It is only 150 miles from Phoenix to Flagstaff, yet the difference between the two Arizona cities is striking. In about two hours, the traveler leaves the desert of Phoenix, and the earth-tones of its 100-degree-plus temp dotted by majestic Saguaro cacti for Flagsaff and its brilliant green landscapes, mild temperatures and snow-crested mountains. In the summer, the variance in temperature between the two cities often reaches 25 degrees or more.
Although Columbus and Starkville are much closer in proximity and share the same climate, there is also a dramatic difference when it comes to a different sort of climate — the cities’ economies.
Both are dealing with concerns about housing and with retail/industrial development.
Yet the nature of those issues could not be more pronounced.
Starkville is struggling to manage explosive growth in housing. Columbus struggles to attract residents and the important ad valorem tax revenue that goes with housing.
In Columbus, retail is booming – sales tax income has twice eclipsed the $1-million mark this year — while Starkville’s sale tax income, even as it increases, is far outpaced by its neighbor.
Starkville, meanwhile, views industrial development with some suspicion while Columbus openly covets the arrival of any industry within its borders after having lost almost all of its industrial tax base in recent years.
At least where housing is concerned, the challenges Starkville faces are immediate while Columbus must look far beyond the present to a more distant goal.
One must be, by circumstances, near-sighted, the other far-sighted.
Starkville’s immediate concern is managing the explosive growth in housing we have seen over the past few years. The demand for housing, both homes and rentals, has created some serious issues for the city whose consequences may reach far into the future. Longtime residents are familiar with what happens when growth is properly managed. Several years ago, when the city sought to implement a sidewalk ordinance, the effort quickly proved to be virtually impossible, due primarily to a lack of planning that made the city a hodge-podge of zoning.
Now, with the growth we are seeing, it is all the more critical that this sort of will-nilly development does not happen yet again. It is the city’s obligation to all of its residents that growth must be accompanied with meaningful regulations that provide for infrastructure, traffic control and sustaining property values around the new developments.
In Columbus, meanwhile, the housing issue suggests the city understand its housing market. While demand for single-family housing remains low, there is evidence that there is real potential for quality rentals, especially among CAFB personnel and MUW students. The city’s efforts to accommodate that market has been met with resistance in some quarters, however, largely among those who feel today’s apartment complexes are tomorrow’s ghettos.
Yet the city has some control over that, too. Through the creation of its redevelopment district, the city can mandate that new apartment/rental units meet rigorous standards that guard against future blight.
As each city considers its role in managing growth and potential growth, it is important that those plans are generated only after thorough discussion and debate and, of particular importance, that residents have a real voice in those discussions.
Too often, an attitude of arrogance among city leaders leaves the public out of those important discussions. But residents do have a stake in these matters and their questions, opinions and suggestions often provide insights that might otherwise be ignored.
Whatever plans are devised an implemented, those efforts will succeed best when they have the support of an engaged citizenry.
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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