[9/17/04]A final draft of a set of subdivision regulations will be on the agenda for a vote at the Warren County Board of Supervisors’ first meeting in October.

The board made the decision Thursday during one of its informal meetings during which comments from Monday’s public hearing on the regulations were also discussed.

The board has been working on the regulations since April and has given the public, and, in particular, subdivision developers the chance at two hearings to size up the rules that would apply to all future developments.

Following the first hearing, the board incorporated developers’ suggestions. Monday, a request was made to exempt a subdivision with five lots or fewer on a gravel road.

That, board members said Thursday, would water the rules down too much and they refused to make any changes to those provisions.

Other concessions included removing a requirement that prevented developers from selling more than half the lots in a subdivision before putting in roads and drainage systems; removing a limit on the number of lots that could be developed on an existing road (but said the developer would have to receive approval for driveways); removed the requirement of 2-foot contours on preliminary plats; removed a requirement of green space in planned unit developments; and reduced the penalty for violations from $1,000 per day to $500.

In response to a question about contour information on the geographical information system the board decided to discuss with GIS coordinator David Rankin a nominal charge for reproducing the information from county records.

In other business before the informal session, Jimmy Heidel of the Warren County Economic Development Foundation asked the board to consider an exemption from inventory taxes for Simpson DuraVent. The company is located at the Ceres Research and Industrial Interplex at Flowers.

“You have never done inventory tax exemptions,” Heidel said, adding the board could decide to grant them for special reasons. He also said the practice is legal under Mississippi law and other counties do it.

Simpson wants to expand its operations in a bid to increase its share of the national market for its vent products from the present 51 percent to about 67 percent. Since Simpson’s two major competitors have recently moved their factories to Mexico and Canada, Heidel said Simpson sees an opportunity to increase inventory and offer customers shorter, on-time delivery.

“They plan to add 150 people to the payroll,” Heidel said, adding the company presently pays about $70,000 in inventory taxes a year, much less than the estimated $3 million in added wages and salaries.

“I suggest if you consider this you do it for less than 10 years,” he said.

Before continuing its discussion of the proposal, the board asked Heidel to draft a sample policy and to get more information.

Undersheriff Jeff Riggs and Rick Martin, the operations officer of the Vicksburg National Military Park, sought the board’s approval for the possible development of a law-enforcement-only shooting range at Ceres.

After hearing the proposal, supervisors said the proposal needs to be presented to the Warren County Port Commission, which operated Ceres, before it is considered by supervisors.

Jimmy Gouras presented a resolution for supervisors’ consideration supporting efforts by the City of Vicksburg to have Vicksburg Municipal Airport restored to the National Plan of Integrated Airports System so it would be eligible for 90 percent funding grants from the Federal Aviation Administration.

If the county board should approve the resolution, it would accompany one from city officials when a group of local businessmen goes to Washington, D.C., to talk to Sens. Thad Cochran and Trent Lott and Rep. Bennie Thompson.