Mayor Paul Winfield said he expects to put together a committee of downtown business owners, residents and investors in the coming week to begin investigating how to more harmoniously blend entertainment, residential and retail interests along the historic Washington Street corridor.

“I’ve put together a list of names for (North Ward Alderman) Michael (Mayfield) and (South Ward Alderman) Sid (Beauman) to review, and early next week I’m going to start calling people to ask if they will serve on this committee,” said Winfield on Thursday, who declined to release the list before assembling the committee.

Winfield pledged to put the committee together in October, following a round of heated public hearings concerning the expansion of a Washington Street eatery that split many residents and business owners downtown. The mayor said he anticipates 13 to 15 people will make up the downtown committee, which is expected to meet for the first time at the end of this month or early February.

“It’s going to be a very balanced, very diverse committee — people who have supported me and people who have not,” Winfield said. “Everyone on it will have a vested interest and common desire to improve downtown.” 

The committee will first outline basic goals for downtown development, as well as review existing zoning ordinances along Washington Street. Winfield said the members eventually will travel to similar cities in the South to see how varying downtown interests are balanced.

“I think it’s important to look at how people in other cities with similar demographics go about striking that balance between residential, commercial and entertainment,” the mayor said. “I think this committee will also take a strong look at some of the ordinances as it relates to downtown and our zoning.”

A 2007 ordinance approved by the mayor and aldermen during the Laurence Leyens administration made opening a “nightclub” illegal at all but a handful of downtown properties with “resort status” — a state designation allowing businesses within to remain open and serve alcohol 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Many prospective bar owners have since run headlong into the ordinance, unable to open their businesses due to its strict limitations — including the definition of a “nightclub” as any business deriving more than 40 percent of its revenue through alcohol sales, or any featuring amplified music, a stage or live entertainment.

The most recent case has been the proposed expansion of downtown eatery Burger Village at 1220 Washington St. to include an upstairs lounge with a full-service bar. At a standing-room-only zoning board meeting in September, prospective lounge manager Charles Ross and his supporters were visibly frustrated as they unsuccessfully tried to punch holes in the ordinance. Ross eventually suggested the denial of his request had more to do with his being black than it did any ordinance.

Discord among downtown business owners and residents over the Burger Village debate boiled over again in October when Winfield publicly backed the expansion during a board of architectural review board meeting, which the mayor is not a member of. Opponents complained the expansion would create excessive noise and contribute to a loitering problem downtown, while supporters of the expansion said other bars along Washington Street received no such opposition when they were being developed.

Ross was initially denied a business license by the zoning board to open a nightclub, and later revised his application to a full service restaurant, which is a permitted use according to downtown zoning regulations. He won approval from the board of mayor and aldermen to add a balcony and staircase to the building at two separate public hearings in late November, but work has not yet become visible on the exterior of the building.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com