Hearings Continue On County Plan
By David Howell
Editor
WATER VALLEY – The first of three public meetings for input on a proposed plan to guide future conservation and development in Yalobusha County was underway at the Coffeeville courthouse at presstime Tuesday night and two more are scheduled in coming weeks.
Called Stewardship Yalobusha, recommendations in the proposed plan do not include zoning in the county and instead defines land development standards geared toward specific types of development including manufactured home parks, recreational vehicle parks, gravel mining, salvage yards, multi-family housing developments and auto repair shops. Under the proposal, the planner said these types of development will not be limited to specific areas in the county as they could be with zoning. Instead, there will be a specific set of standards governing each of the special use activities.
The remaining hearings are scheduled on Thursday, July 19, at the courthouse in Water Valley and on Thursday, July 26, at City Hall in Oakland. Both hearings will start at 6 p.m.
Proposed Plan Follows More Than A Year Of Work
The recommendations for Stewardship Yalobusha follow more than a year of work after supervisors hired Orion Planning Plus Design in April, 2017, as the first step in the potential implementation of land use regulations in the county. The move was sparked earlier in 2017 after four Oxford men purchased an existing mobile home park on Gore Circle in Water Valley. The men also purchased adjoining property in the county and confirmed long-term plans to expand the trailer park in the county where, outside of flood plain regulations, there are no county regulations for property development.
The property has since been sold, but potential development in other areas of the county prompted supervisors to extend a stay on the issuance of building permits for the construction of multi-family developments or subdivisions in unincorporated areas of the county in May. The six-month stay was approved to ensure new development will meet guidelines of the new development standards that are expected to be adopted. Supervisors had first enacted a six-month stay in June, 2017, before extending it in May.
