Plans are now in place for a new subdivision in Sumrall that has the eventual possibility of bringing 200 new homes, which officials say will add to the tax base of the growing city.
The entrance to the new subdivision, which will be named Magnolia Station, will be located on the north side of the intersection of Todd and North Rayburn roads near Sumrall Elementary School. The neighborhood has been approved by the Sumrall Board of Aldermen and is being developed by Joshua Sims of Magnolia Station, LLC.
“Their infrastructure is already been approved, and they’ve already proposed all their construction plans to us,” Mayor Heath Sumrall said at a recent State of the Town meeting. “The first phase of the plans have been turned in, and there will be 67 homes in that.”
While approximately 75 acres of the subdivision are located within the Sumrall city limits, an additional 130 acres will need to be annexed before the developers can build the remaining phases of the project.
Officials expect to eventually build at least 200 homes in the subdivision on lots of varying sizes.
“The minimum lot that they have now is half an acre, which in The Oaks (subdivision, the minimum) is a quarter of an acre,” Sumrall said. “Then they’re going to go up from there – one-acre, two-acre, and five-acre. So you’ll have various-sized lots in different areas in that subdivision.”
Early last year, a public hearing on the matter was held while developers were in the process of requesting a zoning change on the land. The switch from the previous zoning of I-2 (Industrial) to R1-A (Residential) allowed plans to commence on the subdivision.
During that hearing, attendees heard from developer Howard Walker, who said the subdivision will help attract people to the city who will shop locally, benefiting businesses in Sumrall.
“And as you get some people in here in these homes, it allows you to attract other businesses to the city,” Walker said. “That’s either expanding local businesses that are already here or attracting new businesses that aren’t here but may not come here with the current population base and the current tax base.
“It could get to the point where you could attract some substantial businesses, but you can’t attract those businesses without the people that are going to shop there. You also can’t attract industry-type businesses if you don’t have the housing infrastructure for the workforce.”
To help ease traffic congestion in that area, officials also are planning a new roadway that will connect Todd Road to Mississippi 42. The project will take place on a roadway given to the city by Lamar County, which runs through the industrial park near MCS Building Supply.
“The reason for that was to try to plan to alleviate traffic in the Todd Road area during school and other times,” Sumrall said. “Now, being that it’s going to run through the industrial park by an active business, we’re going to try to see if there’s a way to make routes for buses only, or have some sort of flow pattern for the traffic out there.
“We are well aware of the problems on Todd Road with the school traffic, and we have studied many areas to try to alleviate that. We haven’t been able to come up with anything that will work yet, but we are aware of it and we’ve had our crews out there clearing the right-of-way.”
