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 Council
Final Adoption
Introduction
Animal shelter aid. Between two ordinances, the parish is set to contribute $50,000 to Lafayette Animal Shelter and Care Center in order to host free adoption days, cage donations and transport animals for rescue to South Carolina. The funds from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), a nonprofit out of New York, are helping run six free adoption days for the shelter, and provide anyone who adopts a dog during those events with a free dog crate. The grants are part of the nonprofit’s wider 2025 Rescue Grant Campaign.
City Council
Final Adoption
$6.2 million Lemoine purchase. In June, the Lafayette City Council approved $6.5 million in bonds for LFT Fiber to purchase the former Lemoine building, located at 214 Jefferson Street. The municipal service owned by the city of Lafayette has been renting two floors of the building since earlier this year for its headquarters. The property was listed for $6.2 million back in 2023 when it was considered for the relocation of the Lafayette City Court, which was canceled when M-P Monique Boulet took office. The ordinance creates a cash-sale agreement for just under that amount with Jefferson Street Development LLC, operated by Lemoine CEO Leonard “Lenny” Lemoine.
LUS additional funding. LUS is digging into its retained earnings reserve to the tune of roughly $2.9 million for additional work, including outsourcing sewer line repairs and the ongoing addition of transformers, along with both overhead and underground power lines. The funds will be supplemented by over $600,000 from the previous year’s fund balance, raising the total spending to $3.5 million. LUS currently requires tens of millions in repairs and replacements to sewer and water lines, which are negatively affected by rainwater infiltrating the system and causing backflow into the sewer system during major storm events. According to its own tests, LUS is losing thousands of dollars and hundreds of potential new connections due to the infiltration of the stormwater. New connections reflect capacity for hundreds of new housing units in Lafayette’s interior.
Introduction
E. Simcoe Street Rezoning. Lafayette looks set to rezone over 30 addresses sandwiched between Mudd Avenue and E. Simcoe Street. The LCG staff-led request will rezone the properties along E Simcoe Street to a more flexible type of commercial zoning. The properties along Louisiana and Mudd avenues will become a mixed-use neighborhood, allowing some storefronts like convenience stores. The final section between Park and Mudd avenues is being rezoned to become a residential zone that allows apartments and duplexes.
The properties previously were either the strictest commercial or single-family residential zones, despite E. Simcoe and Louisiana Avenue being high-traffic roads surrounded by residential neighborhoods. While many of the properties identified in the rezoning are occupied, many of the lots, especially along E. Simcoe Street itself, are parking lots or empty storefronts. LCG is looking to update out-of-date zoning across the city, but is also preemptively rezoning areas to encourage future development that conforms to the new zoning. Many Northside neighborhoods lack access to resources such as grocery stores or convenience stores well-stocked with food products, while many properties in those neighborhoods sit unused…