November 10, 2022
A judge ruled this week that the Lafayette Board of Zoning Adjustment was correct when it denied an appeal of an earlier decision to allow AirBnBs and other short-term rentals in Lafayette, LA. STRs are not mentioned in the Lafayette Development Code, but director of Planning and Zoning Mary Sliman approved their use in 2020. A group of real-estate lawyers and neighborhood activists appealed Mrs. Sliman’s decision to BOZA in 2021, but lost.
In May 2021, that same group appealed BOZA’s decision to the 15th Judicial District Court of Louisiana. Their lawsuit claimed, among other things, that BOZA’s decision was based on erroneous interpretations of the Lafayette Development Code. Judge Thomas J. Frederick of the 15th JDC disagreed. In his ruling, he stated that BOZA’s decision was “not made in any arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable manner and is AFFIRMED.”
The City of Lafayette was represented by attorneys Daniel J. Gauthier and Gregory J. Logan. In their response, they chastised the appellants for “attempting to offer evidence and assert facts outside of those contained within the ‘record’ considered by BOZA,” and objected to their inclusion as well as additional allegations not relevant to the case.
