Actually, the consequences are very much intended

Despite the Planning Commission's 6-2 vote against, there is little reason to believe that City Council won't turn around and just approve this "accessory dwelling" scheme anyway. No doubt, someone will argue with a straight face that this has something to do with "affordable housing" that seems to be what Kathleen Lunn is saying here.

Commissioner Kathleen Lunn voted for Wednesday's accessory dwelling proposal, while acknowledging it would lead to “unintended consequences” involving short-term rentals. She said zoning laws throttle multifamily development to an “outrageous” degree; only about 5% of New Orleans' land is zoned for multifamily housing, according to a Planning Commission staff report.

“There is no question that we need to incrementally begin to address how this city serves people who actually do live and work here,” Lunn said.

Now I know we all love to hear them "incrementally begin to address" something. But this argument doesn't make any sense.  The housing crisis in New Orleans is not merely a supply problem caused by restrictive zoning. It's a structural problem of a real estate market dominated by asset speculation, corporate power, and a relentless profit incentive that runs counter to the principle of housing as a human right. 

In that context the only possible purpose of this proposal is to create more STRs. 

Staff recommended banning short-term rentals in accessory units. But Commissioner Robert Steeg said he feared the ban would be on paper only, given the Cantrell administration’s failure to enforce short-term rental regulations. Even the accessory units dedicated to long-term tenants would do little to address the affordable housing crisis, as most would require new construction, Steeg said.

“That’s going to lead to construction costs, and that’s going to lead developers - or individuals - to rent at the highest rates they can rent for,” Steeg said.

This is not an affordable housing measure. It is a plan to allow the growing STR market to exploit new territory as New Orleans returns to "normal" now that we've been told to stop caring about the pandemic. And for the Cantrell administration, "normal" means maximizing profits for tourism and real estate investors. The "unintended consequences" are very much the intended consequences.