Starkville’s three-person stormwater hearing board is holding its first ever meeting today to discuss a storage unit project that yielded heated debate between an alderman and its developer Tuesday.
Dan Moreland, the former Starkville Parks Commission chairman, Republican mayoral candidate and owner of Moreland Development LLC, seeks various waivers and variances from city code as he plans to build ministorage units, a recreational vehicle storage building and six RV pads on 4.23 acres adjacent to Louisville Street.
Moreland is asking the board, comprised of former Ward 5 Alderman Jeremiah Dumas, Jacob Forrester and Claudette Jones, to waive a stormwater detention pond requirement.
Pritchard Engineering is the firm designing the project. In a letter the firm sent requesting the variance, they state that runoff now discharges into an existing swale, which then empties into an established ditch on right of way.
Documents show city staff informed Moreland of the stormwater mitigation requirement in March. Pritchard Engineering submitted its plans, which included the small pond, to the city’s design review committee in May and then sought relief from the ordinance on Moreland’s behalf last week.
Per Starkville ordinance, the stormwater board may grant variances under four conditions, including situations where exceptional hardships are created without a waiver and where a variance would not result in increased runoff “greater than 10 percent, increased flood elevations, additional threats to public safety or extraordinary public expense.”
“A hardship due to space limitations does not exist as the applicant has proposed a stormwater detention plan in the (northeast) corner of the property in a previously submitted plan, thereby showing that a pond can fit within the development if required,” a city report states. “The applicant has expressed concern about the safety, appearance and maintenance of a detention pond. City staff has expressed that the stormwater management facility should be designed and constructed to fully drain after rain events, thereby not holding water.”
The city report also states the Louisville Street ditch is capable of “conveying the additional stormwater … if no mitigation is provided” but asks the board to “consider the precedent that this variance sets.”
The report does not account for the effect of additional drainage created by future developments.
Moreland’s project is also expected to seek a Starkville Board of Adjustments and Appeals waiver from design standards mandating a proposed parking area, located at the front of the development, be paved.
The BOAA’s decision – whether or not to enforce its paving rule – could affect stormwater mitigation as various surface types differently impact drainage.
As presented, the development’s plan calls for a crushed limestone parking area.
Moreland received relief from the city’s landscape ordinance Tuesday after a fiery exchange with Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker.
Starkville’s planning and zoning commission previously called for a 30-foot buffer – a requirement called for by code – between his property and adjacent residential parcels, and aldermen rubber-stamped the condition five months ago.
The board Tuesday flipped on the issue, lowering the requirement to 10 feet in a 5-1 vote. Only Walker opposed the matter.
As with the paving requirement, the proposal heading to the stormwater board does not account for aldermen’s decision to reduce the landscaping buffer.
The original consent agenda item up for passage Tuesday would have completely waived the rule for Moreland. The item was noted as authorized by the “board of aldermen” without listing a specific requesting representative.
Additionally, site plans were not provided to aldermen Tuesday until Walker noted their absence in city leaders’ packets.
“It’s incumbent upon the applicant to make the request for why they need the removal, and I don’t think that’s been presented other than they don’t want to do it or they don’t think they have room,” he said, prompting Moreland to hand out site plans to aldermen at the table. “On this plan, they’re even showing room to have a 30-foot buffer. I don’t know why we’re looking to have this removed other than not wanting to meet the requirements that this board passed unanimously in January.
“We’re talking about being consistent (with developers),” Walker added, referring to Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins decision to vote against a tax increment financing plan for a $20 million car dealership project out of fairness to other businesses earlier that night. “Here’s the opportunity to be consistent.”
Walker also said residents might not want a ministorage unit – “not the most aesthetically pleasing development” – abutting their properties without a buffer, but Ward 2 Alderman Lisa Wynn, who represents the area in question, said her constituents support Moreland’s development.
Community Development staff said the city has received minimal input from the area’s residents after mailing letters and posting signs alerting them to the planning commission’s and board of aldermen’s actions on the properties.
“The reason (the city has) not received telephone calls is because they’re very receptive to this project. Before, the Shriner’s Club was used for a variety of social gatherings, and you could hear the noise from that building over there in the residents’ neighborhood. Because nothing is there, they don’t hear anything,” Wynn said. “A relative of mine called me about two weeks ago and said, ‘I trust that Mr. Moreland will do right by our neighborhood,’ and I believe that to be right.”
Moreland eventually told aldermen he was fine with a 10-foot landscaping buffer, so long as a 20-foot road could count as part of the overall 30-foot requirement. Without help from the city, he said his only option would be to sell the tax-generating property back to its original owners, who are exempt from ad valorem contributions.
“When I bought it, it was burned out; it was an eyesore; it was grown up. Every time I cut it, rats run across everywhere. It’s going to be something to be proud of,” Moreland said. “It wasn’t on the tax rolls. Some of you holler about taxes and this, that and another, but some of you don’t understand taxes, apparently, because you’re trying to keep down something that’s going to be taxed.
“I know Alderman Walker is going to be against it. Anything can come up, no matter what: “I’m going to give you $1 million,” he added, directing his frustration at the first-term alderman before Mayor Parker Wiseman gaveled him down for a lack of decorum.
Wiseman would gavel Moreland down two other times during discussions for singling out Walker.
“I’ve been to 10 or 11 meetings on this. Every one of them ended with, ‘I understand what you’re trying to do, but the only (group) that can help you is the board of aldermen,” Moreland said. “I have no problem with a (10-foot buffer zone). (The project is) something that’s going to help the people down there. It’s going to look nice and look better than any of the stuff around in that area. I just think y’all would be doing the city an injustice if you don’t vote for it.”
Even after Moreland said he would accept a 10-foot landscaping buffer requirement, Wynn motioned forward the original request – the complete striking of the rule.
Ward 5 Alderman Scott Maynard then struck and replaced the motion with one calling for the 10-foot requirement.
The Dispatch was unable to cover today’s 11 a.m. stormwater hearing because of the newspaper’s morning press time.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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