The Interstate 49 Connector through Lafayette will either be the best economic spark the city has seen in decades or the biggest mistake since the Evangeline Thruway cut the city in half.

The crowd that packed into a meeting room at the downtownLafayette Public Library for a Sierra Club-sponsored forum offered some of the harshest criticism of the project since the state Department of Transportation and Development in October launched a public outreach campaign to gather input on the design of the road.

Downtown Development Authority CEO Nathan Norris said openness to community input on how to mesh the road with the city will be key if the project has any hope of securing federal funding.

“This is a chamber of commerce project. This is not a community project.”