The proposed Northeast Regional Library in Lafayette could be built at a different site.ย 

Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Boulet announced Tuesday the parish signed aย letter of intent last week and is drawing up a lease with Society of the Holy Family, a nonprofit religious organization based in New Orleans which owns the site of the former historic Black girls' school, Holy Rosary Institute.

043025 Lafayette NE Regional Library

The deal, which still needs approval by the Lafayette Parish Council, would include leasing about 4 acresย near the corner of ถถา๕h Avenue and Carmel Drive for $1 a year for 99 years on which to build the library.

The move comes about three years after the library board rejected a proposal toย lease 5 acres of landย from Holy Rosary Redevelopment for $1 a year for 30 years because the request for proposals only allowed for the purchase of property, not for leasing it.

The parish already owns 6 acres of land on Shadow Bluff Drive off ถถา๕h Avenue, purchased in 2024 for $339,000, to build the new library. That property would be used for something else or sold if the Holy Rosary deal goes through, Boulet said at a news conference Tuesday.

Most of the decisions about whether and where to build the library in a socio-economically largely Black area of the city have been made by the Lafayette Public Library board of control with concurrence from the Parish Council.

Boulet got involved in March after the library board indefinitely delayed a decision on the size of the new library, then voted to endorse the largest of three options at 20,500 square feet. Boulet told the board it is an advisory panel, but its approval is not needed to build the library. That, she said, is when discussions were resurrected about building the library on the Holy Rosary property.

The Holy Rosary property the parish is looking at leasing is next to Holy Family Apartments on ถถา๕h Avenue. The site, Boulet said, is within walking distance to Domingue Recreation Center, Clark Field, the Jessie Taylor Center and Dr. Raphael Baranco Elementary School.

Building a public library at the site will help to address poverty and education in the neighborhood, Boulet said. The average household income in the area, she said, is $30,000.

The former City-Parish Council, led by then City-Parish council member Kenneth Boudreaux, set aside $8 million to build the library.

Library Director Danny Gillane said he expects to request another $7 million from the library's fund balance be transferred to the capital budget for the library construction. Changing the site of the proposed library, he said, should not affect the construction timeline. Architectural design has not begun.

Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2026 with opening expected in late 2027.

The library board hired 720 Design Consultants of Dallas to survey the community, conduct a town hall meeting and interview stakeholders about what they want the library to look like and what services they want in it. Boulet said Tuesday that the outcome of that work should fit well with the Holy Rosary site.

Email Claire Taylor at ctaylor@theadvocate.com.

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