Monique Boulet will focus on revitalizing these four areas of Lafayette: ‘Growth is coming’ (2024)

Lafayette Mayor-President-elect Monique Boulet plans to focus on four areas of the city in need of revitalization: downtown, the northside, gateways and Johnston Street.

Boulet, who defeated Mayor-President Josh Guillory in November and will be sworn into office Jan. 3, identified those areas during the second community conversations event she hosted this week. The first held Monday focused on the Interstate 49 Lafayette Connector. Tuesday's event, held at the Acadiana Center for the Arts, focused on revitalization and housing.

At both, she brought up the need to improve Johnston Street. It won't happen in four years, Boulet said, but it's time to start the conversation and maybe prepare a 10- or 20-year plan that includes steps that can be taken incrementally.

Various businesses are packed along the five-lane Johnston Street, many with their own entrance to the busy street, which slows traffic and increases congestion and danger. In addition, billboards and signs as well as above-head power lines make the roadway an eyesore. Officials and community leaders have considered redeveloping the street for decades with nothing done.

Lafayette Consolidated Government owns the section of Johnston Street from South College Road to Evangeline Thruway, Warren Abadie, director of traffic, roads and bridges, said. The Louisiana Department of Transportation owns the rest of Johnston Street, he said.

Downtown, Boulet said, is a key economic driver that always needs special attention. The northside needs to be re-envisioned because it has been neglected, but there won't be an easy answer, she said, and the gateways need to define for visitors "who we are."

Anita Begnaud, outgoing CEO of Lafayette Downtown Development Authority, observed Tuesday's event. Lafayette's urban core, she said, is poised for growth but needs additional housing and quality of life infrastructure.

"Growth is coming and we have to be prepared for it," Boulet said.

Some in attendance suggested conducting a housing assessment, which other cities that Lafayette leaders admire have done.

Melinda Taylor, executive director of Habitat for Humanity, said a comprehensive housing plan is needed because existing agencies are fragmented in their approaches to the housing shortfall.

With 1,200 adjudicated properties in Lafayette Parish, 200 of them in the McComb-Veazey neighborhood, a movement is underway to provide residential and commercial space to replace blighted properties, Tina Bingham said.

Lafayette has a lot of substandard housing that people are living in, Taylor said. Federal Community Development Block Grant funds are available to help low- to moderate-income residents renovate and improve their homes.

Catholic Charities through its Rebuilding Together program helps repair low-income homes, CEO Kim Boudreaux said, but the lack of a clear title is a roadblock to restoring many adjudicated properties. A succession was never done for some properties when the original owners died, she said, so some properties have hundreds of people who are part owners.

Carlos Harvin, former director of minority affairs for Lafayette Consolidated Government, suggested identifying financial resources to help property owners offset the cost of successions to free properties for adjudication and redevelopment.