On Jan. 4, the Starkville Board of Aldermen passed a measure to exempt the Starkville Industrial Park from a city ordinance requiring sidewalks to be built in the park. The park, which houses the Flexsteel Industries, INC Plant and other businesses, is located on Industrial Park Road, near the Coca-Cola bottling plant and the Starkville Bryan Field Airport.
While the Board of Aldermen voted in favor of this change, Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman has 10 days after the approval to veto the board’s vote, Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver said.
He said the Board of Aldermen sorts through ordinances and appeals on a regular basis, but this particular issue has garnered a lot of controversy.
“We amend ordinances every day. Some catch our attention, some do not,” he said.
Because of the current ordinance mandating sidewalks for all new construction, only special circumstances can exempt a building from the ordinance. Carver said topographic reasons are one scenario that could exempt new construction from the ordinance, but due to Mississippi’s mostly flat terrain, this is not a common situation.
“Sidewalks are a sticky issue in Starkville,” Carver said of the debate.  
Carver said he is pro-sidewalk for all areas except industrial parks.
“It is a common sense approach,” he said.
Carver also said since the industrial park is in a relatively isolated area and near any other sidewalks, there would be no logical connector for sidewalks built in the industrial park.
He also said there would be much better ways for the city of Starkville to use its money.
Opponents of the exemption said not all businesses and buildings in the industrial park are industrial and some are actually commercial. Another argument against this variance is sidewalks can increase property values. Opponents of the variance said they also fear allowing even one exemption to an ordinance could cause future problems.
The debate on sidewalks is also complicated by plans to build a senior center in the vicinity of the industrial park.
Ben Bailey, junior business management major, said there are better alternatives for the city of Starkville’s revenue.
“With the lack of residential presence in that part of the city, I see no reason to use taxpayer revenue to invest in something that has no use,” he said.
Danielle Grimes, freshman biomedical engineering major, said she thinks it would not only be unnecessary to have sidewalks in the industrial park area, but it also could be dangerous. She said with large trucks and machinery and the lack of any streetlights, the industrial park is a hazardous area people would not need to be walking through. She said building sidewalks in this non-residential area would be poor fiscal management.
“It would probably be a waste of taxpayers’ money,” Grimes said.