Hearing Scheduled For New County Regs
By David Howell
Editor
WATER VALLEY – A public hearing is scheduled Monday, Jan. 28, at 9 a.m. in the Coffeeville courthouse on proposed land development standards that are expected to be adopted as part of a new county plan that was approved by supervisors last August.
The proposed standards will be the enforcement tool to ensure that development in the county complies with the new plan, Stewardship Yalobusha. The plan outlines a broad vision for the future of the county including building and maintaining quality infrastructure, promoting excellence in the local-based economy and health care, economic development, creating and renewing quality rural neighborhoods and caring for the natural environment.
Monday’s meeting will allow public input on basic land development standards including minimum lot sizes for lots without sewer; building setbacks, or the required separation between a structure and roadway or property line; road construction standards and right-of-way standards. The development regulations under consideration will also address land divisions that create an access easement, land divisions that propose a public road, land divisions using municipal sewer or constructing a centralized sewer system, multiple lot divisions on existing public roads or any division for commercial or industrial uses.
Also expected to be adopted are special land use standards, which will include regulations for manufactured home parks, recreational vehicle parks, gravel mining, salvage yards, multi-family housing, auto repair shops and taverns.
The planned regulations follow almost two years of discussion after news broke in early 2017 that four Oxford men had purchased an existing trailer park in Water Valley and confirmed long-term plans to expand the operation in the county where, outside of flood plain regulations, there were no county regulations for property development.
In April, 2017, supervisors hired Orion Planning Plus Development, a company that specializes in planning livable communities. Since then the work on Stewardship Yalobusha has included multiple public meetings across the county and input from supervisors before the plan was finalized. While work was underway on the plan, supervisors enacted a stay on the issuance of building permits or construction of multi-family developments or subdivisions in unincorporated areas of the county. The stay will be lifted after the land regulations are adopted.
