Enrollment at Mississippi State University is set to increase for the eighth consecutive year and, with no signs to indicate a change in pattern, University and Starkville developers are making strides to accommodate the continued student influx.
Construction on two new residence halls at MSU is scheduled to finish this summer. Oak Hall and Magnolia Hall, temporary names given to the nearly completed buildings, each will house more than 350 students.
Director of Housing and Residence Life Dr. Ann Bailey said she expects the new dorms to be at capacity by the beginning of the fall semester and she stressed the importance of providing students, especially freshmen, with a comfortable living experience.
Bailey said a housing experience could determine whether a new student stays at MSU or transfers to another school.
“This is their new home. These students are accustomed to a particular lifestyle and living situation. They expect us to emulate what they came from when they get to college,” she said.
Each room in the new residence halls will house two students and will come fully furnished with a private bathroom, individual room temperature controls, free cable TV and HBO premium cable channels, a refrigerator and a microwave.
Quality over quantity
Last year, MSU President Dr. Mark Keenum set an enrollment goal of 22,000 students by 2015.
Phil Bofanti, director of enrollment at MSU, believes the goal is easily attainable, but he wants to ensure campus facilities and housing more than simply hold students. He said when a school’s population outgrows itself, the residence life can suffer.
“We aren’t just looking at numbers,” Bofanti said. “We don’t just want to accommodate these students, we want to focus on quality. We are all about growing, as long as it’s done reasonably with a plan and it doesn’t compromise the experience.”
Dan Camp, former mayor of Starkville and the owner of the majority of residential properties in Starkville’s Cotton District, feels he has directly contributed to this growth and has plans to further his influence.
“What do you think runs the engines of this town? The impression that potential students have of your community will determine how the enrollment grows,” he said. “What has happened in the (Cotton District) in the last five, six, seven years?”
Camp’s contributions
Camp’s developments house nearly a thousand off-campus students and perceptions of the Cotton District as offering a hip, unique living experience are well known.
The Cotton District’s development and property diversification has coincided with the MSU’s enrollment increase. Because of his success with the mixed-use neighborhood, Camp has been invited to Princeton University in New Jersey to share his ideas on developing “entertainment districts” in college towns, he noted, detailing plans for other projects.
His current project, the Savory House, has led to the replacement of a former fraternity house on University Drive, located next to City Bagel, with a three-story apartment building, expected to be ready for renters in August.
Camp’s next project is a pair of three-story, New Orleans’ style out-buildings to be located directly behind the Savory House. Plans are to begin initial construction within the next three months and Camp already is considering a hotel and restaurant in a parking lot separating the Savory House and an old photography studio.
Zoning
and development
Camp credits Ward 5 Alderman Jeremiah Dumas, and Dumas’ push for the city’s form-based building code, with much of his developmental success.
“Within a three-and-a-half minute walk, you have seven restaurants and bars. This would have been nearly impossible with the old zoning laws,” Camp said.
Form-based codes allow development of property based on use (residential, commercial, retail), as long as certain architectural guidelines are met. Dumas said the developer need only pass administrative review by the city’s building department to begin construction.
“You don’t have to go through this lengthy process with the Board of Aldermen, or Planning and Zoning (Commission). If you meet the details with the form-based side of things, they can do it,” he explained.
Camp said the flexibility zoning and form-based code bring to the developer will be a determining factor in how Starkville moves forward as a community. He said he does not think developers are taking advantage of what zoning laws offer.
“No one knows anything about it and they don’t know how to handle it. It’s like most developers around here are stupid or something,” Camp said. “You are allowed to cover 90 percent of your lot with your building. With the old zoning you have to have a 20-foot to 25-foot setback from the street. That’s crap in comparison.”
Efforts from both the city and Camp have not gone unnoticed. Dumas said, while working toward new zoning, the city’s consultant in the matter noted how unique the small area is.
“Placemaker’s LLC told us we have one of the more developmentally friendly codes in the country,” Dumas said. “That by itself is a huge compliment, but it’s also impressive that we have been able to accomplish this with something that is very progressive from a land use perspective.”
Dumas said the city’s development owes a lot to the number of students the University brought in and the students’ entertainment needs force the city to adapt to accommodate. This is the city’s duty, said Dumas.
“I think our students, both potential and current, are requiring this type of environment because of what they want to be around,” he said. “Knowing that the university is our economic engine, it’s our responsibility to produce the environments students want to live in. It’s the type of showcases that become really recognizable as a true college town.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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