If you’re not aware of the housing problem in Starkville, listen up.
The problem isn’t a shortage. It’s a surplus. Last Tuesday, the Starkville Board of Aldermen approved two new housing developments that will add an additional 200 to 300 units to the already saturated apartment situation in the city.
One is a scheduled addition to the Sherwood apartments on Lincoln Green just south of the Veranda restaurant. This 40-unit development is not that big of a deal, although it doesn’t help the problem.
The problem comes in the form of a 500-bedroom development just west of the new Miss. Highway 25 bypass called Lakeside Place. It is a development of Place Properties out of Georgia.
This huge, inexpensively-built complex will be visible on the left side of the bypass if you are entering town from the south. It will complement (excuse the sarcasm) the already abundantly noticeable Starkville suburbs on the right, not-so-affectionately known as Crossgates and Avalon.
“So, what?” you may ask. “What’s the problem with more apartments being built in Starkville? Well, I’ll tell you. There are several problems with this situation, and what’s worse, there seems to be no possibility of a legal remedy.
First of all, the new Miss. Highway 25 bypass is continuing to become a primary entrance into the city from out of town. More and more people who come to town for sporting events and holidays are using the bypass to enter Starkville; and it’s just going to get more used.
Do we really want the first thing that these visitors see to be row upon row of mundane, cheaply-constructed cookie-cutter apartments? It’s like you rise over a wave of concrete on the bypass and see before you a never-ending sea of cut-rate dwellings. It looks as if one brisk wind could topple the entire thing to the ground. Visitors’ first impressions of Starkville shouldn’t remind them of the tenements of Mexico City.
The second problem with all the new developments is the effect it has on traffic. As the apartments continue to become farther and farther west, the students (and other unfortunate souls that choose to dwell in these apartments) have to travel farther and farther to get to campus. That means more traffic on Miss. Highway 12 and the 25 bypass. If you have a class on the south side of campus and you take Highway 12, you have to leave home that much sooner to get to class on time.
Now I know the saying, “Where Wal-Mart goes, so goes the city,” but isn’t this a bit ridiculous? By locating all the primarily student housing so far away, we’ve created infrastructure problems for the city. It’s more difficult for police and fire to “protect and serve” the urban-sprawled-out town.
But the biggest problem with the growing over-saturation of apartments in Starkville is the effect it has on longtime property owners and the aesthetic value of the city. With everyone moving to occupy these newer complexes, many Starkville residents who own older buildings are left with vacancies with simply no one to fill them. Some landlords cannot even pay property taxes on their buildings due to the lack of renters. And when buildings become vacant and owners unable to maintain them, they turn into slum-like eyesores.
Many apartment buildings closer to the center of town that were primarily student dwellings just five years ago are vacant and dilapidated. The lack of maintenance on these buildings and the potential problems it could cause are getting worse.
There is no remedy in sight. Members of the Board of Aldermen and the Planning and Zoning Commission have admitted that there exists no legal reason in municipal law to halt the construction of new apartments. The acting mayor himself has said the only way to stop the influx of new developments is to pass a moratorium on new construction. Why haven’t the people of Starkville been given the chance to vote on such a moratorium? There is no definite answer, but the general feeling I get from city officials is that they just haven’t gotten around to it.
Starkville has been growing pretty steadily for the past five or 10 years, and the new Miss. Highway 25 bypass will definitely help in that regard, providing land for more industry and retail developments. But as the city continues to grow on its outskirts, we shouldn’t forget to take care of the heart of the city and its residents.
Nick Thompson is a senior communication major. He can be reached at [email protected].