Over the years as Lafayette has grown and developed so has the downtown scene.  But some feel the cities nightlife could offer a lot more if a 13-year bar ban was lifted or revised.

For a pair of New Orleans natives attending the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the downtown area has room to improve.

“Definitely more music, more bars all that sort of stuff.” said Nicholas Tanner, a freshman at UL-Lafayette.

“There’s not much for college kids to do around here and everything closes around 5 so there’s nothing to do.” added Teresa Peneguey, also a freshman at UL-Lafayette.

In a series of public meetings, the Lafayette City-Parish Council and Zoning Commission continues to discuss the possibility of bars being allowed as a conditional use under the Unified Development Code adopted last year.  Bars like Legends downtown are on board. Ted Bertrand believes the ban lift would help the community.

“Maybe them coinciding with the conditional use permits which would allow the bars to be evaluated on a yearly basis and to make sure that everyone is kind of following all the rules and regulations that we feel we are very compliant with and I mean we love Lafayette we love the community so whatever would help the community is what we’re all about.’

Ross Fontenot, owner of Genterie Supply Company on Jefferson says allowing more bars to open could help revitalize downtown Lafayette and encourage tourism.

“I think that’s great for competition I think we all probably need to be held accountable for the businesses we’re operating.  There’s a lot of good things here that will sort of just inspire more creative things.  A few new things will kind of help freshen up the area.”

Discussion on the bar moratorium continues Friday morning at 9 a.m. at the Rosa Parks Transportation Center and April 7th at 6 p.m.