Efforts to produce a plan have been halting and beset with politics. Various reasons for not having a plan have been presented including lack of money in the city. Significant controversy over the land use issue (what neighborhoods are abandoned) has created additional resistance.

• Unified New Orleans Plan Rockefeller Foundation - July 5 2007-Spring 2007
  The Unified New Orleans Plan is the process endorsed by the Mayor of New Orleans, New Orleans City Council, New Orleans City Planning Commission and the Louisiana Recovery Authority. The goal of this process is to include all  neighborhoods and residents (Orleans only) in planning the future of our city. When the planning is done, UNOP will deliver to the City Planning Commission a comprehensive city plan owned by all citizens. Funding for the process is being provided for by donations from various sources including the Greater New Orleans Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.

• Neighborhoods Rebuilding Plan for the City of New Orleans Lambert by City Council
  Lambert Advisory and our team of local and national planners are working on behalf of the residents of the 49 flooded neighborhoods in the city. We have gathered your input, considered your unique issues, and we are nearing completion of a neighborhood- by-neighborhood recovery plan that will be submitted by the end of the summer to the city planning commission and city council.
  
  
• Contracted by the LRA Duany Plater Zyberk conducted public charettes, a type of architectural planning study in St. Bernard, Gentilly and southwest Louisiana. Participants loved the process but there were complaints about Duany's New Urbanism (aka Seaside just past Destin) showing up in the final results.
  
  
• Federal HUD (Alphonse Jackson) plan to close down additional public housing projects in the city with the goal of redeveloping mixed income neighborhoods. Once again perceived as a measure to change the demographics of the city by excluding poor blacks from the housing market.
  
  
• Bring New Orleans Back - Mayor's Commission used the ULI results on land use and that section of the plan was subsequently disavowed by the Mayor. Commission member and major local developer Joseph Cannizaro was excoriated by some poor residents for trying to execute a "land grab."
  
  
• Urban Land Institute - Free Study by ULI created a furor when it recommended redevelopment of the city within the 1898 footprint. Many citizens perceived the plan as a "land grab" by developers who wanted their excluded properties for a song.

The path of least resistance is to build everywhere first. There are lots of costs associated with such a non-plan. You need infrastructure like roads, power, water, sewers and drains repaired and maintained. You need flood protection. You need police and fire protection. Later you need schools, public transportation and private enterprise. Where do you get the dough? The feds of course: New Orleans will be headed back to Washington in 2007 asking for more CDBG money.