$10M retail, condo development planned for Russell St

STARKVILLE — Aldermen on Tuesday gave the green light to a $10 million condominium and retail project at the corner of Russell and Jarnigan streets.

Developer Jeremy Tabor needed board approval for a pair of variances due to lot dimensions, as well as a special exception that would allow him to have one fewer parking space associated with the property than city code technically allows. Aldermen approved all the measures by a 5-2 margin following a lengthy public hearing that featured vocal opposition from churchgoers near the proposed development site.

Tabor pitched his planned development, called The Summit, as second home/game day properties that would continue to build Russell Street as a bridge between Mississippi State University and downtown. It would combine three existing lots into two, with Tabor building a three-story structure on each.

Each building would house 2,500 square feet of retail space on the bottom floor, while the development would have a total of 23 condominium units on the upper floors — including one-, two- and three-bedroom — which Tabor told the board could sell for about $400 per square foot.

“It will be great for the tax base,” Tabor said. “… We’ve got a big alumni base. We’ve got a lot of supporters and they need somewhere to stay. … Right now the downtown area is where everybody wants to be.”

While City Planner Daniel Havelin said code dictates a development that size include 48 parking spaces, Tabor wants to build a private lot on the property with 39 spaces, augmented by eight public streetside spots he will add along Russell at his cost. Both Havelin and Tabor indicated the streetside spaces will be added within the development’s property lines and will not affect the current road width or sidewalk/bike path access along Russell.

Planning and Zoning has already approved the parking exception, while the Board of Adjustments and Appeals approved the variances.

Church opposition
About 20 members of the Church of the Living God, which is located adjacent north of the development site on Jarnigan Street, came to City Hall on Tuesday to express concern over how Tabor’s project would affect church parking in an already congested traffic area.

“We do service every Sunday,” Pastor Lawrence Tate said. “The parking there is already limited. If you allow him to take up all that parking, it will be impossible for us to get to our church.”

Tabor said since his project wouldn’t have permanent residences or student housing, parking should not be a burden but very few times of the year — major football weekends or if MSU baseball hosts a regional, for example. Otherwise, it would be “10 percent parked 85 percent of the year.”

Church members voiced concerns condo tenants would use church property as overflow parking, noting Tabor had already approached the church about buying a piece of its property for the development. Some also feared the development going forward as planned would be a step toward Tabor “taking their property.”

Tabor acknowledged he had asked about buying a piece of the church property but made no further attempts after trustees declined.

The project zone now includes two fourplex residential units and an empty lot. Tabor claims church members are now parking on the empty lot at what would become The Summit. Church members denied that claim to The Dispatch after the meeting.

Church trustee Lula Watson said she didn’t oppose the development. She simply asked Tabor to scale it down to fit existing code.

“We have no problems with Mr. Tabor building his condominiums,” she said. “… (Just) stay within the limits of property he has. … We ain’t saying don’t build it. Build it! But just go back and do your drawing over.”

Ward 5 Alderman Hamp Beatty asked Tabor if that was possible. Tabor said financially he was more comfortable keeping the plan as it was.

The majority of the board praised Tabor’s plan and past developments, Ward 2’s Sandra Sistrunk urging church members that “churches can live in harmony with development with minimal conflict.”

Mayor Lynn Spruill was more pointed, noting church members would have the right to use the eight public streetside parking spaces.

“It’s an extremely valuable property. It’s well located,” Spruill said. “No matter what goes there, it is going to inconvenience your parking. … I think that’s just a reality of life.

“I think we probably project more problems than are actually going to be the case,” she added.

‘I have the floor’
Not everyone on the board was as positive on the project.

Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn, who along with Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins voted against the variances and parking exception, chastised Tabor for not, as he saw it, adequately considering the surrounding citizens with his project.

“First thing I heard you say is ‘ease of walk downtown,’” Vaughn said during the public hearing. “Second thing I heard you say was ‘tax base.’ (Next) thing I heard you say was ‘alumi-based.’ You said nothing about the residents that live there. … So, the project is more important than the people living there, (according to) what you said. They should have been considered somewhere in this before you drew all this up.”

Tabor told Vaughn he had spoken with church members, and Vaughn responded that there were more people affected than just the church.

“I’ve never gone to every single house for every development,” a frustrated Tabor responded. “That’s just not normal. That’s what the (public) meeting is for. They can come and we can talk. … But you’ve made your point. We can move on to the next one.”

Spruill noted Vaughn still had the floor.

“I have the floor,” Vaughn confirmed. “How you going to tell me to move on? This is our meeting. Not yours. My concern is you have no concern for those people at all.”

Tabor later publicly apologized to Vaughn.

Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.