Baton Rouge — The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority formally opened the first public solicitation for the 2029 Coastal Master Plan Wednesday, asking for project ideas to reduce land loss or storm-surge flood risk in Coastal Louisiana. CPRA said the first solicitation runs through Oct. 17 and that submissions received in this period will receive feedback and, if screened out, may be revised and resubmitted during a second solicitation early next year.

Katie Friar, head of CPRA’s Strategic Planning Section, told the Restoration Authority the master plan uses a 50-year planning horizon and that the agency updates the plan every six years. “Everything we receive, we screen and we determine what is suitable, what, we do believe will help address the goals of the master plan,” Friar said, describing the candidate-project screening, modeling and iterative decision process.

CPRA staff described the overall process: candidate projects come from prior master-plan projects that remain unfunded, from the new public solicitation, and from technical/regional work groups. Projects that pass a screening will be modeled against a future-without-action baseline updated from the 2018 landscape; CPRA will then analyze modeled benefits across environmental and risk-reduction scenarios before advisory groups and the public help refine project selection.

Staff emphasized that the master plan itself is not a funding document: the plan is a 50‑year prioritization and decision-support tool, while the CPRA annual plan is the agency’s funding document. CPRA said the agency will provide resources to help project sponsors, including a new online submission form, a project development website, a master-plan data viewer with future-without-action projections, public workshops, a webinar (recording to be posted) and virtual office hours.

Timeline: CPRA said model and data updates continue through the end of 2025, future-without-action model runs begin in early 2026, candidate projects will be modeled mid‑2026, iterative decision making occurs in 2027, plan formulation occurs in 2028 with draft public hearings, and the authority seeks final plan submission for legislative consideration in 2029.

Board members discussed sequencing and prioritization; CPRA staff said they are reevaluating sequencing to provide better information on which projects produce the “biggest bang for the buck” if built sooner and which projects might gain from waiting for future conditions. St. Charles Parish President Jewell described a local “Shield Plan” developed using CPRA methodology to bring additional projects from the Upper Barataria into the master-plan process.

How to participate: CPRA said the first public solicitation runs through Oct. 17 and that projects entered now have the best opportunity to get feedback and to be revised for the second solicitation in early 2026. The agency asked prospective submitters to use CPRA’s online form and the supporting project development materials on the CPRA 2029 master-plan web page.

Why it matters: The master plan guides 50‑year coastal priorities and helps frame future project development and funding decisions. CPRA staff urged broad participation from coastal practitioners and the general public to improve the plan’s coverage and usefulness.