HAMMOND — Considerations about how the 35 parishes of south Louisiana will recover and change as a result of the 2005 hurricanes were the focus of a public meeting Tuesday night. Conducted by Louisiana Speaks, a community planning movement spearheaded by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, the meeting was designed to gather information and provide planning support for the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

Louisiana Speaks representatives explained a voluntary five-question survey to a group of about two dozen Tangipahoa Parish-area officials and residents involved in planning discussions. Little was said about Tangipahoa Parish specifically, except to acknowledge the parish’s struggle with rapid post-hurricane growth during the past year and a half. Parish government is at the start of a yearlong process to develop a land-use plan that could lead to enactment of zoning laws. The process is being paid for in part and assisted by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation.

In the meantime, Tangipahoa’s population continues to grow, with few controls on what types of development can go in which unincorporated areas. Glen Bolen, an Oregon-based planning consultant hired by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation for the Louisiana Speaks process, said the issue of traffic patterns the survey addresses is of particular interest to Tangipahoa Parish. Bolen said that consultants are looking at housing and travel patterns to identify areas of congestion.

The group also is working on traffic models to see what would happen if growth patterns remain where they are — mostly single-family homeowners commuting from their homes outside of metropolitan areas. Planners are also looking at what would happen if there is more urban, multifamily development coupled with some mass transit being put in place, Bolin said. How to grow would determine whether more money should be spent on building more roads or on developing rail or other mass-transit systems, he said.