Ridgeland officials are hopeful new rules on aesthetics can spur growth along both sides of County Line Road, but the proposal has stalled on Jackson’s side of the border.
With Sam’s Club and Havertys announcing in rapid succession that they will leave, the struggles of County Line Road have been thrust back into the spotlight. Indeed, despite high traffic and a wealthy nearby customer base, County Line can no longer be considered the metro area’s premier shopping destination, although officials insist the stores that remain do well.
Ridgeland city leaders think an overlay district, which imposes special rules on things like building materials, signage and color schemes, will make the area “less visually chaotic” and more appealing to shoppers.
“Business owners said that’s the missing ingredient,” said Alan Hart, Ridgeland’s director of Community Development. Ridgeland established its overlay in 2010, and Hart insists you can already see the difference because many property owners upgraded their facades voluntarily, even though they were grandfathered in.
But awkwardly, the new design only applies to one side of the road. A proposal from Ward 1 Jackson City Councilman Quentin Whitwell to mimic Ridgeland’s overlay has languished in committee for nearly two years, and you needn’t look far to discover why.
The Jackson planning staff has shown little interest in setting up an overlay district for the road, although they might quibble with the characterization.
“It’s not that we’re not interested in it,” said Bennie Hopkins, the city planning director. “We’ve talked about it, I think when former Planning Director Corinne Fox was here.”
But Hopkins said Jackson doesn’t want to impose any restrictions that businesses might see as a burden.
“Most developers, when they come to town, they don’t want to come into areas that are as restrictive as some zones may be, so adding a layer of restriction sometimes can hinder businesses,” Hopkins said. “We have found that most folks are pretty much happy with our process and with the zoning classifications.”
Interviews suggest the business community’s opinion of overlay districts is more nuanced.
Jeff Speed, president of Speed Commercial Real Estate, which manages property along the Ridgeland side, readily admits he complains about the overlay from time to time. But he also says it has “absolutely” had a positive impact.
“The overlay district — don’t get me wrong, does it cost the tenant and landlord sometimes? Yes,” Speed says. “But in the grand scheme of things, is it better for long-term stability? Yes it is.”
Another leasing agent, who owns property on Jackson’s side of the road, is less enthusiastic about overlays, pointing to the city of Madison’s strict design rules as an example.
“Is it a bad thing? Not necessarily,” said Josh Burmeister, senior vice president of SRS Real Estate Partners. “Could it sometimes prohibit a retailer from going to that area? It becomes a little more challenging.”
“I’d rather that responsibility be up to the landlord instead of being dictated,” Burmeister adds. “Landlords do want to have aesthetically pleasing centers.”
Concerns aside, proponents still insist the overlay district is a pill that needs swallowing if County Line is going to compete with more modern shopping areas like the Renaissance in Ridgeland and Dogwood Festival Market in Flowood.
“You have to have something that catches people’s eye — oh, that looks nice, or look what they’re doing,” says Ward 3 Ridgeland Alderman Kevin Holder. He says cooperation between the two governments is key if the corridor is going to improve.
“We’re not, ‘This is Jackson; this is Ridgeland,’ ” Holder said. “We all have the same goal, which is to create a better shopping center.”
When asked about an overlay district, Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. is quick to refer questions to his planning staff.
“I haven’t thought about it that much,” Johnson said. “That’s going to be left up to the folks who do planning on a full-time basis. I gave that up about 15 years ago.”
The planning department has its sights set on voluntary citywide design guidelines, dismissing the idea that a strict overlay district is needed.
“It (the corridor) is holding its own to me,” Hopkins said. “You just see the cycles of redevelopment and re-investment and people moving with the economy. We consider it healthy.”
He points to Walgreens, which poured $2.7 million into a new store just off County Line, and Target, which has a permit to spend $700,000 on an interior revamp. He also mentions Dollar General, which spent $600,000 putting in a store of its own.
Others counter that dollar stores aren’t what the area needs. The nearby customer base is much wealthier than the area at large. The 39211 zip code in northeast Jackson has a median household income of $64,005, according to the U.S. Census, well above the $34,567 of Jackson as a whole. If shoppers are moving north, as businesses suggest, maybe it’s because there are few places left in Jackson that appeal to wealthier shoppers.
“If people from northeast Jackson did not support (Madison stores), they would fail,” Speed said. “Twenty-five thousand households don’t support a movie theater, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Michaels, Walmart and all sorts of other businesses. You’ve gotta have people coming there.”
Ridgeland’s overlay tries to address quality as well as appearance, blocking certain types of businesses from setting up shop. Among these are check-cashing and “cash for gold” stores, both of which can be found in prime locations along either side of County Line Road.
“Ridgeland has worked so hard to improve the value of its property and the quality of tenants,” Whitwell said. “For us to allow the south side of County Line Road to corrode into nothing but dollar stores and pawn shops is not the way to go.
“That corridor has got to be managed in a way that attracts what people are looking for in that area, and the only way to achieve that is to communicate with the city of Ridgeland and communicate with the property owners.”