Lamar County is continuing the residential growth it's experienced over the last several years, with the Lamar County Board of Supervisors recently approving plats or other measures for four new or existing subdivisions throughout the county.
Those neighborhoods - which were discussed at Monday's board meeting - include Sky View, The Refuge, an as-of-yet unnamed minor subdivision and Adeline.
"Obviously, part of the main driver of growth in our county is people moving into the county, and our population continues to grow," Lamar County Administrator Jody Waits said. "We're encouraged to see, certainly during these uncertain times of the (COVID-19) pandemic, that developers are continuing to lay the groundwork to continue to build, in the expectation that the economy will rebound and that people will continue to build new homes, and we believe that.
"So this an encouraging sign, that these developers are continuing with a positive outlook."
The neighborhoods and measures taken include a plat for the Sky View Subdivision, which is located off Alonzo Boone Road in District 3. It was vacated and re-filed by Kent Williamson Construction, the owner of the plat. A bond is not required for development, which consists of 10 lots with existing road frontage. Under the new plat, the first part of the neighborhood will be considered a minor subdivision, meaning it is built along an existing road front rather than on new roads.
"Originally, (the developer) had drawn up a plat and had it submitted, so it's on file at the chancery clerk's office, but never did anything with it," Waits said. "So he's come back now and asked to vacate that, as if it were on a whiteboard and we erase it and start all over again.
"He never built it - it was just designed and laid out - so this just vacates the original plat that's on file. He's submitting Phase I, which basically becomes a minor subdivision."
A plat has been filed for the first addition of Phase V of The Refuge, which consists of nine lots off of Mississippi 589 in District 5. That plat describes how the plots and roads will be laid out throughout the subdivision. In addition, a maintenance bond in the amount of $21,000 was accepted.
"We require a maintenance bond so that when the subdivision is completed and the roads are built, they then turn those roads over to the county, and we now take them and maintain them," Waits said. "Then we have a bond in case there's a problem - they'll correct the roads or we'll file against the bond."
Supervisors approved a minor subdivision consisting of three lots at the corner of Old Highway 24 and Nobles Cut-Off Road. Each lot will be utilizing existing road frontage and utilities, so the owner has requested to be exempt from filing a subdivision plat.
A plat was filed for Adeline Subdivision, which consists of five lots off of Nobles Road in District 4.
In addition, supervisors granted a variance request submitted by owner Craig Flanagan that allows the right-of-way of 60 feet to be reduced to 50 feet within the development.
"There's a requirement to how wide the right-of-way should be built," Waits said. "So if you went to the center line, the right-of-way from the road is 30 feet one way and 30 feet the other way.
"Now, the road itself is not going to be 60 feet wide - the road would be 30 feet wide - so they said they wanted to shorten the right-of-way distance to 50 feet. It doesn't necessarily change the size of the road bed, but they didn't need that much right-of-way to do the drainage work and the ditch work on the sides."
