MADISON COUNTY, Miss. (WLBT) – The three-acre green space in the Lost Rabbit Community, which has pretty much become the neighborhood’s park, will stay just like it is for now.
This comes after the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District Shoreline Development Committee’s decision to not allow the development of four residential lots on the land, and residents are considering this the first big step in a long journey.
”We’re very thrilled right now, and we know our job is not done to protect that space, but we will continue the fight,” Laura Guy said.
This area, known as Shoreline Park, has become just that for the community due to the lack of yards at their homes.
Residents say when they bought land in the area, they were promised nothing would happen to the green space, but with the recent push for development, they feel misled.
“We were deceived. You know, the original owners or rather original builders of properties were deceived and then, the buyers going forward were deceived,” Guy said.
“We know what they said moving forward, that all this land was green space, and they presented it in print advertising, media advertising, and this is how they’re selling it. And based on where you live, the closer you get to the water, the more expensive the land. And they sold it based on that, that we’d always had this green space. So, you devalue the land and everyone’s property by taking that away,” Thomas Carrigan said.
This is not the first dispute to develop on the green space, though.
Timeline:2003: It started when the Pearl River board approved a proposal that required a “substantial amount of green space.”2014: The board approved developer Terry Lovelace’s conceptual design, which included the waterfront green space.2017: Lovelace’s company, MCAS, assigned founders’ rights to the former HOA that gave the go-ahead to develop the area; however, PRV still controlled that land and had the final say-so.Wednesday: While residents feel like this is the start of their battle, they say some good has come out of this for the community.
“One thing positive that’s come out of this is that a lot of the neighbors have come together and have been very unified on this issues. Which is, you know, a wonderful thing,” Guy said.
Lovelace will have a chance to appeal this decision, and at the end of the meeting, he said he plans to.
If he does, it will be taken up at a committee meeting next week.
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