Blending past, future: Redeveloping Burns Bottom
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The Burns Bottom neighborhood in Columbus is known as one of the oldest in the city.
The neighborhood is even listed on the National Register for Historic Places.
Today, if you look around the Burns Bottom area, you can see overgrown brushes, wild-growing trees, and remnants of where a house once stood. And it’s directly in front of the Roger Short Soccer Complex.
Now, the Columbus Redevelopment Authority wants to take land just like this and develop it into something new.
“One reason this project was chosen is because you know it’s here as a piece of the puzzle to downtown. It was a good fit for this to be one of the first projects for the board to take on,” said Marthalie Porter, President of the CRA Board.
“We’re going to be able to build together a synergy which of course is going to be able to tie together the Riverwalk. Of course, coming into Downtown Columbus and of course the downtown area, the historic homes on the southside. And so with this development, we’ll be able to not only have commercial buildings from this area that see not only on the southside but extend to more mixed-use and residential for homes and even some apartment duplex and triplex spaces here in the community to meet the needs of the air base, the industrial needs for all the workers coming into the area, as well as just people in Columbus who want to move a little bit more into the downtown area,” said Jason D. Spears, CRA Board Member.
The Columbus Redevelopment Authority will host a public meeting to discuss where the money will come from to fund this enormous project on March 28 at 5:30 p.m. at the Columbus Arts Council.
