Two more housing phases have been approved for Lost Rabbit. Pearl River Valley Water Supply District (PRV) officials recently approved the final plats for phases 2 and 3.
“We approved the preliminary plats on these areas… four or five months ago,” PRV general manager John Sigman said. “This is the approval of the final plats now.”
One of the phases was re-evaluated to increase lot size as well, Sigman said.
“One is the final plat of an area that was preliminarily platted three or four years ago, but it was reapproved and resubmitted because they only wanted to plat part of (it).”
The houses will range in size, Sigman said, but the architecture throughout will remain uniform.
In October, Teddy Beaullier, director of operations at Southern Lifestyle Development (SLD), said people from SLD were in the process of platting their first phase for homes.
“This would be the first time we get in there to implement infrastructure.”
In June of last year, SLD purchased Lost Rabbit’s town center as well as 40 residential lots from Allstate Insurance Company, which acquired Lost Rabbit following PID (public improvement district) discussions with Madison County in 2014.
In 2007, Madison County approved the formation of the Lost Rabbit PID, but mistakenly included 143 property owners who had not agreed to be part of it.
When the PID sold $18.6 million in bonds to Allstate, the district didn’t have enough landowners to repay the debt. (Property owners in a PID pay special assessments on their land each year to retire bond issues.)
Then Lost Rabbit Development itself defaulted on PID assessments and taxes, and Allstate bought the developer’s land at the county tax sale. Other PID landowners were unable or unwilling to pay their assessments.
Simultaneously, homes and lots were not selling due to the housing recession.
CURRENTLY, SLD is looking to enhance the town center and eventually add live-work buildings for commercial use and condominiums. The town center is already home to a neighborhood pool, parks and a playground.
“We’re working on the town center,” Beaullier said. “We’re planting, adding some green space, benches and lighting to further enhance the existing town center.”
The improvements will take place this year, according to Beaullier. There is currently no timeline for the commercial buildings and condominiums.
“Our focus right now has really been on getting the town center improvements designed and enhance what’s already there.”
At one point, SLD mentioned building a bed-and-breakfast and a restaurant.
“We’re looking at a restaurant, a bed-and-breakfast, maybe offices, and a boutique hotel is a possibility,” Kevin Blanchard, Lost Rabbit project manager for and COO of SLD, previously told the Sun. “It’s not a major commercial corridor like a mall — that kind of retail is less likely. This will be more like destination.”
The company wanted to include commercial developments that would retain the architectural integrity of the original plans for Lost Rabbit.
“The previous developers invested lots of money in the town center, and we’re excited about doing more upkeep and maintenance and injecting life into the property,” Blanchard said. “We come into these places for the long haul. It’s a long-term investment because it’s a traditional neighborhood development.”
