HLS 15RS-3641 ORIGINAL
2015 Regular Session
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 152
BY REPRESENTATIVE BADON
LEVEES/BDS & DISTRICTS: Urges and requests that the Orleans Levee District and the
Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation not reopen the Pontchartrain Beach to the
public
1 A RESOLUTION
2To urge and request that the Orleans Levee District and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin
3 Foundation not reopen the Pontchartrain Beach to the public.
4 WHEREAS, Pontchartrain Beach is a fifteen acre site located on the south shore of
5Lake Pontchartrain in the city of New Orleans' Lakefront area, at the northern end of Elysian
6Fields Avenue; and
7 WHEREAS, as there are no natural beaches occurring along the southern shore of
8Lake Pontchartrain, Pontchartrain Beach was originally a brackish marsh and swampland
9which provided a habitat for fish, shellfish, muskrats, osprey, alligators, and other native
10flora and fauna; and
11 WHEREAS, in the 1830s, the swamp began to give way to human interests making
12Pontchartrain Beach a recreational area; and
13 WHEREAS, since the inception of the Orleans Levee District in 1890 it has been the
14owner of the property known as Pontchartrain Beach; and
15 WHEREAS, official Pontchartrain Beach construction began in the 1930s as a result
16of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "Works Progress Administration" and the Orleans
17Levee District "Lakefront Improvement Project"; and
18 WHEREAS, in 1939, the Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park was established and
19at its peak the park had features such as a swimming pool and a waterfront stage for live
20entertainment; and
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HR NO. 152
1 WHEREAS, social and environmental factors led to the ultimate closure of
2Pontchartrain Beach in 1983 with the major contributors to the park's decline being poor
3water quality, gradual erosion, and hurricanes; and
4 WHEREAS, the beach reopened in the early 1990s, but in 2012, after two people
5drowned in six weeks the beach was closed to public access; and
6 WHEREAS, in certain areas of the lake near the beach there are blocks of concrete
7called groins that can be slippery from algae buildups and depressions in the lake bottom
8which is deeper near these structures because the wave action interacts with the rocks in the
9lake; and
10 WHEREAS, the Orleans Levee District recently approved signing a lease with the
11Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation that will allow the nonprofit to reopen the beach to the
12public in the near future; and
13 WHEREAS, the conditions in the lake that were there when the two drowning deaths
14occurred in 2012 still exist and as such opening the beach to the public once again will only
15put the public at risk.
16 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
17Legislature of Louisiana does hereby urge and request that the Orleans Levee District and
18the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation not reopen the Pontchartrain Beach to the public.
DIGEST
The digest printed below was prepared by House Legislative Services. It constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument. The keyword, one-liner, abstract, and digest do not constitute
part of the law or proof or indicia of legislative intent. [R.S. 1:13(B) and 24:177(E)]
HR 152 Original 2015 Regular Session Badon
Urges and requests that the Orleans Levee District and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin
Foundation not reopen the Pontchartrain Beach to the public.
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