ADP plan calls for radical thinking
BYLINE: Reuben Mees rmees@hattiesburgamerican.com
American Staff Writer
In order to ease traffic congestion and make the greater Hattiesburg area more livable all in one fell swoop, area officials need to stop thinking in traditional terms.
Instead of widening streets, think about ways to keep people from driving as much.
Instead of looking out on mostly empty strip mall parking lots, look for ways to put the parking behind a cluster of buildings.
Instead of just allowing a big box shopping center to come to town, make them answer to a set of local development guidelines.
Those were among the broad recommendations made in a 36-page metropolitan plan unveiled by the Area Development Partnership on Thursday.
It developed out of the Hurricane Recovery Strategic Task Force, which was born just days after Hurricane Katrina as a way to rebuild in a smarter and more efficient way, task force chairman Bill Ray said.
"We thought what we really ought to do is take advantage of the disaster as a way to better serve the greater metropolitan area," Ray said.
The report was compiled by the architectural consulting firm JBHM and other planning and engineering consultants at a cost of $240,000.
JBHM architect Glenn Currie said the goal was to create a document that helps Hattiesburg business and civic leaders think of new ways to look at old problems.
"The interstate system was a great idea, but it cut a city like Hattiesburg into four quadrants that don't communicate well (allow easy travel)," he said. "We now need to break away from those zones and think about ways we can communicate better throughout the city. Actually all the mistakes we're dealing with were well-intentioned, but over the years, they turned into problems."
Some of the biggest mistakes that have been made include allowing big box shopping centers to spread ever westward – a process the consultants recommended fixing by encouraging development at dying shopping centers that creates more infill, better pedestrian access and hidden parking.
Ellen Keys, a GCA consultant who presented the document Thursday, called massive parking lots "grayfields" that need a similar revitalization boost as brownfields or former industrial sites.
"I look at a parking lot like a land bank," she said. "A parking lot isn't just an empty lot, but a piece of land has the potential for development and pedestrian paths that connect the buildings."
In addition to addressing redeveloping shopping centers and creating housing communities nearer existing services, the plan also addresses specific projects such as the extension of the Longleaf Trace and potentially University of Southern Mississippi facilities into downtown as well as development of the Leaf and Bouie rivers.
But the document isn't without its flaws.
Specifically, the misspelling of Hardy Street as "Hardie Street" in all references throughout the document raised some eyebrows about how familiar the consultants actually were with the city.
"It makes you wonder if they even came to Hattiesburg," Mayor Johnny DuPree said.
It does reference certain geographic areas of the city, such as "downtown," "uptown" – a neighborhood Keys said refers to the area north of downtown – "4th Street" and the "western bypass" – which appears to refer to the general westward development of Hattiesburg.
About 20 pages of the document deal with "best practices" applicable throughout the metropolitan area while only 10 pages are dedicated to "conceptual projects for Hattiesburg." The final five pages deal with strategies the collective governmental bodies can use to manage growth.
DuPree, who had only seen the document briefly late Thursday, said after contributing $20,000 of city money, he would have hoped for something with more specifics and less abstract thought.
"I would like to see something more specific to Hattiesburg, like details about housing, traffic and ways to move people better," he said. "I thought that's what we were getting. The plan was to restore the greater Hattiesburg area to a pre-Katrina status and take advantage of this opportunity to move us further ahead."
ADP President Angie Godwin said the next step is to allow public officials to offer their input and begin looking at ways the plan can be used to create long-term goals.
"We want public officials to take a look at it and offer feedback or poke holes in it," she said. "But the next phase on our end is an economic development analysis of what we can do in five years or what we can do in 20 years."
ADP conceptual projects
Projects recommended in the Area Development Partnership's plan:
* Fourth Street widening: As the city prepares to widen Fourth Street from North 25th Avenue to Jackson Street, the plan suggests considering an alternative design that would create more on-street parking and possibly connect with the Longleaf Trace corridor.
* Bouie River greenway: Recommends extending the vision for Chain Park as a riverfront development between Hattiesburg and Petal to include northern river parks along the Bouie River.
* Conservation subdivisions: Urges developing subdivisions that include green space, better traffic flow and are conducive to commercial development as a way to keep more people within their neighborhoods.
* University expansion and downtown infill: Stresses the importance of University of Southern Mississippi's outreach into downtown locations such as the old Hattiesburg High School as a way to spur development in the historic downtown.
* New front door: Recommends improving and beautifying the U.S. 11 bridge as a link between Hattiesburg and Petal.
* Rails to Trails/Sumrall: Highlights Sumrall as an ideal location for commercial and residential development that takes advantage of the Longleaf Trace.
* Shopping center redevelopment: Points out the flaws of development on U.S. 98 West and suggests the "grayfield" parking lot expanses be replaced with tighter commercial uses that place more emphasis on pedestrian shopping.
From staff reports