A process to develop a Highway 12 business improvement district died in a tie vote Tuesday as property owners along the well-traveled thoroughfare voiced harsh criticisms and distrust of city ordinances, the Starkville Board of Aldermen and Mayor Parker Wiseman.
State statute required majority approval for the process to continue.
The process and public discussion, facilitated by the Greater Starkville Development Partnership, will be abandoned, Partnership CEO Jennifer Gregory confirmed, after a majority of property owners said they want the entire city to fund future landscaping improvements through existing tax streams instead of a proposed 2 cent-per-square-foot levy on commercial properties along Highway 12.
Tuesday’s public meeting was one that was supposed to allow landowners to develop a working plan for improving the area, one in which they would determine what projects were initialized and how to pay for the efforts, but a backlash of criticism over the city’s sidewalk, sign, landscaping and tree ordinances; an overall distrust of the board of aldermen; and how business owners feel ignored by the city government followed.
Many property owners in attendance agreed Highway 12 needs to be aesthetically improved, but the taxes they already pay should go toward the effort.
An incoming Mississippi Department of Transportation safety study is expected to yield some improvements — medians in turning lanes are rumored but not yet confirmed — but neither MDOT, nor the city has promised funding for beautification efforts.
The proposal’s failure comes after the Partnership spent $7,500 and two years developing the process and its suggested work list.
As presented, a 2 cent levy on 11.03 million square feet of property, minus residential parcels and government-owned lots, would have generated almost $187,000 annually.
Seventy percent of the revenue would have been utilized for landscaping, according to the Partnership’s proposal, while 20 percent would have paid for physical improvements. Overhead and administrative costs were projected at 10 percent.
“We have worked tirelessly to provide a solution to a problem brought to us by property owners on Highway 12. We feel like we presented a plan that was fair, creative and would have provided an immediate impact to an extremely important corridor in our community. However, the beauty of this process is that it depended on property owners’ support. That wasn’t there tonight,” Gregory said. “Our efforts to beautify Highway 12 through this tool will cease, and we encourage business owners to congregate and lobby the city for what they feel should happen on the MDOT-controlled property in front of their buildings.”
After renderings designer and discussion moderator Randy Wilson introduced the Partnership’s vision Tuesday, attendees made some headway with landscaping discussions — how landscaping of certain heights could cause safety issues by blocking drivers’ view of roadways and traffic, specifically.
Discussions then turned to Starkville’s sidewalk ordinance when former Starkville mayoral candidate Dan Moreland said the city would make property owners install sidewalks along Highway 12 at their own expense, even though such a plan was not included in the Partnership’s proposal or on any city agenda.
“My understanding is as soon as this passes, the city is going to come in and require sidewalks. Everybody else in town knows about it,” Moreland said. “This was already in the making. (Sidewalks were) taken out to get this to pass. If you put sidewalks in, you’re going to put a lot of people out of business.”
The moderator asked Moreland for a source of the speculation, and he pointed back to the Partnership’s original proposal and renderings that featured sidewalks.
“MDOT made a firm commitment that … no sidewalks would be installed. (The Partnership) doesn’t have authority to do so, and the mayor, who was sitting right there in the meeting, said the city doesn’t have the means to put them in now or the foreseeable future,” Gregory said. “They do not have the means or intent to install them.
“We did include them in the original plan, but the feedback (against sidewalks) was overwhelming … and that’s why it’s not listed anymore,” she added. “Nothing can be done unless it’s written in the plan, per state statute.”
Discussions touched on other ordinances and the crowd’s overall distrust of city government, but sidewalks remained in a majority of attendees’ crosshairs.
“If you can get a written proclamation from (Mayor) Parker Wiseman that he won’t (force sidewalk installations and make businesses pay for them), bring the board of aldermen and have them sign it in front of a judge, maybe we can talk. If you put a sidewalk in front of my business, it puts me out of business,” one attendee said. “If any of y’all vote for this thing here, you’re voting to put me out of business. They’ll come for y’all next. This Greater Starkville thing is nothing but a socialist organization.”
Other business owners, including the Mill at MSU developer Mark Castleberry, attempted to steer discussions toward the proposed BID’s productive capabilities.
“For the record, I’m a Republican, capitalist pig,” he said, earning laughter from attendees. “I own real estate and businesses to make money. I’ve learned to make money in the modern world, the market we’re in today wants things aesthetically pleasant. They see higher value. These things will make me money because people will see this is a nice place to spend money.
“There are probably businesses on Highway 12 that don’t need to be on Highway 12. It’s expensive. There are people this might be difficult for, but yeah, you know what you need to do? You need to take a big, fat check from somebody, sell your business and move into another location,” he added.
An attendee rebutted Castleberry’s comments by swearing, and the developer quickly lost the crowd.
The night’s discussions continued to serve as a platform for many in the audience to continue airing their grievances, building until one attendee accused the Partnership of “ramrodding” the plan into fruition even though the attendees had the ability to guide and change its facets.
Some business owners came to the Partnership’s defense.
“We don’t want Highway 12 to become Highway 182. I think everybody here should realize this: You are the lion’s share of the city’s tax revenues. The city should listen to us,” said Curt Crissey, who owns a number of commercial properties throughout Starkville. “In defense of Jennifer, she’s done a lot of good work. We can’t just throw that away.”
“We pay enough taxes that the city should step up and keep (Highway 12) looking good,” added clothier and business owner George Sherman. “It boils down pretty simple: There are a whole bunch of leaders in this room, so why don’t we go to the city and propose that they do something?”
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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