The Board of Mayor and Aldermen is going ahead with plans to seek a $1.5 million low-interst capital improvement loan from the Mississippi Development Authority to build a road connecting North Frontage Road and Wisconsin Avenue.
The board voted 2-0 Monday for a resolution to proceed with the loan application. City Attorney Nancy Thomas said the resolution is required by MDA before the city makes its application. South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson is at the National League of Cities conference in Washington, D.C., and did not attend the board meeting. Thompson supports building the road.
A decision by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission in November approved rezoning a 22-acre tract along North Frontage owned by JEBCO LLC, the parent company for Blackburn Motors, from C-4 commercial to planned use development, opening the way for the road. A planned use development, or PUD, designation allows light industrial operations, clearing the way for the city to apply for the MDA loan.
Plans for the road are in anticipation of a possible move by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering Research and Development Center to move the front of its facility from Halls Ferry Road to Wisconsin to reduce traffic on Halls Ferry Road. The new road would also open new property for development.
The JEBCO property encompasses the area that included the former Battlefield Mall. About 3 acres of the property along North Frontage Road west of River Hills Bank was bought in October by Bossier City, La.-based 3 Rednecks LLC, the lead ownership interest in Excel Honda, to relocate the dealership. The connecting road will run between the bank and the Honda property.