LAFAYETTE (AP) -- The Lafayette City-Parish Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday
on setting the parish's boundary line with Vermilion Parish, but a group of
residents say the vote would violate the state constitution.

Lafayette city and parish officials began in 1999 having the State Land Office
determine a parish line because it has long been in dispute. Tuesday's vote
concerns the map created by the Land Office.

However, adoption of the map would mean a handful of Lafayette residents would
suddenly find themselves residents of Vermilion Parish, and some oppose the
shift.

According to the State Constitution, parish boundary lines can be changed only
by the Legislature or a two-thirds vote by residents of both parishes. Don
Bertrand, a resident who opposes the map, said one of those processes should be
followed in this case.

City-Parish officials have said they are not changing the boundary, but simply
''re-establishing'' it. They say the current boundary line has been in use since
1999, and the Land Office is confirming that move.

Bertrand said the 1999 change was made because of resident Linda Duhon's run for
the Lafayette Council. Her opponent, incumbent Lenwood Broussard, successfully
challenged Duhon's residency in court by using surveys from the 1940s.

But Duhon and others in the area had voted, paid taxes and gone to school in
Lafayette Parish for generations, Bertrand said.

Bertrand said there are just as many maps and surveys that show the disputed
area to be in Lafayette Parish. The boundary descriptions used in the 1940s
survey use landmarks that no longer exist, Bertrand said.

In a case where the boundary descriptions are blurred, Bertrand said, officials
should use boundaries that are historically established by custom.

John Evans with the State Land Office said his office began trying to determine
the actual line years ago at the request of Vermilion and Lafayette parishes.

The State Land Office tried to piece together what could still be confirmed from
old surveys and legislative acts to reach the boundary to be voted on Tuesday,
Evans said.

Assistant Public Works Director Bill Campbell said last week that the disputed
area has always been in Vermilion Parish and all the ordinance does is formalize
the line.