A proposed 200-unit apartment complex, complete with parking garage, was roundly panned at Tuesday”s planning and zoning meeting.
Starkville”s Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to recommend to the Board of Aldermen that it deny Apartment Equity Solutions I, LLC”s request for a Planned Unit Development at 300 College View Drive.
Commission Chair Dr. Jerry Emison summed up the concerns of most of the ten citizens who spoke in opposition to the project by presenting three major problems. First, the development would be incongruous with the surrounding area, especially the Cotton District. Second, questions exist regarding the allowable density for such a development. And third, the development doesn”t meet the working definition of a PUD, which generally mixes housing and commercial buildings.
“Were I to have a vote, I would not see a way to support this,” said Emison, who votes only in the event of a tie. “But this kind of issue is going to come to the city year after year.”
The issue Emison spoke of was the primary selling point presented by representatives for Apartment Equity Solutions I, that of student housing. With Mississippi State University expected to attract over 21,000 students in the fall, housing is a major concern. MSU”s website states the university is equipped to house approximately 4,000 students, and MSU Vice President of Student Affairs Bill Kibler estimates approximately 1,000 students who wish to live on campus will be forced to find housing in Starkville. Therefore, Clay Landers, a representative for Apartment Equity Solutions I, repeatedly referred to the MSU”s enthusiasm with respect to such a large development being constructed near campus by fall of 2012.
“The university was very much interested in accommodating that use that”s not served in the market currently, and that”s married housing and graduate housing,” said Landers.
However, former Ward 1 Alderman Sumner Davis mentioned among his several points of opposition that a letter from Kibler included with Apartment Equity Solution I, LLC”s request for a PUD never specifically references the proposed project.
Davis criticized the project as a “dormitory” and noted that in 2006, when a PUD was granted to another group of developers for a project on the same plot of land to be known as Stateside, the previous developers planned to attract commercial buildings to accompany housing units. He also touched on the traffic problems which would come from “adding 600 more cars” and the stress on the city”s old sewer pipes from “600 more toilets, showers and kitchens.”
“And I”m not even getting into the noise and the trash,” said Davis.
Many of Davis” fellow opponents to the project also sited traffic, which is already heavy during football and basketball games, as a major concern.
The so-called State View at the Cotton District project will now go before the Board of Aldermen to decided whether to uphold the Planning and Zoning Commission”s recommendation or to send it back to the commission for further consideration.
In other business the commission:
· Unanimously agreed for a third time to recommend to the Board of Aldermen that a conditional use be granted to Tabor Development to construct luxury condominiums on the site of the former University Inn at the corner of Spring Street and Highway 12.
The plan was most recently rejected by the Board of Aldermen in July 2010 after representatives from the proposed CottonMill project voiced their opposition. Since that time, CottonMill has been unable to secure funding and Larry Tabor said he spoke with CottonMill developer Mark Nicholas who “gave his word he would not oppose” the proposed condominiums.
The former University Inn lobby building has already been demolished to make way for a Buffalo Wild Wings. Tabor Development plans to construct 52 one-bedroom/one-bathroom condominiums for sale, likely to alumni.
· Unanimously agreed to recommend to the Board of Aldermen that Emma Belk be granted a zoning change for her land at 1582 Rockhill Road in order to add a mobile home, in which her brother will live, on her land.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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