‘Corridor’ planning continues

By John Howell
Batesville’s mayor and aldermen will meet with city planning commission members Monday, August 14 to move forward with the Panola County’s efforts to work with Lafayette County on development of the Highway 6 corridor between Batesville and Oxford.
The August 14 city meeting will follow a July 14 joint meeting of Panola County supervisors and Panola County Land Use Commission members with development consultant Bob Barber to discuss development of a new 20-year plan for the county. During that meeting officials discussed development of a separate ordinance zone for the Highway 6/278 corridor.
At the July 14 meeting participants agreed that all stakeholders, including the cities of Batesville and Oxford and Lafayette and Panola counties should be involved in a discussion of the busy corridor which serves as the “Front Door” to the University of Mississippi.
“Oxford has expressed interest in growing together,” Panola Partnership CEO Joe Azar said, speaking to aldermen last Tuesday. “Before we meet with the folks in Lafayette we wanted to make sure as a city and as a county that we’re all on the same page.”
He suggested that the city’s mayor and aldermen, Barber, county supervisors, members of both the city planning commission and the county land use commission, industrial development authority chairman Gary Kornegay and Panola Partnership meet together.
“Our planning commission has been very proactive about the Highway 6 corridor,” City Code Administrator Pam Comer said.
The Aug. 14 meeting between the mayor, aldermen and Batesville’s Planning Commission members will begin at 4:30 p.m.
“I’m ready to get Mike Slaughter over here to discuss annexation,” Alderman Stan Harrison said during last Tuesday’s city meeting.
Mayor Jerry Autrey said that he would like to wait until after the joint meetings among city and county officials of Panola and Lafayette counties.
In meetings with the city in 2015 and 2016, Slaughter and Associates Urban Planning Consultants of Oxford presented annexation plans that included extending corporate limits on Highway 6 East to the Good Hope Road intersection, an eastward move that would take in 300 to 400 yards on both sides of the highway.
Aldermen postponed action until after this year’s municipal elections.