A trio of big motions barely made it through Starkville”s Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday night.
A variance process for the city”s sidewalk ordinance, a sign ordinance and a handful of appointments to various city committee”s all passed by a 4-3 margin with Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver and Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn opposing all three motions. Ward 3 Alderman Eric Parker opposed the sign ordinance and the committee appointments and Ward 6 Alderman Roy Perkins opposed the sidewalk ordinance variance.
Carver announced his opposition to each move in discussion and offered his reasoning.
Regarding the sidewalk variance, which seeks to relieve undue burdens on developers when installing a mandatory sidewalk would be excessively expensive, Carver said no developer is likely to meet the criteria of the variance.
“The cost (to install the sidewalk) has to be 200 percent of the average cost of that same sidewalk mainly due to a steep incline,” he said following Tuesday”s meeting. “This is Starkville. No one is ever going to meet that variance. That leaves basically a nonexistent variance process.”
Carver asked Board Attorney Chris Latimer about the possibility of performance bonds as an alternative to requiring sidewalks. The bonds would involve a payment to the city in lieu of constructing a sidewalk which the city could tap to build a continuous sidewalk after several businesses in a single area pay in.
“What you”re going on Highway 12 over the next 30 years is you”ll see a man bike 100 feet (where there is no sidewalk) then walk 100 feet (where there is a sidewalk), then bike 100 feet,” said Carver. “The bonds would have businesses connecting at one time instead of the scattered approach.”
Latimer replied that there is nothing stopping the city from instituting performance bonds.
With regard to the sign ordinance, which requires businesses to lower pole-mounted signs over the next 10 years, Carver felt the board was overstepping its bounds by mandating aesthetic values.
“One guy told me he had $140,000 worth of signs in Starkville he”s going to have to alter in the next 10 years. That averages $14,000 a year. He told me ”I can”t afford that,”” said Carver. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I don”t think I have a right as an elected official to tell someone they have to change something that”s coming out of their pocket.”
Mayor Parker Wiseman acknowledged the concern many business people have regarding the money they”ll have to spend to bring signs into compliance, saying that was the reason the time frame was expanded from seven years to 10. He also pointed out, while answering a question from Dr. Reagan Ford, owner of Ford Vision Clinic, that the city sought an attorney general”s opinion on offering tax breaks to businesses for bringing their signs into compliance.
“The answer was a big no,” said Wiseman.
Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk defended the sign ordinance”s utility, saying a company which had considered locating in Starkville ultimately went somewhere else because of the look of Highway 12.
Carver cast his final “nay” vote when Chris Gottbrath was nominated, along with Dorothy Isaac and Dennis Nordin, to fill three vacancies on the city”s transportation committee.
Carver stated his support for Rodney Lincoln, director of the George Bryan Airport, who had applied for the position in Ward 2 along with Gottbrath.
“Who better to have on the transportation committee than the regional airport manager?” asked Carver. “He can give you the day-to-day operations. He”s in tight with the Federal Aviation Administration. He”s great with the grant process. He”s a great businessman with a lifetime of aviation and transportation experience.
“Due to some political reasons, in my opinion, they don”t want him on there.”
Jerry McIngvale and Tiffany Hamlin were added to the disability commission on the same vote.
In other business the board:
· Voted unanimously to dedicate $65,500 to close a ditch on Carver Drive.
· Voted unanimously to approve the capital improvements budget presented by City Engineer Edward Kemp.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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