Nature lovers and neighbors fight to protect forest

By Randy Bell

Preliminary site plan for Olde Town Village

     A proposed housing and commercial development which would carve up part of Clinton’s last forest faces an uncertain future after an outcry from the public prompted a delay in a rezoning vote.  The agenda item at the Board of Aldermen’s September 3 meeting was removed at the request of Kirkland Development, which has a contract on the forty-two acres extending from the Clinton Parkway to the Clinton Community Nature Center.  That doesn’t mean the project is dead, but most of the people who crowded into a couple of public meetings in late August to voice their opposition say they are wishing that it was.

     William Twiner lives in the Kentwood neighborhood, which adjoins the developer’s property.  He says he is concerned that the flooding problems he experiences now will get worse if the nearby land is cleared and houses and roads are built.

     “We don’t know what that impact is going to be on the existing neighborhood,” Twiner says, noting that there wasn’t any flooding before commercial development took place along the Parkway in 2008 and again in 2018.

     “I want there to be more houses,” he insists. “I want there to be more businesses.  I just don’t want the trees to continue to fall on our property because the ground is oversaturated.  Every time it rains, I don’t want the culvert to back up and have the water up to my mailbox.  My concern is how can we keep Kentwood safe?  How are we not going to become the place where all the water just drains?”

     Ruth Cummins’ home on Dunton Road backs up to the Nature Center.  She says she’s worried about how the proposed development might affect that rare treasure and the neighborhoods that surround it.

     “I really have multiple concerns,” she says, “but the biggest would be the impact on the Nature Center itself, followed by the impact and possible devastation having to do with drainage in a number of areas.”

     Cummins also says getting traffic in and out of the new neighborhood could be another big problem.

     “That could be an untenable situation,” she says.

     Prentiss Cox is a charter member of the Nature Center’s board of trustees.  He says the animals which inhabit the back side of the conservatory benefit from darkness, and he’s concerned that the proposed development would change that.

     “If we get too much light back there, these organisms—plants and animals—will not reproduce as they should.”

     He says he also believes children living in the new neighborhood would find the woods of the Nature Center hard to resist and would wind up getting hurt or doing damage there; and Cox says heavy rainfall will become a bigger issue if the land adjacent to the Nature Center is cleared.

     “The water that’s falling in that area now, a good portion of it is soaking in.”  But with houses, driveways, sidewalks and streets being built where the trees once stood, he says everything will change.  According to Cox, “It’s going to run off, and it’s going to run back into the Nature Center area.  And we know that, because that’s where it’s running to now, and the damage that’s done is [already] significant.”

     There’s also concern over possible impacts to the Old Natchez Trace, which is adjacent to the proposed development, and to the population of synchronous fireflies which put on a nighttime show, attracting visitors to the Nature Center.

     Kirkland has been asking the Board to rezone the property from R-1 (residential) to M-U (mixed-use) to allow for the construction of sixty-eight single-family patio homes and thirty-five townhouse units, with a couple of commercial lots adjacent to the Parkway.

     The Clinton Planning and Zoning Commission voted August 27 to recommend approval of the rezoning request, despite a parade of speakers at a public hearing who urged the commissioners to reject the request.  The aldermen will make the final decision.

     The company’s attorney, David Ash, told the Board at its August 29 work session that it was “the perfect development for this particular location.”  He said given that the land is already zoned for residential development and that the City’s comprehensive plan calls for the entire property to be used for commercial development in the future, what Kirkland is asking for makes sense.

     “I think this mixed-use development plan is by far the best option for that property, to give both a commercial element on the frontage and then a really nice, high-end residential area, which is a big need in Clinton.”

     He admitted that the details have yet to be worked out.

     “And that’s how most projects are done like this,” Ash said.  “It’s sequential phases that you have to go through.  And one of those first, early stages is, if the zoning isn’t what would be appropriate for the project, then a rezoning application with a preliminary development plan is that first step.  So, that’s where we are right now.”

     Ash said the proposed development, to be called Olde Town Village, would come into clearer focus as the process moves farther along.

     “Everything from stormwater to roads and access, exact lot sizes and locations and detention ponds, [we’ll see] all of that when we get to the engineering phase.”