After working out some issues with the site plan for a new Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership on U.S. 98 just west of Cole Road, the Lamar County Board of Supervisors has given the development a green light.
During the board’s Aug. 20 meeting, Lamar County Senior Planner Michael Hershman said emails have been sent between the engineer and the developer of the site – as recently as the morning of the meeting – to get certain issues resolved on the matter.
“I have not put it in up to this point for approval, because there are items that we still need to discuss about this,” he said. “This was evolving up until an hour or two ago.”
County Engineer Don Walker said he has reviewed the site plans for development, which would be located just east of the Canebrake subdivision. Although the developers have generally met all of the requirements, there are three items Walker needed clarification on, the first being drainage release and flow toward Canebrake.
“They’re not increasing the flow, but I wanted to make sure that we slowed it down and didn’t cause any erosion problems,” Walker said.
The second issue is that the site plans do not feature an electrical engineer certification on the lighting for the dealership.
Officials want to make sure the lighting is directed properly from the site.
“(We want the lighting) away from the surrounding properties, so we asked them to clarify that,” Walker said.
The third issue regards clarification from the Mississippi Department of Transportation about permits for driveway entrances into the dealership, as there was some confusion about whether there would be one or two entrances.
“As of 10 minutes ago, I just got an email response on all three of those (issues), and the lighting is going to be exactly the way they did Pine Belt Chevrolet and Courtesy Ford,” Walker said. “It will be directional onto the site. We can ask for certification on that, but I’ll leave that to whether y’all wanted to do that or not.
“They have addressed the drainage issues going to the west, and MDOT clarified that their permit does include two permanent entrances going into that. So, if you would like to act on it, you can; they have addressed the items as of 10 minutes ago.”
The current Pine Belt Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership is located at 401 Broadway Drive.
