Council Preview: $9.5M to move City Court; Sunday morning beer sales

Parish Council

Resolutions

Drainage request. The Parish Council will vote Tuesday on a resolution encouraging the St. Martin Parish Government, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Teche-Vermilion Fresh Water District, which controls the flow of freshwater from the Bayou Teche to the Vermilion River, to proactively lower water levels on the area’s major drainage channels when storms threatening more than 5 inches of rain are forecasted by the National Weather Service. The resolution would not have the force of law, and given recent feuds with St. Martin Parish and the Corps, it may fall on deaf ears. 

Final Adoption

Homewood Park. Mayor-President Josh Guillory’s administration is asking the Parish Council to reallocate $1.2 million in federal ARPA funds from planned upgrades to the War Memorial Building on Pinhook Road to now be used for park amenities at the beleaguered Homewood Drive Detention Pond near Milton. Some neighbors of the pond have questioned the potential for putting a park on the property and complained that they haven’t been involved in decisions on what amenities it will include.

Introduction

Parish millages. Property taxes will likely drop this year as the two-year library millage boost approved by the Parish Council in 2021 is replaced by a new library millage rate passed by voters that same year. The council bumped the library’s 1.84-mill tax to 1.97 mills for the two year period between the vote on the renewal and when it would take effect, which is this year. The change is worth more than $300,000 in lost annual revenue for the library and will save 97 cents a year in taxes on a $150,000 house with a homestead exemption. This year’s proposed parish millages are otherwise unchanged from last year.

City Council

Resolutions

Tax abatement. The City Council will vote Tuesday on a resolution to grant a property tax break for renovations at 222 Jefferson Street in Downtown. The break wouldn’t exempt the owner from all property taxes, but would exclude improvements to the building from property tax calculations for at least five, and at most 10, years.

Final Adoption

Deferred. A vote to establish the city’s first rules for short-term rentals, like AirBnB, were deferred Friday until the City Council’s Oct. 3 meeting. Councilman Andy Naquin has pushed a plan to greatly limit STR operations in single-family neighborhoods, which saw support on the council but pushback from STR owners. He announced the measure’s third deferral Friday as changes continue to be made to the plan following a meeting with stakeholders earlier last week. 

City Court funds. A $9.5 million plan to buy the Lemoine Building Downtown for a new City Court campus is up for a final vote Tuesday after being canned at its last meeting over concerns that a plan for the court relocation wasn’t in place. Guillory’s administration is pushing the move as part of its efforts to free up the current City Court location for mixed-used development by Rock ‘N’ Bowl owner Johnny Blancher, but council members have expressed concerns about authorizing the funds before seeing a full plan for the project. 

City Marshal raises. As the City Council considers raises for police officers, Councilman Pat Lewis is pushing a pay raise for City Marshal deputies that would bring the department’s lowest deputy salary to $50,000 at a recurring annual cost of just over $91,000.

Introduction

City millages. No change is planned for property tax rates in the city of Lafayette this year. LCG’s expectations suggest the city will collect $30.8 million in property taxes, up from $30.5 million last year.

Streetscapes. Guillory’s administration is proposing a shakeup of the city’s federal ARPA funds to shift $2.6 million in federal funds from the Jefferson Street Renewal project into the 12th Street Corridor Streetscape project and take $2.6 million local tax dollars from that project for the Congress Street Streetscaping plan. The change comes as LCG is nearing the federal deadline to allocate and spend its ARPA funds, and the admin says the 12th Street Corridor project is the better option to meet that timeline. Replacement funds for the Jefferson Street Renewal were not included in the proposal.

Joint Items

Final Adoption

No significant items.

Introduction

Alcohol sales. The city and parish councils will give preliminary consideration Tuesday to a plan that would allow beer sales for on-premises consumption to start at 7 a.m. on Sundays. Current rules prohibit alcohol sales before 11 a.m. on Sundays, but the proposed change would allow beverages of 6% ABV or less to be sold for on-premises consumption as early as 7 a.m., leaving out most wines. The proposal also would not change the 11 a.m. start time on Sundays for alcohol sales made for off-premises consumption.

Property

Vacancies

Appointments