Save the horse farm and how does it relate to Girard Park? Here we go again. Our neighborhood has fought this battle with Jimmy Davidson for years about his request for rezoning his land from residential to commercial. We have told him that we would never oppose a development that would be in keeping with residential to prevent the "domino effect" that happens when commercial entities encroach on residential neighborhoods.
We are protecting your park Lafayette, and we could use some help.
Now how does this tie into the UL horse farm on Johnston Street? If the horse farm is rezoned at the Zoning Commission Meeting Dec. 5, a land swap is triggered whereby developers Bre-Ard LLC buys Mr. Davidson's Girard Park property (four acres) and swaps it for 35 acres of the UL horse farm. Then UL owns Mr. Davidson's Girard Park property. As a state entity, the university has no zoning restrictions, which means anything can be built around your Girard Park without a peep from you or me. All bets are off! And there goes the park!
Apathy (you don't like it) to action (do something). E-mail the zoning department's Jim Parker at [email protected]. Fax a letter to 291-8492 or mail to 220 W. Willow St., Lafayette, La. 70502, to be included in the packet for the zoning commissioners. Show up for the Dec. 5 meeting at the council auditorium.
Visit the Web site, www.savethehorsefarm.com, for more info. If defeated, the rezoning request could not be reintroduced for two years, buying time for responsible community and neighborhood input of all affected. It's our Lafayette, our park and our UL.