Lafayette Central Park, Inc. (LCP), the nonprofit organization created through the Community Foundation of Acadiana, recently received approval from the City Council to lease the 100 acre Horse Farm property from the city of Lafayette.  The organization will enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement/lease with the city, at which time it will begin raising money to design and construct the park and create a fund for perpetual maintenance.  Estimates for full funding are in the range of $30 million, according to City Parish President Joey Durel.
The “Horse Farm” as it is referred to by many in the community, was purchased and preserved for a public park after a grassroots effort was launched to save the land from sale and commercial development. The development of the land for a park will require a large amount of public input as the citizens of Lafayette will ultimately guide and determine the elements of the Park.
During the planning and development phase, the project will be known as “The Park at the Horse Farm.” The permanent name will be determined following public input and fundraising efforts.
“We are very pleased that we have the mechanism in place that will allow us to move forward with the development of a world-class city park in Lafayette,” says LCP Board Chairman Lenny Lemoine, “It is our role to facilitate community input, fundraising efforts and development of this incredible piece of property, and we look forward to working for all of the people of Lafayette area to this end.” The LCP board is composed of a cross section of community leaders.
LCP also presented to the City-Parish Council preliminary insight from the respected Urban Land Institute (ULI) on the first processes necessary to park planning. ULI will provide a full report to LCP within the coming weeks.
LCP plans to launch a full website in the near future at www.LafayetteCentralPark.org. In the meantime, the citizens are able to stay abreast of current news and events related to the park planning process through their Facebook page, www.facebook.com/LafayetteCentralPark .
Questions regarding this release can be directed to Lafayette Central Park, Inc. Board Member Allyson Pharr at APharr@acadian.com.