Liz Moule and Stephanos Polyzoides of Moule & Polyzoides focused on the hardest hit regions of Biloxi during their 6 visits. They put most of their time and effort into this section of coastline, and the Eastern peninsula where there had been many cottages and neighborhood streets destroyed.

Part of the plan was a Casino Row, with parking below a raised plaza, making the different functions of the Casino, such as hotel, casino, and restaurants into seemingly different buildings. Change the beachfront freeway into a beach boulevard with a transit line and mixed use medium density development along the boulevard.
Replace underutilized land, such as golf courses, with development, so that more development can be focused inland for those who don’t want to risk living in such high risk areas. Fill in the holes in the downtown streetscape with similarly scaled buildings to repair the urban fabric. Recreate a fishing village for the largely Vietnamese fishing community in Biloxi and try to bring back the seafood industry, which could help kickstart the regions economy with the eventual revenue from casino restaurant demand, and exportation.

Liz and Stephanos spent 6 weeks drawing up plans and proposals based on their meetings with community members, but upon their return they discovered that the mayor, who they admittedly weren’t very close with, was zoning the downtown infill projects and beachfront land for 20-30 story structures, and he seemed to friendly with real estate speculators and casino owners to be able to continue with the plans they had authored. Liz and Stephanos resigned from their post, and since then the mayor has changed course, with a new process and a new plan for zoning under an air force general. David Dixon has inherited the project, and they wish him the best of luck.

The lesson learned is that while it is important to get grassroots community input, the elected officials are representatives of the citizens, and it is important to get them involved in the process so that the plan can be adopted and move forward in implementation.

Biloxi Final Report (PDF)

Last edited by jp.   Page last modified on July 28, 2006