The home at 2519 Napoleon Avenue, purchased by Ochsner Clinic Foundation in 2015 and now slated for “institutional” land-use. (via Google)
Officials at Ochsner Baptist Medical Center are asking the city of New Orleans to include several properties they own in their “institutional” land-use designation, though they do not have immediate plans to develop any of them, they have told neighbors.
Ochsner is making the requests while the city is accepting changes to its master plan — the document that governs broad land use categories, and can result in a wide range of zoning classifications for individual properties. The hospital is seeking the “institutional” land-use at five locations:
- Napoleon at South Robertson, a two-story double home and adjoining parking lots,
- 2902 Napoleon, a parking lot at the corner of Willow,
- Cadiz at Willow, a cluster of parking lots,
- 4601 Clara, a single-story building at the corner of Cadiz, and
- 4240 Magnolia, a red brick building on the corner of General Pershing.
A map of the five parcels where Ochsner is seeking “institutional” land use. (via City of New Orleans)
Nearby, City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell’s office has also requested that the entire block bounded by South Robertson, Cadiz, Magnolia and Jena — which includes a few privately-owned single-family homes, independent freestanding clinics, and some Ochsner-owned parking lots — also be changed from mixed-use low density to institutional land use. That request is separate from Ochsner’s application, however.
Ochsner officials described the changes in a meeting with Freret residents last month, and said that they are simply making the request to unify the campus under a single land-use designation. They do not have immediate plans to develop any of the parcels, they said, or even to request specific zoning changes for them.
“We’re not talking about zoning changes. We’re not talking about building a building,” Jason Ruggles, director of real estate. “We’re not talking about changing anything from a neighborhood perspective.”
Some residents complained that the hospital is reducing the housing stock in the neighborhood with its purchases. The hospital actually bought the homes without tenants in them, Ruggles replied, but would consider renting them out on a temporary basis.
“If we allow that to be absorbed back into residential, we may not be able to use it back for its stated purposes,” Ruggles said.
The hospital has no plans to begin charging for parking, and might consider more multi-story garage space nearer the center of its campus if it became necessary, Ruggles said. Whenever new doctors consider moving into one of Ochsner’s buildings, their first question is whether there is enough parking nearby, he said.
“Our goal is not to operate parking lots, not to turn them into profit centers,” Ruggles said. “The ultimate goal would be to keep all the parking together.”
Ochsner’s requests are among several dozen changes to the land-use maps submitted to the City Planning Commission as it considers amending the Master Plan this fall. A full list can be seen at the planning commission’s website, and comments on any of the proposals can be emailed to cpcinfo@nola.gov.
The land-use request should not be seen as an expansion of the hospital, Ruggles stressed — just a technical change to ensure the hospital can use the property it already owns. Nor does he expect to buy any more property soon, he said.
“I don’t have any other properties on my radar,” Ruggles said. “We have a good footprint. We’re not actively in the neighborhood now trying to buy the properties.”
The building at 4240 General Pershing Street, one of several that Ochsner Baptist officials would like to see designated with “institutional” land use. (via Google)
