While Gluckstadt was poised for growth, and development in the new city was to be expected, the pace at which it has grown has been surprising even to Mayor Walter Morrison.
When Gluckstadt incorporated just under two years ago, Morrison was confident the city would grow, however, he said he doesn’t think anyone could have predicted it would grow as quickly as it has, especially when its beginning took place in the face of the pandemic.
“The growth has been fast, it’s been steady, and it’s been sustained,” Morrison said. “It’s been a general surprise to me, and I think a lot of people here about how quickly it’s all grown.”
Seemingly each month, a new large development or important business is announced to be coming into the city with the largest being Germantown
Village the 35-acre development being created by Bellamare Development that will serve as a community hub for hospitality, retail and commercial offerings that was announced a few months ago and is located on Calhoun Station Parkway – on the north side of Gluckstadt Road between I-55.
“I see no downturn in pace here in the near future,” Morrison said. “We have an enormous development that has been planned for the community and I’ve been told about several other businesses who are coming. I don’t think that we’re going to see any lessening of the development within the next year or two, and that’s a blessing for the community.”
Morrison said this development provides people with what they look for in a community with more restaurants, a local grocery store, and shopping without having to drive to Madison, Canton or Ridgeland to get what they need.
“Of course, from the city’s perspective, every new business that opens increases our tax revenue, so that we can then in turn provide the services that we should provide now that we are a city,” Morrison said.
However, the growth is not without challenges, especially in an area that only 10 years ago was all agricultural fields with relatively little traffic.
“The growth is burdening infrastructure,” Morrison said. “Anybody who sits in traffic every day will tell you that traffic is a real problem in the city. All of a sudden, we have a huge high school with an influx of all of the people that are associated with it, we have all of these new businesses that are opened with an influx of all of that traffic, and the infrastructure just can’t keep up.”
Additionally, there is a constant struggle between the residential components in the city and the growing development.
“Everyone wants a commercial grocery store, but nobody wants it in their front yard,” Morrison said. “When you have this type of growth, there’s this struggle between managing the growth and trying to sort of channel it in a reasonable way through planning and zoning, through wise architectural standards, and things like that. Our Planning and Zoning Commission has done a really good job of trying to manage that, and our building department within the city has also done a really good job of trying to get their hands around that.”
Even so, the recent comprehensive survey that the city put out for individuals to answer, whether or not they lived in the city, showed that the majority of people are happy with the quality of life in the city and where Gluckstadt is headed. Morrison said about 300 people answered the survey with half of that number living within the city. Some of the items pointed out on the survey as to why people think their quality of life is so good were the quality of schools, their relations, and their ability to live nearby family and friends.
“It was a very positive response,” Morrison said. “I knew when Germantown High School opened several years ago, that it would be a major attraction for people who wanted to move to Gluckstadt and that’s been proven to be the case. It’s a great school, and people love being able to move here and send their kids to Germantown High School. I think that is very attractive for the community. Overall, I think that those who answered the survey are happy with Gluckstadt and the direction that is going.”
However, Morrison said he isn’t naive enough to think everyone is happy, and the survey indicated that as well and pointed out things they still needed to work on.
“You have varying viewpoints and opinions within the survey, but I think, overall, the survey shows that people who live here and work here are happy and they’re happy with the direction,” Morrison said. “But we’re not gonna just take it as a pat on the back. We know that traffic is a real issue, we know that we have to be really smart in terms of our planning and zoning, and there’s a lot of things that we can do better.”
As Gluckstadt continues to grow and move forward, Morrison said he believes there will continue to be less agricultural areas, less green space and more commercial development as time goes on.
“I think that many of these vacant areas that you see today along Gluckstadt Road and along the interstate are all going to be developed,” Morrison said. “I think the city’s going to be much more robust, much more busy and have a lot more options and attractions for people, and I appreciate everyone’s patience and appreciate all the support from the community as we’re all pushing forward trying to do our best.”
