City council night: Full plates tonight
Backyard chickens, false alarm fines, Lafayette Theater renovations, more in Lafayette. Questions on Inari’s tax abatement, the 2027 budget and a second try on development fees for wastewater in WL.
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CITY COUNCIL NIGHT: FULL PLATES TONIGHT
City councils on both sides of the river face fairly meaty agendas for tonight’s round of monthly meetings. Here’s some of what they’ll be discussing and deciding – along with some of what they won’t be talking about, yet.
Lafayette City Council
False alarm fines: Lafayette, which already has a fine structure for false alarms on police calls, is looking to add similar fines for false alarms on fire department runs. According to a proposed ordinance up for a first of two votes Monday by the city council, the idea is to provide incentive to cut down on the number of false alarms that bring the sirens from the Lafayette Fire Department.
The proposal would offer ways for alarm businesses time to make a case that corrective action had happened to prevent ongoing false alarms, that the alarm was activated “based upon a reasonable good faith believe that an emergency existed” or that the alarm was triggered by “severe atmospheric conditions or other circumstances not reasonably under the control” of the alarm provider.
The proposed fine structure is set up on the number of false alarms in a calendar year. The first violation would warrant a written warning. After that, the fines would be $50 for a second violation, $100 for a third, $150 for a fourth and $200 for fifth violations and beyond.
The ordinance, if approved, would give property owners and alarm companies 45 days to appeal the situation and the fine before the city’s board of works.
Backyard chickens, up for a one-year ‘sunset’ review: When the Lafayette City Council narrowly agreed to allow residents to keep chickens in their backyards, the 5-4 vote came with a caveat of a one-year sunset clause to make sure it was working out and wasn’t a source of irritation for the city or for neighborhoods. That second-year confirmation is scheduled to go to the city council Monday evening.
