OKTIBBEHA COUNTY – County supervisors are calling public meetings to draft a new comprehensive plan, giving residents a chance to shape the direction of their county for years to come.
Nathan Willingham, owner of Oxford-based urban planning firm Slaughter and Willingham, told The Dispatch on Tuesday his firm has been laying the groundwork for a new comprehensive plan since May 2024, researching the county’s demographics and interviewing local stakeholders.
Now, the firm is reaching out to the public, inviting residents, business owners and anyone else who’s interested to hear what it found and say what their priorities are as Oktibbeha grows.
“We want to share the knowledge we’ve gained with the public, and it also gives us a chance to validate that approach,” Willingham said. “(We want to) make sure the plan has feedback from members of the public, that it’s not just something spun out of thin air from an urban planning consulting group. This is Oktibbeha County’s comprehensive plan, and it should have involvement from all interested parties.”
The public meetings will be at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 25 in the Belaire Fire Station at 15052 Hwy. 182 and at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 27 in the Sturgis Fire Station at 137 Montgomery St.
While the contents of the plan are still flexible, residents can expect to see at least the four plans mandated by Mississippi law, Willingham said: general goals and objectives, land use, transportation and community facilities. He said recommendations that the county create or update zoning codes are another likely inclusion, since state law requires any new zoning the county decides it wants to pursue appear in a comprehensive plan first.
“The comprehensive plan is a guide for policy and also a source of legal authority for certain land use controls,” he said. “If the county were to adopt a zoning ordinance, it would by necessity in state law be based on the comprehensive plan. I’m not saying the county is looking at zoning, just that a comprehensive plan is a prerequisite for having a zoning ordinance.”
Housing and parks got a mention as well on the firm’s flyers. Willingham said Starkville’s southeast border is a growth spot that got particular attention during the firm’s interviews. Stakeholders have also told the firm they’d like to see the county do better futureproofing rural infrastructure and preparing for future growth.
Oktibbeha County last approved a comprehensive plan in 2014, which included requests for new zoning codes, tax reforms, development, flood protection, road and bridge maintenance, health, education, law enforcement and many other topics. While comprehensive plans generally include 20 to 25 years, Slaughter and Willingham recommends updating them roughly every decade.
Much of 2014’s plan, however, was never implemented. The goals of repairing substandard bridges and getting all county roads paved within 10 to 20 years have reemerged in recent months with even greater urgency, a full decade after they were identified as priorities in the 2014 plan.
District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer admitted that the goals of theoretical documents don’t always prove realistic in practice.
“We’ll continue to talk about these things, but it’s challenging to maintain what we have,” Trainer said. “If you build them and then just let them deteriorate that’s not good. We need a better maintenance plan. And we need to be more data-driven with our decisions. I come up with a lot of good ideas, but do they make sense? Are they appropriate for the county? That’s decided during due diligence.”
Still, he was enthusiastic about the prospect of an updated roadmap, and said the comprehensive plans have a substantial impact on the board’s policy priorities.
“(Its impact) is dramatic,” he said. “There are some things we’ve exceeded, some things we’ve yet to approach. But there are new things that have come into play since 2014, I can think of sewer and infrastructure issues with bridges. And then there’s the question of county growth. We need some sort of directive we can adhere to.”
Willingham said there will be several more meetings after this pair, with a final draft tentatively ready in July or August. There will be a few months of review and revision after that, and if the projected timeline holds the plan could be ready for adoption in October.
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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 30 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
