Incumbent Josh Guillory and challenger Monique Blanco Boulet talk Housing, Drainage, and Jobs.
LAFAYETTE, LA (KADN) When it comes to the current housing shorting in Lafayette as the city continues to grow in population current Mayor-President Josh Guillory has said that it is important to preserve the character of the neighborhoods but also use forward thinking when it comes to the city's future development.
As for Monique Blanco-Boulet she has been on record saying density regulations in Lafayette's development code should be adapted to address affordability and accessibility. "It's a constant communication with our residents to serve and our community development and planning and all stakeholders you have to have mutual respect." We heard loud and clear when I ran years ago repeated and replaced UDC took us a year to fix the Lafayette Development code and you will see the development code amended periodically at council meetings,"says Guillory.
'We have to look at all options. We don't only have an affordable housing issue we also have a workforce issue. When I say workforce I mean first responders, teachers, young professionals. If young professionals cant buy houses here it loosens them to go look for other opportunities so that entry level price point is critical for them to expand our housing stock has aged at least in the city we just need to be creative and do things that make sense for Lafayette," says Blanco Boulet.
  The great flood of 2016 really exposed the drainage spots in the hub city. since Guillory has been in office he has spent around 160 million dollars on drainage. He says there is a huge return on the investment of this work. Blanco Boulet says that Lafayette needs a data driven approach to drainage improvements and is calling for total reassessment of LCG'S approach to drainage. "Return on investment of 160 million dollars on drainage is those tens of thousands of homes that are no longer under threat of flooding most rewarding aspects of it, I'm not an engineer I don't look at just numbers. I look at every single project and how it impacts a family and business owner. It impacts someone's life who was dramatically changed in 2016, 2019, and flash floods in 2021. While we had a dry spell we are still planning for tomorrow. We never get complacent in our efforts," says Guillory.
 "Really provide data and expertise at a system wide level which I think I do believe if your looking at it with real data at a system wide perspective you probably have half the projects and spend half the money mitigating I mean today its random lets try this here and were spending tens of millions of dollars if not over 100 million dollars on projects that people don't know if they work and actually have a real impact on the flood plain,"says Blanco Boulet.
When it comes to job growth in the city Guillory has said LCG must do whatever it can to further increase and attract economic development. As for Blanco Boulet she says its LCG must take care of existing businesses first. "One aspect that I am excited about in economic development specifically is our work force development initiative that has got to take a team effort good thing is we have good relationships with One Acadiana and a great relationship with LEDA and our private sector cant just rely on public entity you gotta have great relationship with the business sector and we do.We are in tune with business leaders, and we will continue to do all we can from a Government Standpoint to support our local businesses," says Guillory.
"First we have to look at our existing businesses and try to support them can they expand and scale up and what would that take we have to create that business environment we have tremendous existing businesses today and they do great work they are very innovative. We are on the edge of a lot of innovation in different industries so really supporting industries that already exist here today and then only way to raise wages is to create better jobs," says Blanco Boulet.
