Update: The City-Parish Council denied the appeal and upheld the waivers granted to Joie de Vivre by PZC.
[Update: The City-Parish Council denied the appeal and upheld the waivers granted to Joie de Vivre by PZC. Read more here.]
A group mainly comprising residents living in the Mills and Hopkins additions - neighborhoods across Congress/2nd Street from downtown Lafayette where the proposed Joie de Vivre low-income housing project is slated - are appealing a Planning & Zoning Commission decision to grant waivers for the project. The City-Parish Council will hear the appeal at its Tuesday meeting.
On June 13, PZC voted 4-0 to grant preliminary plat approval for the 2.7 acre project, agreeing to waive enhanced setbacks along the side streets abutting the development. The group that lodged the appeal, known as Mills and Hopkins Addition Association, is requesting the developers do a traffic impact study for the area and enter in a Community Benefits Agreement with the neighborhood, among other things.
Dozens of people, most of them in favor of the project, attended the PZC meeting. Joie de Vivre has the support, based on minutes of the meeting, of UL architecture professors Hector Lasala and Cory Saft. But the project is also pitting neighbor against neighbor in the historic area.
Read documents pertaining to the appeal here.