Mayor Robert E. Smith, Sr. and the City Council of the City of Columbus created the Columbus Redevelopment Authority (CRA) in 2014 pursuant to Chapter 35 of Title 43 of the Mississippi Code, which is titled “Urban Renewal and Redevelopment.”  The Mayor, with the advice and consent of the City Council appointed the original 5 member Board of the Columbus Redevelopment Authority.  Those members were T.E. Lott, John Acker, Mark Castleberry, Andrew Colom and Robert Rhett.  The Board quickly identified 14 acres of land upon which Lee Middle School sat and Burns Bottom/Frog Bottom as locations that were in serious need of urban renewal and redevelopment.  

            The CRA then engaged a number of studies and analysis of those properties and began talking to the Columbus Municipal Separate School District Board of Trustees about ways that the CRA might restore Lee Middle School to private ownership and development.  Ultimately the Trustees granted the CRA an option and after months of work and study from environmental, historical and wetland analysis, the CRA found a private buyer, T. Scott Berry and his wife Ruth, who planned to convert the school, which by that time was designated an Historic Landmark, into upscale apartments, with a restaurant, entertainment venue along with other future development that might follow.  

With that success under its belt, the CRA Board then focused its attention on the Burns Bottom/Frog Bottom urban renewal project.  The CRA’s best estimate was that it would need to have the City’s cooperation and financial assistance to redevelop Burns Bottom/Frog Bottom and that it would cost in the neighborhood of $3.2M to acquire the parcels of land there and upgrade the infrastructure.  The Mayor and Council liked the plan and thereafter created an urban renewal district that encompassed the Burns Bottom/Frog Bottom neighborhood and agreed that the City would agree to repay bonded debt if the CRA were to issue the bonds.  The CRA issued the bonds in December of 2017 and the CRA then began to acquire parcels by negotiation, purchase and eminent domain.  As of this writing, the CRA has clear title to 75 parcels, with two more to close in the coming weeks.

            The CRA has been blessed to have had a visionary and determined Board of Directors, who have pushed forward, day by day, month by month with steadfast determination that one day the Burns Bottom/Frog Bottom urban renewal project would be a success.  The Board suffered two great losses with the deaths of Tommy Lott and John Acker and two more with the relocations of Mark Castleberry and Andrew Colom, but fortunately, Columbus had a deep “bull pen” from which to choose and Marthalie Porter, Mark Alexander, Dennis Erby and Chris Chain stepped up and agreed to serve. 

           With the Burns Bottom/Frog Bottom urban renewal district now known as Park View, the Board is optimistic that it will become a shining example of what can happen when people with vision and determination unite with a common purpose of urban renewal and redevelopment.