WIDENING LAKE HARBOUR Drive from U.S. 51 to Northpark Drive is Ridgeland’s “number one priority this year,” Mayor Gene McGee said.

“Obviously, transportation is a major element of what we’re trying to do in Ridgeland,” he said. “We have a continued need for expansion.”

The $16 million project, McGee said, could begin in months.

“We’ve done the preliminary work and all the public hearings, and we’re waiting for MDOT to give the final say so we can bid the project this year. We’ll probably start by early fall, but that is an optimistic goal.”

Ridgeland officials would also like to extend Lake Harbour Drive to Highland Colony Parkway, McGee said.

“We’ve worked with U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran to give us a $10 million appropriation to take Lake Harbour Drive to Highland Colony Parkway to give us an east-west corridor. Our engineers are doing an environmental impact study. That would really give people who live on the west side an easier way to shop. I think that’s going to be a great connection.”

However, it could take two years to start work on that project, McGee said.

LAST YEAR, PROJECTS on County Line Road and Old Canton Road marked improvements, the mayor said.

“We accomplished some transportation needs I thought were important. County Line Road was completed, and we also widened Old Canton Road from Lake Harbour Drive to just past the Trace. It gave us some nice thoroughfares.”

The County Line Road project included the installation of medians and landscaping, and a new road surface, turn lane, traffic sensors and other improvements from Pear Orchard Road to just west of Ridgewood Road.

After completing the first phase of extending a pedestrian trail built in 2001, McGee said the city is working to take it from U.S. 51 to Highland Colony Parkway. A portion of the trail that crossed Old Canton Road was moved to the Natchez Trace to “make it more safe.”

“As funds become available, we’d like to have pedestrian trails connect all the subdivisions in Ridgeland,” McGee said. “That is very important for the quality of life in Ridgeland.”

This year, Ridgeland expects to adopt its master plan for redeveloping the city. That plan calls for largely reducing its residential rental properties, which accounts for more than 50 percent of the city’s dwellings.

“Hopefully, by March or April, that plan will be adopted,” McGee said. “As Ridgeland did annexations over the years, we inherited a large portion of multi-family units. Some of those are pretty aged, and the type of construction is not very good. We need to put an emphasis on single-family properties.”

THE WEST JACKSON Street Overlay District will also be targeted for continued development this year, McGee said.

“We want to create some resemblance of a downtown. Ridgeland has never had a real downtown. We created an overlay district to require … the type of architecture in Mississippi in the early 1900s.”

Old Towne, in the overlay district, features a courtyard, covered walkways with colannades, and a fountain. Old Towne was part of plans when the overlay district was created in 1995 to “establish the ‘turn of the century’ character of the district.

A “very pedestrian friendly” downtown is needed in the district because “a lot of businesses are beginning to locate there, and it’s really exciting,” McGee said.

Ridgeland officials also plan to add about 123 parking spaces near the Canadian Railroad as well as pedestrian walkways, sidewalks, landscaping and lighting.

The overlay district runs from the northern boundary of the Natchez Trace Parkway to the northern boundary of Porter Street, just north of West Jackson Street.