Aviation board consolidates parcels

NEW ORLEANS, La. - To make dozens of scattered acres of vacant airport-buyout land more attractive to developers, the New Orleans Aviation Board has consolidated it into eight parcels. Officials from Kenner, where most of the land is located, and Louis Armstrong International Airport are drafting a request for proposals for potential developers. The airport bought the land and razed houses beginning in the mid-1990s as part of a noise-mitigation lawsuit, but it has remained vacant. Now the Federal Aviation Administration, which paid for the property, has directed the airport to submit a plan by October for using the land. (Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, 06/26/09)