Moving at a breakneck pace, LCG has dozens of drainage projects in the works. It’s an immense capital program by local government standards, racking up a bill worth well over $100 million. We mapped them.
LCG employees and consultants delivered an overview of dozens of drainage projects before Lafayette’s City and Parish councils Tuesday night. Absent in the discussion was an issue playing out in the courts — whether LCG pursued such an aggressive program of construction according to a plan.
Taking aim at Mayor-President Josh Guillory’s broken promise and a conflict of interest for the project’s engineer, District Judge Valerie Gotch Garrett today ruled that LCG’s quick-take expropriation of Bendel family land for a massive detention pond project was improper. She ordered that work on the 270-acre tract “cease immediately” and assigned court costs to LCG.
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.
Homewood’s primary effect is during smaller storms and is localized to the banks of the Vermilion River. That caps the number of homes likely spared from flooding.
Legal action on two detention ponds under construction hinge, at least in part, on whether Lafayette has a “comprehensive drainage plan.” LCG’s answer to that question is elusive.
Our history is full of examples of how dreaming big paid off for Lafayette. But big dreams can distract from accomplishing small, important tasks.
LCG is once again at the state trough for the $60 million Bayou Vermilion Flood Control project currently halted by court order. LCG has asked for $23 million in the 2022 state budget, on top of $27 million awarded last year.
Guillory’s bureaucracy-busting approach could force Lafayette to spend millions filling holes it just spent millions digging out.
The Guillory administration’s plans to declare two more private properties a “public necessity,” carving a legal path to seize the land for drainage projects, may hit a snag at tonight’s City Council meeting.
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.
While Mayor-President Josh Guillory frames his approach to drainage as a way of cutting red tape, two cases allege Lafayette Consolidated Government is running roughshod over property rights.