For nearly two hours, citizens grilled Starkville Housing Authority board chair Loren “Bo” Bell about a proposed development that would resettle Pecan Acres residents from Highway 12 to a new location on Highway 182.
Christopher Dobbs, a Tuscaloosa, Alabama-based developer, is looking to build a replica of the 70,000 square-foot Pecan Acres low-income housing development on land on the north side of Highway 182, west of Reed Road. That new facility would then be swapped with Pecan Acres’ current location on Highway 12 across from KFC, which is being eyed for commercial development.
Local attorney Johnny Moore, who is representing Dobbs, presented a redevelopment proposal to the Starkville Board of Aldermen in April. Moore, speaking at Wednesday’s meeting, said a hotel company is interested in the site, along with some restaurants and an entertainment venue such as a bowling alley.
Wednesday’s meeting, hosted by Indivisible Golden Triangle, allowed citizens and Pecan Acres residents to voice their concerns and ask questions about the new project. Much of the discussion focused on pedestrian accessibility for those Pecan Acres residents who lack personal vehicles. The new location is farther away from a grocery store, whereas Pecan Acres’ current location is easy walking distance from Vowell’s.
Accessibility questions
One citizen, who said she’s walked a lot around Starkville, said she is concerned because Highway 182 can be very dangerous for pedestrians.
Bell noted the new location, should the housing move there, will be served by the Starkville-MSU Area Rapid Transit (SMART) system, while Pecan Acres currently is not — although a SMART bus does service the adjacent Vowell’s grocery store. He also said the housing authority has a van it can make available for those who need transportation.
He added the Highway 182 site currently being considered was one of five possibilities. It’s the only one that received approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), he said.
“We looked at four other places,” Bell said. “None of them were approved by HUD for housing. Some of them were farther out, which I was not in favor of, just because of logistics. But it’s hard to find the size acreage we need anywhere in town.”
‘We look after each other’
Alvin Turner, a resident of Pecan Acres who is physically disabled, said he is worried about moving away from where he’s lived for 17 years. He said he is particularly thankful for his neighbors, who check on him, and worried that might change if Pecan Acres moves to a new location.
“It doesn’t make sense to say you love people and then turn around and cut people,” he said. “… I’ve been there 17 years. To cut me like that, it makes me feel like I’m nothing — that you would take 17 years of a man’s life and just throw it in the wind. It doesn’t make sense.”
Julia Conner, another Pecan Acres resident, said she’s not necessarily opposed to the new project because the facility’s rent has recently risen to $600 per month. For that price, she said, she’d prefer to live in something newer than the current 60-year-old facility. However, she said she is concerned about potentially splitting up groups of neighbors, such as Turner, Yulanda Austin and herself.
“Hopefully when they make this transition, the ones that are there, they’re able to stay amongst each other,” she said. “Mr. Alvin, Yulanda and myself, we’re very close. We look after each other. If we go to this new place and they have Mr. Alvin on the left field, Yulanda on the right field and me over on the south, it will hurt. It will hurt.”
Other questions focused on what the new facility would be like, in terms of layout and construction. Bell said it’s too early to know some of those things for certain. However, he said that the Starkville Housing Authority will hold meetings with Pecan Acres residents beginning on June 6, with a public forum currently set for the first week in July.
Bell also said several steps remain to determine if the deal, which would involve a land swap with the developer to get the new land, can be approved. He said appraisals still need to be conducted to determine if the two properties can be brought to relatively even value for the swap. If that cannot happen, he said, the deal won’t go through.
He further added that, if most of Pecan Acres’ residents don’t want to move, the deal won’t happen.
“Part of HUD’s requirement is that our tenants approve what we’re doing,” he said. “During our meeting, if enough people were to say ‘We don’t want to do the deal,’ we’ll kill the deal.”
The city would also have to approve site plans, building permits and any necessary rezoning for the project before it could commence.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 47 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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Starkville Housing Authority board chairman Loren "Bo" Bell speaks to attendees of a public forum on Wednesday about Pecan Acres. Bell fielded a wide variety of questions and concerns about a potential development involving the public housing. Photo by: Alex Holloway/Dispatch Staff
