembers on Thursday.

The vote, which was unanimous, comes as opponents of Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s plan to convert the Municipal Auditorium to the new home of city government called on the administration to immediately begin fixing up the building to prevent its further decay.

The council move presents another roadblock for Cantrell's City Hall plan -- which could cost more than $100 million. And it also threatens to make Cantrell the latest in a line of mayors who have tried and failed to ditch the city’s outdated and problem-plagued home on Perdido Street.

Cantrell had discussed the move since at least 2018. The initial proposal would see the city use a combination of FEMA money dedicated to the building's restoration and money the city could get from the existing City Hall site to build a complex at Armstrong Park, potentially including government office buildings and a large garage nearby.

As those plans drew increasing community opposition, the administration scaled back its vision. First, officials said they would pack all of the city's functions into the existing confines of Municipal Auditorium by having up to two-thirds of city employees work from home. Then the mayor offered to pause any proposals until after the fall elections when she's seeking another term and put the responsibility for coming up with alternatives back on advocates.

Despite the administration's efforts to reassure residents, neighbors near the Municipal Auditorium in Tremé have argued that the proposals would amount to the destruction of Louis Armstrong Park and Congo Square.

Read the full article here: https://www.nola.com/news/politics/article_184118b4-e5bb-11eb-b0d1-2797467921d9.html