City and County officials will be one step closer to selecting a site for the planned industrial park after Golden Triangle Development LINK officials report to both the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors and the Starkville Board of Aldermen in May.
Currently, no decisions have been made by the established steering committee of representatives appointed to narrow the search for the future site.
LINK officials will ask the respective boards to host executive session meetings. Development representatives will meet with supervisors May 16 and aldermen on May 17.
LINK members could ask both boards to prepare a bond intent resolution for improvements and associated developing costs.
In March, LINK officials presented three options for a future site. Following the meeting, the steering committee was established. Groups represented include: Starkville aldermen, County supervisors and the Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority.
The prospective sites are located just north of the Highway 82 and Highway 25 intersection in northwest Starkville; south of George M. Bryan Airport and just west of Highway 25 in south Starkville.
The sites vary widely in acquisition and total project costs along with individual infrastructure needs.
The largest site—known as the Strange, Stanley and Waldrop property—spans around 300 acres and would need $30 million to complete all improvements needed to market the site. Officials from the 4-County Electric Power Association previously committed to building a $4 million, 60-megawatt substation at the site, with plans to build a facility for a private firm, according to the March presentation.
Proposed public costs for the largest site come in just under $16 million. The costs would be divided as $7 million contributions each from the city and county and Starkville Utilities would provide $1.5 million. The site has existing water and sewer infrastructure.
The higher price tag stems from needing $10 million to extend the Atmos Energy natural gas infrastructure to the site and remove all cultural artifacts.
The site near the airport—a 16 Section property—could reach up to 200 acres if purchased from the school district. Total project costs sit just over $6 million. The largest portion of price tag would see to acquiring the needed surrounding properties and building roads to grant trucks access to the park from Highway 25.
The site could cost the city and county $3 million each. Any deal would rely on consultants securing a company to locate to the area before the property was sold. Power supplied to the area currently sits at 5 megawatts and no environmental evaluations have been completed at the site, the March presentation said.
The Highway 25 site—dubbed Cornerstone—was previously in consideration and resurfaced as a 160-acre site after being priced at $225,000 for total project costs. The property is currently owned by OCED and no bond would need to be issued to secure the property. The site would only involve removing trees from the undeveloped area of the site. Extensions of electrical and sewer infrastructure would shore up the site, with new roads to improve connectivity. The property could have the needed power of 10 to 20 megawatts by 2018, but the site currently has 4 megawatts of power supplied to the area, according to last month’s presentation.
OCEDA’s had control of the property for over a decade.
The smaller sites—Cornerstone and 16 Section—could be combined for a hybrid park separated by Highway 25 if officials decide to move away from the largest option, according LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins.
Throughout the review process, officials categorized the problems facing a future industrial park in the county: There is no operational railroad through the city, a limited electrical capacity to supply power, low levels of natural gas infrastructure and cultural resource mitigation costs associated with properly excavating Native American artifacts from the area.
Previous attempts to secure a site stalled after cultural artifacts were found on the Innovation Park site and the removal costs totaled around $2 million to be completed on a $10 million overall project budget. In the past, officials also tried to get a North Farm property from Mississippi State University, to no avail.
A deal could rest upon the current property owners agreeing to reduce land costs to offset cultural resource mitigation fees, officials said following the March meeting.
Public Service Commission Northern District Chairman Brandon Presley previously said the PSC “stands ready, willing and able to help with electric and natural gas issues” for a future park. Atmos Energy has an agreement with the state to provide $5 million in economic development support projects.
Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman said the Stanley, Strange and Waldrop and 16 Section sites would “probably result” in the need to slightly raise the current millage tax rate in the next budget year.
The largest site would need to raise the millage rate 2 to 3 mills, he said.
The 16 Section site would only require a 1-mill tax increase.
When trying to acquire the Innovation Park site, city officials approved funding that would have resulted in a millage increase, Wiseman noted.
“If you think about it, the board committed a potential $5 million commitment to [Innovation Park] that would have resulted in an approximate 2-mill increase,” Wiseman said.
The city will discuss raising the millage rate by one on May 3 after a funding request to state legislators failed to secure $2.4 million in funding for the Starkville Police Department renovation project.
“It’s possible to increase taxes a total of two mills, one for the SPD program and another mill to build the 16-section industrial park option,” Wiseman said.
One tax mill secures just over $224,000 for the city. The current millage rate is set at 21.98.