A local business owner has gone back to the drawing board yet again to satisfy the requests of the Ridgeland Board of Aldermen and Architectural Review Board.
Pradip Biswas is looking to open Rice Road Place, a building with space for multiple business opportunities on Rice Road.
The board voted unanimously to table the issue, yet again, for further review.
“Anything that is built on that land, I want to make sure it complements the existing neighborhood, Huntington Place, both aesthetically and with the safety of traffic,” Ward 6 Alderman Wes Hamlin said.
Hamlin’s concerned cars entering Rice Road from the proposed site might cause a traffic problem. “At present, we only received enquiries from a handful of interested parties for restaurant chains and office spaces for auto insurance,” Biswas said. “We have not even made any verbal commitment to anyone yet. Once the city approves our project, we plan to have signs for ‘space available.’ Accordingly, we will be able to decide whom to lease.”
His current focus is on developing a small commercial center that will be attractive and appealing to nearby residents.
Alan Hart, director of community development, said the review process for this business is one of the longest that he has encountered.
“It’s been one of the longest projects in the design review process that I can remember,” Hart said.
“It’s a lot of use for that one little site, which I think has been a part of his problem all along is just trying to put too much building and too much parking on one little site with too much complexity,” Hart said. “The concern of the aldermen that it is too much use for one little area and if it is compatible with the intended existing character of the area.”
Biswas submitted his plan to the board previously. After hearing the comments that they made about inconsistencies with his site plans and architecture, he decided to withdraw his proposal.
“He decided to go back to the drawing board and come back with something that was more compatible,” Hart said. “This particular commercial property runs alongside a residential property.”
This means that the commercial property is required to have a 50-foot buffer that must be absorbed on the commercial lot.
“That was generally the point of the argument,” Hart said. “How he was developing that particular 50 feet.”
The zoning requires a 50-foot buffer, but it does not give specific guidelines for what the property owner must do with the buffer.
“You have to refer back to the rules of the architectural review board and the architectural ordinance to understand that each situation is unique,” Hart said. “(The architectural review board) wanted him to have a certain style buffer. He was wanting to do less than what the board wanted, so he went back to the drawing board.”
Hart said Biswas has come back to the table with a new plan that seems to address the board’s concerns.
“According to zoning ordinance, the buffer just has to be open space,” Hart said. “The board is telling him, we want 50 feet of existing trees. I think he’s probably gotten it to 35 feet of open trees, then it would go to green space to build the wall that he is required to build.”
The site is very complicated to work with, according to Hart.
“It’s a very complicated site,” Hart said. “It has like 28 feet of fall from one end to the other across about 150 feet. That’s a lot of hill to deal with. So that’s been the most complicated thing for him to figure out how to do this project.”
The use for the space is not the issue the aldermen are debating. Hart said it’s the site plan and architectural review approval that is delaying the project.
He predicts the aldermen will have a split vote. “It could really go either way,” Hart added.
