City-parish council adopts unified development code

Lafayette's unified development code was adopted by the city-parish council in a 7-2 vote Tuesday, despite several requests for the formal vote to be delayed.

The 300-page document, which is part of Lafayette 20-year $1.2 million comprehensive plan, will serve as a guidebook for new and current development and zoning in the Lafayette area.

Several members of the public expressed their concerns over the code, which they were not given enough time to review.

The Planning Commission adopted the UDC on March 20.

Councilman Andy Naquin said the six-week period was not enough time for the counsel to review the extensive document. The most recent draft of the code has been posted on Lafayette Consolidated Government's website since January, but the public also needs more to read over the document, Naquin said.

"I've had a lot of calls from constituents. This is still fresh for a lot of people," Naquin said. He proposed to defer the formal vote for 60 days. That vote failed. Another proposal to defer the vote for another 30 days also failed.

President Joel Durel will sign the ordinance Monday. The UDC will officially go into effect on Dec. 7.

Joyce Linde, president of the Tea Party of Lafayette, and other residents expressed opposition to what they said were too many new regulations that will affect property owners and create more traffic.

"We want to know the unintended consequences this may have," she told the council.

Ryan Pecot, senior retail leasing executive for Stirling Properties, said the code is modeled after several successful UDCs along the Gulf coast. He said he volunteered long hours on the UDC's steering committee to help create the final draft. The new guidelines are what will make Lafayette a more competitive market and bring it up to date for major projects like the Interstate-49 South Corridor.

LCG had held more than a dozen public workshops between 2014 and 2015 and discuss the UDC and request public feedback on the code, said Carlee Alm-LaBar, LCG chief development officer.

The Downtown Development Authority will hold a continued discussion on the code at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday inside the Rosa Parks Transportation Center.

The final draft of the unified development code can be reviewed by visiting lafayettela.gov/ComprehensivePlan.