(The Daily Advertiser) – Efforts to redevelop University Avenue will move forward in 2017, but the city of Lafayette won’t buy the LessPay Motel at the corner of University Avenue and Cameron Street, Mayor-President Joel Robideaux said Wednesday.

Former City-Parish President Joey Durel first proposed buying the property and replacing the motel with a police substation and other venues. Some residents supported that plan as a first step in fighting crime in the Four Corners area.

Robideaux told The Daily Advertiser some residents in the Four Corners area don’t want a police substation that closes at 4:30 p.m.

One of Robideaux’s top priorities when he took office  a year ago was revitalizing and sparking commercial investment of University Avenue, including Four Corners. The avenue is an Interstate 10 exit, and a gateway into the city and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

“I’d rather revitalize the entire University corridor and especially Four Corners,” Robideaux said. “If that’s the case, that property is going to have value. It’s going to be one of the prime pieces of property for revitalizing and I would much rather leave the property available for some business to acquire and put in something we can all be proud of.”

Robideaux’s 2016-17 budget includes $4.8 million for improvements to the University Avenue gateway project.

It was announced in October that the Acadiana Metropolitan Planning Organization awarded Lafayette Consolidated Government $500,000 for 2017 to develop a corridor plan for University Avenue from I-10 to Cameron Street.

LCG defined the scope of the project, Robideaux said. The MPO will hire a project manager to do things like identify who owns each property, if rights of way are needed and how much the project will cost, Robideaux said.

The work done so far isn’t visible, but the community should see something concrete in 2017, possibly action by the council to create an overlay district, he said.

Meanwhile, concerned citizens are working on a petition to encourage Robideaux and the council to move forward with revitalization of the LessPay Motel property.

Josh Caffery, who recently returned to Lafayette and lives nearby, started an online petition Dec. 30 on Change.org titled, “Do More with the Less Pay Motel Property.” As of Thursday afternoon, 239 people had signed the petition.

The petition urges the council and Robideaux to explore options, both public and private, to redevelop the motel property.

Caffery said he primarily started the petition “to raise general awareness” of the issue. There are a lot of residents in Oaklawn Subdivision and the saint streets area who are passionate about reviving the area, once a thriving hub.

The petition, he said, is “just urging the council and city-parish president to put it on their radar and keep it on their radar.”