The Jackson Zoning Commission rejected a proposal to rezone a 50 acre portion on the north side of Lakeland Drive from Special Use to General Commercial by a 6-3 vote. Member Bo Brown abstained. The proposal drew no small amount of attention as the subject property included Smith-Wills Stadium. The rezoning would have paved the way for the construction of a Costco. Costco is examining several possible sites on Lakeland Drive in Jackson and Flowood. The room filled with zoning opponents burst into applause when the rezoning failed to pass.
Edited version of the hearing.
The area subject to the rezoning (see pages 5 and 7 of the documents below for the map.) included Smith-Wills, the baseball park in front of Smith-Wills, Jamie Fowler Park, and the area that includes the Crawdad Hold, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, and CMPDD. Zoning Administrator Ester Ainsworth told the commission that a Commercial District classification still allowed for "public parks, open spaces, and recreational areas including playgrounds" (see p.2 below) while allowing for regulated commercial use if approved by the city. She said (to the disbelief of the audience) that zoning and land use were two different items and there was no proposed land use for a Costco or other commercial establishment at this time. She said any proposed commercial building would have to pass site review and be approved by the Commission as well as the city. The subject property is currently zoned "special use".
The opposition was high-powered in nature as former Mayor Kane Ditto, Representative Cecil Brown, Belhaven Neighborhoods Association Executive Director Virgi Lindsay, MSHOF Executive Director Rick Cleveland, and Mississippi Children's Museum Executive Director Susan Garrard led the opposition to the rezoning.
Thomas Starham (sp?) who spoke in opposition said "I think its perplexing that the public has to come to a hearing to know whats involved in the case." He said he was told to file a public records request if he wanted to see the actual proposal. He said he filed one on August 11 and still had not received a copy. Several other individuals such as Ms. Lindsay told this correspondent they were told they had to file such requests as well in order to see the proposed rezoning. He said the commercial usage would create a "traffic nightmare." He closed by arguing the
He complained they were not notified of the proposed rezoning and that no one received letters or notifications of the proposal. He said there were two small signs on the front of the Smith-Wills property and across the street on Lakeland Drive. Ms. Ainsworth said the sign was not posted in front of the park as it was hard to see. The audience laughed at her. She also said (4:50) the city followed the legal requirements in posting the rezoning notice in the Mississippi Link. She said the law required the city to notify the "adjacent property owners" and did so as said property owners were the state and the city.
Ms. Garrard said said the board of directors for MCM expressed its "strong opposition" to the rezoning. Mr. Cleveland said the small baseball park in front of Smith-Wills was named after now-deceased former Murrah baseball player Michael D. Johnson. He said the project was built "by the students at Murrah High in his honor" and that he would hate to see it be a commercial parking lot.
Gerald McWhorter, the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Lands, told the commission that the state conveyed a deed to the city fifty years ago for limited uses. He said the property will revert back to the state if commercial use is allowed.
No one spoke in favor of the proposed rezoning. The state withdrew its request to rezone five acres on the South side of Lakeland Drive (across from Smith-Wills.).
13 comments:
Although I was at the meeting, I missed that the city claimed they only needed to notify "adjacent property owners" of the proposed re-zoning then claimed the city and state were the only adjacent property owners. I haven't examined deeds, but simply judging by the use of land in the area, I would say there are many more "adjacent property owners" (and I mean directly adjacent) than simply the city and state. When the city makes either extremely incompetent or extremely deceitful claims, I don't see how they can expect to win the community's trust that the re-zoning is needed, good for the city, and planned well. This deceit or sloppiness (I don't know which it is) is one of several reasons I continue to oppose the re-zoning.
Rookie mistake by the mayor. Something like this should not have been handled in a subversive manner. As a result he lost some credibility as an open and honest mayor. Maybe next time he'll try to educate the public and win them over with facts instead of trying to pull a fast one on them. The other side of the coin is that nobody trusts the city planning & development department to actually ensure a costco on this site would be held to the highest development, landscaping, cleanliness and security standards...they simply don't have that skill set. The mayor should have brought in industry leaders to consult and help with local buy-in. This could have been a win-win!
Build it in madison please. I love costco
I'm guessing that Costco is going to be built, but it won't in Jackson.
All an exercise in corporate welfare. There are relatively inexpensive privately owned commercial areas abutting neighborhoods with plenty of disposable income to suit Costco's needs. Isn't the reason Costco wanted this site because of the government subsidized rental price?
"All an exercise in corporate welfare. There are relatively inexpensive privately owned commercial areas abutting neighborhoods with plenty of disposable income to suit Costco's needs. Isn't the reason Costco wanted this site because of the government subsidized rental price?"
September 2, 2014 at 11:06 AM
That's what I've been suspecting. Nobody builds in Jackson, unless they are SPECIALISTS in gleaning Corporate Welfare in its many guises. Half the profit Costco expects to EXTRACT FROM JACKSON (or wherever in the area they REALLY intend to build) will probably be the indirect result of 'Public Monies' thrown at them, in one way or another.
I think that what happened is the mayor's administration and developers saw what they thought was an empty lot of public lands draining the city's budget and on which money could be quickly made. What they didn't realize is that some locals value the area for recreation, aesthetics and for its overall contribution to the community. If Jackson ever does grow again, these public lands and the others surrounding them could become part of what the Mall is to DC and Grant Park is to Chicago--an area that lets the public enjoy the outdoors and contains valuable museum and cultural opportunities. To give up these lands merely for the possibility (not even the certainty) of one new business is an act that should never be taken lightly. Indeed, if it's proper to re-zone the entire Smith-Wills area, why not re-zone and sale all of the city and state's public lands, ranging from LeFleur's Bluff State Park to Belhaven's Laurel Park? Is the city in such bad shape that we have no commercially zoned land and have to sacrifice our public lands to grow?
I under something strange was approved at the end of the meeting. That all the area along Lakeland Drive be changed to regional mixed use in the long range comprehensive plan. What does this mean and is this some kind of trick?
I think everyone who opposed the rezoning would probably want a Costco in Jackson, but that was not the location. Its a park area, and a great asset for the city. The idea of dropping a Costco in the middle of what has been built up and established there was no doubt driven by the Costco boardroom's ultimatum to the city. Great store; wrong location.
I feel sure Costco was sold that the land would be free and if there were any taxes paid there would go for improvements.All developments in the City use TIFs.
Jackson has plenty of other good possible places for a costco. A beautiful park at the base of museum drive is not the only spot possible. We are more creative than that. Surely! Let's make this happen somewhere else in town. Plenty of eyesores to mow down!
they sent Costco to rankin county .Good job people we keep this up we want have a damn thing
9:11, Maybe they will send your capitalization, punctuation, and spelling errors to Rankin County as well.
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