Planning and Zoning seeks answers from school district on Sand Road

City of Starkville Planning and Zoning commissioners are wanting to hear from the Starkville-oktibbeha Consolidated School District next month to answer some questions about the leasing of 16th section property on Sand Road for mobile home lots.

In a meeting Tuesday, the Planning and Zoning Commission held public hearing for three applicants seeking special exceptions to the city’s zoning ordinance for permission to install mobile homes on lots leased from the school

district.

In two of the lots, lot A and lot C, commissioners were concerned about the presence of a TVA transmission line running through the proposed home sites.

“If you guys remember when we approved the substation at the end of Azalea Lane, well, TVA has cleared a right of way,” Commissioner Michael Brooks said. “It comes from Azalea Lane, across Louisville Street, and then it goes across this property.”

Brooks said he visited Lot A and had some concerns about the lot being large enough for a mobile home to have the required clearances without encroaching on TVA’S easement for its transmission line. The easement, he said, would impact Lots A, B and C on Sand Road.

Angela Mcmullen, who applied to put a mobile home on Lot C, said she wasn’t told about the TVA easement by the school district’s leasing agent prior to leasing the property. She told commissioners she discovered the easement after signing the lease and seeing TVA clearing their right-of-way on one of her visits to the property.

“There is an easement that is coming directly across Lots C, B and somewhat A, but for my particular lot it’s coming halfway across the lot,” she said.

Mcmullen said she was working with TVA to learn the exact boundary of the easement and whether the property would be able to hold a mobile home at all.

Commissioners were concerned with the lack of information given to lease holders by the leasing agent for the Starkville-oktibbeha School District about potential issues with the power lines and right-of-way. Commissioner Jeremiah Dumas said the behavior of the district’s leasing agent was “predatory” in the way information was not disclosed.

Starkville Planning and Zoning commissioners were also concerned about the prevalence of mobile home applications. Although manufactured homes are more affordable, commissioners cited the shortened lifespan of the homes as well as their vulnerability to storms as potential concerns.

Commissioner Alexis Gregory said mobile homes are part of a greater conversation about affordable housing in and around Starkville.

“It’s something that is badly needed, but mobile homes on leased land, which are dangerous in hurricanes and tornadoes – we get a lot of tornadoes, and based on climate change we’re going to be getting more hurricanes, even this far north,” she said. “I think it’s going to be the city is going to have to consider what would be a good development for low income, affordable housing in Starkville. And it can’t just be the bandaid of mobile homes on leased property.”

Dumas said he understood the appeal of mobile homes but would not vote to approve any mobile homes on major thoroughfares in town.

After discussion on each, commissioners voted 3-1 to approve requests for Lots C and P. Commissioners Brooks, Dumas and Verdell Jr. voted to approve and Commissioner Gregory dissented in both cases. For Lot A the board, after seeking the advice of City Attorney Chris Latimer, voted to table the application with the recommendation the applicant seek another site on Sand Road.

The commission also voted unanimously to request a representative of the Starkville-oktibbeha Consolidated School District or the district’s leasing agent appear at its next meeting to answer questions about the district’s goal from leasing the property and how to address some of the issues that have come up with the applications.