Here is a selection of items on the agendas for this week’s meetings of the City and Parish councils. To see the full agendas, check out the links below.
- Parish Agenda (Public Comment Time!)
- City Agenda
Lafayette 101: Two-week council cycle. Most council business happens in two-week installments. Ordinances require two steps: a vote for introduction and a vote for final adoption. Typically, council members introduce legislation in globo, which means items are packaged together and introduced all at once without discussion. Resolutions don’t follow this procedure and can be adopted in a single meeting.
Parish Council
Final Adoption
Parish Council redistricting begins. This ordinance is part of the process that will change the shape of Parish Council districts. The 2020 census found that Districts 3, 4 and 5 are no longer evenly distributed, with population deviation of greater than 5%, in large part because of major growth in Broussard and Youngsville. This ordinance declares that a demographer will be contracted to prepare new redistricting plans for the Parish Council’s consideration.
Public Health revenues rededicated to Parishwide Fire Protection. This ordinance will formally recognize the results of the fall election in which voters approved moving .23 mills from the Combined Public Health Fund — which pays for services like animal and mosquito control and the parish health unit — to the Parishwide Fire Protection Fund. The focus of this $500,000 per year in funding will be on fire protection for unincorporated Lafayette.
City Council
Resolutions
Two restoration tax abatements. Home Bank has requested a tax exemption worth $24,000 to remodel the vacated bank facility at 523 Jefferson St. Rader Solutions requested an exemption worth $106,000 to cover its remodel of the former Oil Center Piccadilly at 838 Coolidge St. Restoration tax abatements waive property taxes for five years on the increased value of properties resulting from restoration work.
Final Adoption
City Council redistricting begins. This ordinance is part of the process that will change the shape of City Council districts. The 2020 Census found that City Council Districts 2, 3, 4 and 5 are not evenly distributed, with a greater than 5% population deviation. Northern districts have gotten smaller, and southern districts have grown. This ordinance declares that a demographer will be contracted to prepare new redistricting plans for the City Council’s consideration.
$1.5 million for the Cypress Island Swamp Spoil Bank Project. This ordinance recognizes the reimbursable revenues from the state of Louisiana Facility Planning and Control and authorizes the required match of $500,000. It confirms a cooperative endeavor agreement between the state and Lafayette Parish, though the source of the funding for the local match is the city of Lafayette’s capital budget.
Appeal
Fair Oaks Subdivision Lot 11. Homeowners have asked the City Council to overrule the City Planning Commission’s approval of a subdivided lot. “If allowed, other such small lots will result in the destruction of a classic, appropriate urban neighborhood,” the appeal argues.
Introduction
$500,000 of ARPA funds to the All4One Foundation. This ordinance would appropriate these funds to help provide elderly and disabled citizens with basic home improvements. If approved, roughly $13 million of city ARPA funding will remain.
Joint Items
Final Adoption
Harsher penalties for litter abatement. This ordinance would make the following changes to litter penalties, including higher fines, more community service hours and potential jail time:
Further, instead of splitting the proceeds of special court costs between law enforcement, the district attorney and the public works department, 100% will be payable to parish government.
Introduction
$1 million for the Scott tire pit fire. This ordinance will take money from the Environmental Quality Fund to deal with a landfill fire in a part of unincorporated Lafayette surrounded by the city of Scott. In December Mayor-President Josh Guillory declared this fire — which may have been burning since 2018 — to be a public emergency. It’s not the only tire fire smoldering in Louisiana in recent weeks; 1,500 prisoners were evacuated from a state facility in Cottonport because of noxious fumes from an adjacent fire earlier this month.
Property
Below is a table collecting council actions related to property, such as rezonings, annexations and disposition of adjudicated properties.
| Address | Approval | Action |
| 817 Voorhies St | Joint Council | Non-warranty cash sale to adjoining landowner |
| 100 Block Brown Fortier Dr | City Council | Rezone from CH to CM-1 |
| 330 Block Verot School Rd | City Council | Rezone from A to RS-1 and MN-1 |
| 151 West Palermo Rd | City Council | Annexation |
| 2945 Ambassador Caffery | City Council | Annexation and zone as CM-1 |
Vacancies
| Board | Approval |
| Industrial Development Board (2x) | Parish Council |
| Lafayette Animal Care Center Advisory Board | Parish Council |
| Board of Zoning Adjustment | City Council |
Appointments
| Board | Approval | Applicants |
| Professional Services Committee | Parish Council | Parish Councilmembers |
| Lafayette Parish Waterworks District South | Parish Council | Terry Becht |
| Parish Planning and Zoning Commission | Parish Council | John Broussard, Charles Ditch |
| Industrial Development Board | Parish Council | Jesse Regan |
| Keep Lafayette Beautiful | Parish Council | Felecia Jenkins, Lea Urdiales |
| Professional Services Committee | City Council | City Councilmember |
| Civil Service Board | City Council | Dale Savoie, Michael Simon, Allison John, “Sonny” Launey, Robert Webb, Lew Rigaud |
| City Planning & Zoning Commission | City Council | David Gleason, Blair Werner Green |
| Lafayette Science Museum Advisory Board (4x) | City Council | Heather Birdsong, Cindy Hebert, Natalie Keefer, Pablo Mejia, Setareh Mirian-Delcambre, Alicia Roberts, Mike Roebuck |