The Parish will continue to develop relationships with  CPRA    at the executive, planning, operational, and project management levels. The Parish will make every effort to attend the CPRA Board’s  monthly board meetings  to further establish relationships with the Board members, CPRA staff, and stakeholders and to identify potential opportunities for project partnership and collaboration. The Parish is currently engaged and participating in the 2023 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan Regional Working Group to promote and advocate for projects and policies being considered.

Each year, the  CWPPRA  program solicits local input for the nomination of potential coastal restoration projects. The Parish will continue to be proactively engaged with the federal CWPPRA Task Force members, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, NOAA-Fisheries, and USACE, to encourage collaboration and nomination of eligible projects in the Parish.

The Parish should advocate for projects and programs available through the other funding RESTORE Act buckets such as the Council-Selected Restoration Component or Spill Impact Component, which represent billions of dollars of funding and require significant coordination, communication, and advocacy with members of the  RESTORE Council.

PACE was formed with the goal of uniting and organizing Louisiana’s 20 coastal parishes to raise awareness on the important issue of coastal land loss. The Parish is actively participating in PACE coordinating with other coastal parishes advocating for increased funding for coastal initiatives.  

The Parish is currently participating in the GOMESA Revenue Sharing Coalition. This multi-state group is comprised of the offshore energy producing Gulf States and seeks to increase our share of Outer Continental Shelf revenues to be sent back to the states and coastal parishes/counties. These increased revenues could further augment ongoing restoration and protection efforts that the Parish has initiated through its current GOMESA funding. 

The Parish continues to build relationships with the levee districts that protect areas of Jefferson Parish – specifically Grand Isle Independent Levee District, Lafitte Area Independent Levee District, East Jefferson Levee District, West Jefferson Levee District, and the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority East – to gain consensus on protection needs and to perform education and outreach to citizens to gain awareness of risks as well as opportunities to connect with our coastal ecosystem. 

The integration of elevation and reconstruction projects into coastal protection planning is a priority. The Parish is currently working with CPRA on a pilot program to use CPRA funding as the required non-federal match for FEMA-funded projects. Expanding the use of future CPRA funding is critical to elevate at-risk structures that may not be eligible for other funding sources. It is estimated that nearly 1,000 structures in Jefferson Parish’s coastal areas are below the FEMA base flood elevation and thus pose an increased risk of flooding during storm events.