Research and concept notes supporting the Eagles Flock / Leaf River pre-development work. Documents open in a new tab.
The ask and what it produces for the City. A-1 to B-3 rezone on the ±1.93-acre North Parcel (PPIN 26700, corner of East Hardy Street and Old River Avenue) for a ±2,000 sq. ft. elevated general store and a boat / kayak ramp with access piers — the minimum single-district move that covers retail under 10,000 sq. ft. (§5.4.35) and boat / canoe / kayak rental (§5.4.10) together. The ask is scoped to the under-10,000 sq. ft. retail category only. Estimated $200K–$600K per year in combined recurring activity at full build-out, with $16K–$54K flowing directly to the City and County, from 1.93 acres of riverfront that today produces negligible public revenue. Floodplain-compatible (piers, no fill, no-rise review underway with Flood & Coast Engineering), no ongoing public subsidy, and a new serviced node on the Pinebelt Blueways — store, restrooms, parking, launch — at a corridor location currently without public access. Pre-application form shared with the Mayor and Councilmember Eric Boney (Ward 2).
Fiscal impact summary for the City of Hattiesburg and Forrest County at full build-out of the 31-acre Eagles Flock project: 103 homes, 40-slip marina, 6-acre riverfront park, amphitheater, and commercial services. Estimates a combined $1.2M–$2.8M per year in recurring tax revenue and local economic activity from land that currently produces negligible public revenue. Breaks out ad valorem (residential and commercial), marina operations, kayak and canoe rentals, amphitheater and event revenue, food truck and vendor activity, utility revenue, and tourism economy. Covers one-time construction-period benefits — 50–150 jobs, 20–40 SIP-certified workers, $200K–$500K in permits and impact fees, $2M–$5M in local material and services spend — and grant positioning across MOST, LWCF, FEMA HMGP, EPA, USDA Rural Development, and EDA. References the Sims Road precedent and Hattiesburg's $11M parks investment track record since 2019. All figures conceptual, drawn from comparable projects and representative local rates, pending formal market studies.
A perspective on how the City might procure the design of a flood alarm system for the Leaf and Bouie River basin. Five chapters: the environment and three Mississippi institutions with relevant capacity; the typical procurement sequence under Mississippi interlocal cooperation authority; a parallel commercial-vendor option with regional reference deployments; and funding pathways grouped by source — local district authority, currently-open federal windows (the FEMA BRIC program has a July 23, 2026 deadline), state and Congressional channels, and private foundations. Includes verified Hazard Mitigation Plan, NFIP, and Community Rating System status for all three jurisdictions, drawn from FEMA primary sources. Presented as one pathway among several, not a fixed plan.
Developer-side memo on three integrated points: route-to-safety as a network problem (the Lagoon Drive limiting-link question, with timing tied to USGS gauge history rather than the City's published rapid-rise language); the condominium/site-plan pathway under the City's existing review track and Miss. Code §89-9-33; and the corridor-scale civic case — a possible Leaf-Bouie warning system with the Leaf and Bouie River Development District (HB1649, 2020) as a candidate funding and governance vehicle. Anchored to the USGS Hattiesburg gauge (02473000), 1974 record crest of 34.03 ft, potential public riverfront park component, proposed marina and boat-ramp concept, and Pinebelt Blueways access.
District-wide analysis of flood warning infrastructure as an alternative to elevated-roadway requirements for floodway development. Covers the no-rise complication, cost comparison, area demographics, five active federal funding mechanisms (BRIC, HMGP, USGS CMF, CDBG-DR, Leaf and Bouie District), and an illustrative grant application outline. References two active disaster declarations covering Forrest County.
How other CRS communities have addressed the life-safety concern behind elevated-roadway requirements, with candidate points along the Leaf River corridor.
An edible-rain-garden and floodplain-shock-absorber concept for the Leaf River corridor through Hattiesburg — drafted as a note to the Mayor. Five stacked benefits on the same footprint (flood-stage reduction, CRS insurance savings, food production, grant-funded payment, local jobs), with precedents from Iowa, the Netherlands, Cincinnati, and Seattle, and a bounded engineering question as the next step.
Reference links — 2025 CRS Coordinator's Manual, 600-Series Self-Assessment intake tool, and Roseville's publicly documented program as a single-city riverine example.
An activity-by-activity read on whether a condominium-structured project affects the City's CRS credit position.
Statutory and ordinance research behind the April 16 discussion. Prepared in a form useful to the City's legal review.
A reference set for the framing that floodplain development, when designed to maintain or improve floodplain function, can serve humans and land together. ASFPM's No Adverse Impact framework, the Netherlands Room for the River program, and peer-reviewed evidence on the safe-development paradox.
Companion to the warning concept note — three-layer design with planning-level cost ranges.
Interactive map of the Eagles Flock parcel showing the location of twenty photographs taken during the pre-clearing site walk on March 13, 2026. Each pin opens a thumbnail of the photograph with its timestamp and coordinates. Satellite imagery base (Esri World Imagery). Standalone HTML — no external dependencies beyond the Leaflet CDN. Prepared for engineer-of-record review to reduce the need for a redundant on-site visit.