Council Preview: Tax revenue up, short-term rental ban back on agenda

Special Joint Meeting

Final Adoption

The budget. The City and Parish councils will vote Tuesday on adopting a budget for next year after their Sept. 14 vote defeated the proposed budget developed this summer. Big raises for fire and police employees — without long-term funding plans — led to the earlier failed vote and will be a point of interest at Tuesday’s meeting.

Parish Council

Final Adoption

No significant items.

Introduction

Precincts. The Parish Council is looking at a plan to change voting precincts to better distribute registered voters. The move would consolidate Precinct 62 into Precinct 58, both of which cover the McComb-Veazey area and currently vote at LeRosen Preparatory School. It would also create a new Precinct 50 out of Precinct 6, near Carencro, both of which will vote at Carencro Middle School. The measure will not change polling locations for the affected precincts. Other voting location changes are available online from the Secretary of State. 

Budget amendment. Mayor-President Josh Guillory’s administration is proposing an amendment to this year’s budget to reflect higher than expected revenue collections for the parish. The adjustment recognizes an additional $6.7 million in parish tax revenue.

Juvenile detention cut. Guillory’s administration is proposing a change to take $2 million in federal ARPA funds from safety improvements at the parish’s Juvenile Detention Home to fund $1 million for clearing roadside ditches in the parish and add $1 million to the $4.3 million planned for the Louisiana Avenue Extension project.

City Council

Resolutions

External funding. The City Council will determine how to distribute $194,000 to community development groups through grants of as much as $11,500. Dozens of groups requested funding for community programs, totaling more than $450,000. A pair of panels recommends the awards up for review by the council.  

Final Adoption

Short-term rentals. Councilman Andy Naquin’s proposed regulations for short-term rentals, like AirBnBs, is set for a final vote of the City Council Tuesday. Naquin’s original plan this summer included a prohibition on STRs in single-family areas, which cover much of the city. But multiple amendments are expected to be voted on, including one to allow STRs in single-family neighborhoods with certain conditions and another that would allow without conditions. 

Proposed short-term rental ban could spur gentrification in some Lafayette neighborhoods

The push to adopt new rules for short-term rentals has some Lafayette neighborhoods concerned about the fallout of a plan that threatens to shift the operations to lower-income parts of the city.

Short-term rentals by the numbers in Lafayette

Figures on how many short-term rentals there are in Lafayette are hard to come by. Here’s what we know.

Introduction

Budget amendment. Guillory’s administration is also proposing a budget adjustment for the City Council, recognizing $5.2 million in tax revenue above budgeted expectations for this year.

Camellia pond. LCG’s Public Works Department is asking the City Council to declare the Camellia Ponds Betterment Project a public necessity and to allow Guillory to acquire nearby land to expand the ponds by East Bluebird Drive. The City Council has expressed concerns with public necessity declarations in the past, as they have been used to expropriate property or move forward with projects before plans were fully presented to the council.

Joint Items

Final Adoption

Habitat homes. The councils will vote Tuesday on a plan to donate 14 adjudicated properties to Lafayette’s Habitat for Humanity as part of an ongoing effort to clear the parish’s backlog of more than 1,200 adjudications. Habitat has a track record of success with bringing the adjudicated properties back into commerce by building new homes on the often vacant, neglected lots that have concentrated blight largely on Lafayette’s Northside. Lafayette is also exploring an effort to revive adjudicated properties by putting neighborhood groups in charge with a pilot program in partnership with the McComb-Veazey Coterie. 

Introduction

No significant items.

Property

Vacancies

Appointments