PART IV. LAFAYETTE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

§291. Creation; territorial limits and jurisdiction

            A. The Lafayette Economic Development Authority, hereinafter referred to as the "authority" or the "district", is created as a political subdivision of the state of Louisiana, and its territorial limits and jurisdiction shall extend throughout the parish of Lafayette. Such authority shall continue to constitute a political subdivision, a redevelopment authority pursuant to R.S. 34:293.2, and a harbor and terminal district originally created under the provisions of Article XIV, Section 30.1 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1921 and Article XIV, Section 31 thereof, continued as a statute at R.S. 34:340.1 through 340.6.

            B.(1) The Lafayette Economic Development Authority is established for the purpose of having a council composed of representatives from the business community, parish and city governments, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and the South Louisiana Community College to perform the functions of an economic and industrial development agency. Such functions may include, without limitation:

            (a) Public relations, advertising, marketing, and providing and disseminating information.

            (b) Government relations, ombudsman, and government liaison.

            (c) Financial and financing assistance.

            (d) Tax abatement.

            (e) Planning and coordination for economic development and resource utilization, including such functions as industrial and economic research and industrial programming and solicitation.

            (f) Industrial training, technical assistance, and technology transfer.

            (g) The use of public and other legal powers to facilitate development.

            (h) Promoting transfer mechanisms to take ideas from their point of origin or development to commercially successful utilization by local enterprises.

            (i) Fostering entrepreneurial activity in the parish and region.

            (j) Promoting the development of new products, processes, or services or new uses for existing products, processes, or services manufactured or marketed in the parish or region.

            (k) Supporting market research aimed at identifying new markets for local or regional products and processes, including international markets; determining the characteristics, needs and preferences of those markets; and developing new marketing techniques to exploit those markets.

            (l) Fostering and supporting economic and industrial development and education in cooperation with private business enterprises, financial institutions, educational institutions, non-profit institutions and organizations, state government and political subdivisions of the state, the federal government, and other organizations or persons concerned with research, development, education, commercial application, and economic or industrial development in ways which increase the economic base of the parish and region.

            (m) Leveraging economic and community development strategies to engage in and foster redevelopment and revitalization activities within distressed areas with the parish.

            (2) For the purposes enumerated in Paragraph (1) of this Subsection, the Lafayette Economic Development Authority may engage in whatever activities and projects it deems most appropriate to encourage and assist economic growth and development within its territorial limits in accordance with and pursuant to provisions of this Part.

            (3) No rule, regulation, or order shall be adopted by the Lafayette Economic Development Authority which is inconsistent with or contrary to any law, ordinance, or regulation now in force or hereinafter enacted by the United States of America, the state of Louisiana, or the parish of Lafayette, and any such rule, regulation, or order shall be void, except that no action by the Lafayette Parish Council shall abrogate any contract or agreement duly executed by the authority that was valid and legal when executed.

            Amended by Acts 1971, No. 155, §1; Acts 1985, No. 420, §1; Acts 1988, No. 867, §1, eff. July 18, 1988; Acts 2022, No. 771, §1, eff. June 18, 2022; Acts 2024, No. 531, §1, eff. June 10, 2024.