As the city and county look to clear administrative hurdles related to Starkville's impending industrial park site, crews will soon be working to ready the site for surveying and construction.
Work on the site at the interchange of Highway 389 and Highway 82 is set to begin in early 2017. Officials hope to market the park ahead of a possible opening in 2018.
Oktibbeha County supervisors are set to open bids on the county's $7 million bond for the industrial park on Monday. Starkville aldermen will follow suit on their $7 million bond in January, according to development officials.
Zoning on the 360-acre site is set for Dec. 13, and surveying at the site "should be complete," GTR LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins said.
"I anticipate we will buy the site in late February," he said.
Slight adjustments were made at the park that impacted the specific layout of future tenant sites, and lots could be divided on an individual basis, and not before tenants locate to the area. With the adjustments, the location of the substation could now move closer to Sudduth Road. The layout of the road plan for the project is also expected to change. Once rezoned, adjoining properties would need to be acquired before construction could begin.
Land surveying must be done ahead of any transaction on the site, and was preceded by crews surveying the area for Native American cultural artifacts. Mitigation costs sit around $2 million, and a final report was sent to area tribes, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Oct. 27.
A conference call between development officials and all involved parties is set for mid-December to finalize the report.
All administrative work must be completed before a land transaction can occur. To streamline efforts, the city and county created a Regional Economic Development Agreement to handle all future transactions and purchase orders. REDAs were created by the state to help municipalities organize project objectives.
"Instead of one party paying for roads and another buying land, it allows us to handle the invoices when they come in as splits right down the middle," Higgins said. "It doesn't matter who will do what, it just consolidates everything."
Supervisors will meet at 3 p.m., Monday to open bids. Starkville aldermen will discuss zoning at the regular Dec. 13 meeting at 5:30 p.m.