(AP) A "dream team" of thinkers, researchers and urban planners will shape the rebuilding of Louisiana cities and towns after the destruction caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Thursday.

Blanco introduced a group that includes architects and planners, some of whom have been involved in figuring out how to rebuild Mississippi towns destroyed by Katrina.

Miami-based architect Andres Duany led a team that came up with recommendations for rebuilding 11 Mississippi cities and towns. Duany is a practitioner of "new urbanism," which seeks to create compact towns with prominent public spaces and old-fashioned downtowns to increase foot traffic and reduce suburban sprawl.

Blanco said she expects that the group's recommendations will reflect Louisiana's "unique heritage and will embrace designs for community growth and prosperity."

The planning team recommendations will go to the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the group Blanco put together to direct all areas of post-storm recovery.

The leader of the planning group is Peter Calthorpe, a Berkeley, Calif.-based architect and planner. Amy Liu, of the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institute think tank, will oversee research into economic redevelopment and demographics.

At a news conference, Calthorpe dodged one of the touchiest issues of the rebuilding effort: which devastated neighborhoods in New Orleans will be rebuilt, and which will not. The question has provoked anger among many New Orleans blacks, who fear that the lower Ninth Ward, a mainly black neighborhood destroyed by flooding, will not be repopulated.

Calthorpe said it's too early to say.

In New Orleans on Thursday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos toured the destruction and pledged $500,000 to help small businesses in Louisiana. He said another $500,000 would be used to promote tourism in the Gulf Coast region.

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On the Net:

Duany Plater-Zyberk: http://www.dpz.com/

Calthorpe Associates: http://www.calthorpe.com/

Louisiana Recovery Authority: http://www.lra.louisiana.gov/

Brookings Institute Metropolitan Policy Program: http://www.brookings.edu/metro/