Louisiana Speaks, the privately funded campaign to solicit input on planning south Louisiana’s future, drew more than 23,000 responses in January and February — more than any previous regional planning campaign in the nation, organizers said. The Louisiana Recovery Authority initiated the campaign, working with local planners at the Center for Planning Excellence in Baton Rouge and with LRA’s national planning consultant, Fregonese Calthorpe Associates of Portland, Ore.

“While we haven’t finished counting all of the responses yet, we are thrilled to report that tens of thousands of citizens took time out of their own personal recoveries to speak up for south Louisiana,” said Donna Fraiche, chairwoman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority’s Long Term Planning Task Force. “This level of participation is unprecedented, and it tells us that Louisianians want a vision for our future.” “We ended up getting huge results,” said Boo Thomas, president of the Center for Planning Excellence, which is a unit of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. Previous regional campaigns in Utah and Texas had drawn 18,000 and 12,000 responses, she said. “Based on the public responses, our consultants are starting to shape the vision and begin writing the plan.”

Though Thomas said it’s too early to release details of the survey, residents leaned away from the status quo in favor of new approaches to development — and recommendations will differ by region: The Lake Charles action plan, for instance, will differ from recommendations for Baton Rouge, New Orleans or St. Tammany Parish. Initial results of the Louisiana Speaks campaign will be released March 27, with an action plan making recommendations to state policymakers expected by early May, shortly after the Legislature convenes. About 1,000 responses came from evacuees now living outside the state, and 32 states were represented.

“The responses that have been received to date far exceeds similar efforts conducted in other parts of the U.S., including the long-term planning outreach initiative conducted in New York after Sept. 11th,” said Robin Rather, president and CEO of Collective Strength, the research consulting firm that is collecting and analyzing the survey results and will make the presentation. Participants sounded off on what kind of future economic development, coastal protection, residential development, transportation systems and growth patterns they wanted to see. Among the issues addressed is whether Louisianans want to emphasize individual rights — such as building wherever they see fit — or emphasize community rights, which would provide more orderly development and protect against building in flood-prone areas.

Earlier sessions in 2006 throughout south Louisiana provided the foundation for Louisiana Speaks, a three-week campaign to draw survey responses from Louisiana residents and former residents who were affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The goal is to provide a vision for planning south Louisiana through 2050 using local and regional cooperation. The planning effort produced a Louisiana Public Broadcasting special, created an online polling place, inserted survey ballots in newspapers and distributed ballots at libraries and public places in the state.

The Louisiana Speaks public survey cost about $1 million while the entire planning process — under way for about a year — will cost about $4 million. Private donations to the LRA Support Foundation and administered by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation are paying for the planning process, with no taxpayer money involved.