Council Preview: City to vote on STR rules, revive $9.5M plan for City Court move

Special Joint Meeting

Public Comment

Budget talk. The councils will meet in a joint session Tuesday between their regular meetings to hear from the public on next year’s proposed budget, which is scheduled for a vote of final adoption on Sep. 14. The councils have held public hearings in recent weeks on various parts of LCG’s $700 million budget, and Tuesday’s joint session is a chance for the public to weigh in on any parts of the annual spending plan.

Parish Council

Discussion Items

Northeast Regional Library. The Parish Council is looking for an update on efforts to put a public library on Lafayette’s northside east of I-49. Plans for a Northeast Regional Branch have been in the works for years, but most recently stalled over a land acquisition issue months ago. The project was a political issue in the last council elections in 2019 and again in 2021 when a library millage was up for renewal, suggesting it may factor into October’s elections as well. 

Final Adoption

No significant items.

Introduction

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. LCG CAO Cydra Wingerter says the funds will be used for walking paths, lighting, benches and potentially fishing piers.

City Council

Final Adoption

Short-term rentals. Lafayette’s City Council will vote Tuesday on an updated plan to implement the city’s first rules for short-term rentals, like AirBnB. Updates to Councilman Andy Naquin’s plan would drop his proposed ban from single-family neighborhoods in favor of a requirement for operators to get written consent from first- and second-adjacent neighbors to qualify for a permit to operate in those areas, which operators have called overly burdensome in the past. STR owners in other parts of town would be required to register with the city for permits and certify their neighborhood covenants do not forbid STR activity. The potential ousting of STRs from single-family areas threatens to impact lower-income neighborhoods like Freetown-Port Rico and La Place by shifting the demand for STR units out of neighborhoods like the Saint Streets and into those areas. 

Fire & Police raises. The City Council will also vote Tuesday on a pair of raises for fire and police employees offered by Guillory this summer, though Chairman Glenn Lazard said last week that Guillory’s proposed pay raise for police will be deferred in favor of a plan crafted by the council and the Police Association of Lafayette. The union’s plan brings the total cost of the raises to $2 million annually, up from $1.7 million in Guillory’s proposal. The PAL plan puts starting pay at $45,000, less than Guillory’s $47,000, but it spreads the raises — set to go in effect Nov. 1 — up the department’s chain of command, which was lacking from the mayor-president’s plan. A separate raise for Fire Department employees is also up for a final vote Tuesday, though council members have said they prefer to add the raises to next year’s budget, which takes effect Nov. 1, instead of tacking them on to the final months of the current fiscal year.

Introduction

City Court funds. A $9.5 million plan to buy the Lemoine Building Downtown for a new City Court campus is back before the council 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 proposing 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.

Joint Items

Final Adoption

McComb adjudications. Both councils will vote Tuesday on plan to turn more than 19 adjudicated properties to the McComb-Veazey Coterie in a bid to hasten the revival of adjudicated properties in the McComb-Veazey area and give greater local control over the fate of those properties to the neighborhood’s residents. Adjudicated properties are typically revived one at a time, so LCG’s novel approach of turning over more than a dozen to a non-profit neighborhood group all at once could provide a new path to clearing the hundreds of adjudications around the parish.

Introduction

No significant items.

Property