A request by a Realtor to use a home on Greensboro Street as an office has met fierce pushback from residents who don’t want to see commercial entities in their cozy neighborhood.
After having a home occupation permit revoked and making, and then withdrawing, a request for a use exception that would allow a business to operate in a residential area, the homeowners will be back before the Starkville Planning and Zoning Commission again at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.
Stephanie Arnett and her husband, Will, bought the Stark House, located at 400 Greensboro St. in a city-designated historic district, in August, according to their attorney, William Starks.
The house was the residence of Betsy Stark, who lived there her entire life. Stark died in 2019 at the age of 103. The Starks were one of Mississippi’s earliest pioneer families and the city of Starkville’s namesake.
Since then, the Arnetts’ Greensboro Street neighbors have organized and petitioned the city not to allow the family to run a real estate business in a home where they aren’t residing, and code enforcement has responded to the house several times, including with a search warrant last week.
Planning and Zoning assented to a home occupancy permit in August, which would allow the Arnetts to live in the home and use part of it for office space, City Planner Daniel Havelin said. That was revoked after it became clear the home had not become a primary residence.
Home occupation is allowed in any residential district, he said.
“That’s just allowing someone to work from home and claim it on their taxes, get a business license, do all the kind of stuff and be legit without having a physical location they go to as an office,” Havelin said. “If you do not reside there, it’s obviously not a home occupation. It’s a professional use.”
Having a commercial space in a traditional residential neighborhood requires a special exception, according to the city’s unified development code. The Arnetts applied for one, which Planning and Zoning recommended denial in October. A week later, on the evening the board of aldermen planned to consider the matter in a public hearing, the Arnetts withdrew the request.
“I couldn’t be there (at the aldermen meeting), and (the aldermen) just usually rubber-stamp the planning and zoning commission,” Starks said by way of explanation. “We thought it was a futile effort.”
Now, Starks said, the couple plans to challenge Havelin’s definition of “home occupancy” — arguing the couple doesn’t have to make the old Stark Home their primary residence to get that permit.
“That’s Havelin’s interpretation, that somebody has to reside in the home full-time, like 24/7,” he said. “That is not in the code anywhere. That’s his interpretation. When the permit was originally requested, the city was told this was a second home. From the very beginning, there was no question.”
Even so, the use exception should not have been denied in the first place, Starks said.
“The only factor the commission looked at was the neighbor opposition,” he said. “That is not a legitimate factor, that’s an arbitrary factor. There was no adverse effect on property values, there was no noxious noise or nuisance. There was no increase in traffic, there wasn’t any of that.”
Neighbor opposition
Forty-two neighbors signed a letter submitted to Planning and Zoning objecting to the use exception, and several others wrote or emailed independently.
One of the signatories was Michelle Jones, who lives on the same block as the Arnetts’ house.
“I worked for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History for 28 years, and in all my dealings with that I never would have recommended a commercial property in a vibrant, stable neighborhood of residential dwellings,” Jones said. “There is no need to introduce a different use into this neighborhood.”
Jeremy Murdock, who lives a few houses down, also signed the letter.
“We feel like we’re a very intact neighborhood,” he said. “We think it’s important that the primary use of all the houses on our street remain residential. … You wouldn’t go into Greenbriar or Timber Cove and try to open up a business in the middle of the neighborhood, so I don’t know why ours would be any different.”
Murdock said he didn’t want to see the neighborhood change further.
“If the city grants this, it sets a precedent for any other house on our street,” he said. “It worries us for the future of our neighborhood.”
Tensions in the neighborhood are high enough that code enforcement became involved.
Starks confirmed that code enforcement had been to the house, but would not discuss why or what happened.
“We instructed them not to come back without a warrant,” he said. “They came back with something they claimed to be a warrant, and it was not. That’s all I can say on that, and I can’t comment on that further.”
Starkville Police Department and Mayor Lynn Spruill declined to comment on the warrant or why it was served.
Starks would not comment on whether Arnett is running her business out of the home currently.
“I don’t know what activities are there,” he said. “I know (Stephanie) is there, her pets are there. Her parents come in and spend the night there sometimes. I think she spends the night there at least some portion of the time, but I won’t say on a regular basis.”
There is office space upstairs, Starks said, but the downstairs portion is “completely residential.” In fact, he said, work on the house has improved the neighborhood.
“They have made major improvements to the property,” he said. “They’ve taken the burglar bars and window units out of the windows and put central air in. There is nothing detrimental to the neighborhood. In fact everything’s been good for their neighborhood.”
The Dispatch contacted Stephanie Arnett for comment, but she deferred to Starks.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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