\u00a0At the July 5, 2023 Oxford Board of Aldermen<\/strong> meeting an applicant appealed his denial by the Oxford Planning Commission<\/strong> to build residential units on the first floor of his proposed development at 3809 Old Sardis Road<\/strong>. The applicant\u2019s land is zoned Traditional Neighborhood Business<\/strong>, which requires store fronts on the first floor. By a vote of 4-3, the Board of Aldermen granted the applicant\u2019s request to build residential only units at 3809 Old Sardis Road, just before M-Trade Park<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before the automobile, \u201cmixed use\u201d developments with storefronts on the first floor were common in cities and towns across America because people had to walk or travel by horse to go to the store. But with the advent of the car, that all changed and sprawling residential neighborhoods many miles from large box stores arose. In order to stop this kind of divided development, Oxford passed a new Land Development Code<\/strong> in 2017 as part of its Vision 2037<\/strong> Plan. The many Dollar Generals<\/strong> in residential neighborhoods owe their existence in part to this emphasis on combined or \u201cmixed\u201d land use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leading up to the Aldermen\u2019s vote, a kind of chicken and egg discussion took place. The minority of aldermen advocated leaving the land commercial because of its proximity to M-Trade Park and an already approved (but not yet built) food truck park, RV park, gas station, and large church. On the other side the majority agreed with the applicant that market forces call for more housing and not commercial space. Just down the road are condos similar to those proposed by the applicant. Oxford currently has a housing shortage but not a shortage of commercial space. These \u201cgrowing pains\u201d divide cities like few other issues. Both sides have valid points and at the end of the day geography may have played a role here. Closer in to the heart of Oxford, along the North Lamar<\/strong> corridor, on Jackson Avenue<\/strong>, or in The Commons<\/strong>, it is doubtful the exception for residential only along a major thoroughfare would have been granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other issues tackled by the aldermen this summer included highlighting the most successful Juneteenth<\/strong> in Oxford history. Alderman Kesha Howell-Atkinson<\/strong> reported that the 57 vendors who participated were a record and attendance was estimated at 1500-2000 people. Bids for renovating the Oxford Enterprise Center<\/strong> into the future Oxford Police Station<\/strong> are ongoing, day care 3 acre minimum lot requirements were relaxed, and a metal building for Oxford utilities was approved. Pepsi <\/strong>won out over Coke <\/strong>at M-Trade Park, water meters at Punkin Water Association<\/strong> were brought into compliance with city standards (at Punkin Water\u2019s expense), and the process to expand the city\u2019s landfill was discussed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Going forward, there are many issues that will continue to test the resolve of our city leaders. But what is clear is lively debate is alive and well at City Hall<\/strong> and this is what good government requires. Until next time friends, enjoy the waning (and hot) final days of summer and the relative calm before the arrival of Ole Miss<\/strong> students next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Chicken and the Egg My apologies for not writing the past couple months. My wife would say<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123473,"featured_media":122615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22423],"tags":[38,2648,26072,4359,7744,400,22696,26071,18199,5,439,12534,7067,4,26074,5148,26075,5309,26076,26073,22447,7665],"class_list":["post-130703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jordan-bankhead","tag-board-of-aldermen","tag-city-hall","tag-dollar-generals","tag-jackson-avenue","tag-jordan-bankhead","tag-juneteenth","tag-kesha-howell-atkinson","tag-land-development-code","tag-m-trade-park","tag-mississippi","tag-north-lamar","tag-old-sardis-road","tag-ole-miss","tag-oxford","tag-oxford-enterprise-center","tag-oxford-planning-commission","tag-oxford-police-station","tag-oxford-school-district","tag-punkin-water-association","tag-the-commons","tag-the-state-of-our-city","tag-vision-2037"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/2022-09-11-TheStateofOurCity-JordanBankhead.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123473"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg\")
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