Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway presented the City Council Tuesday with drawings and a 3D video that show a new tree-lined Caillavet boulevard with four lanes for traffic, eight-foot-wide sidewalks on both sides of the street, 12-foot strips of green space along the street, and a 25-foot center median lined with trees.
And, Holloway said, in July the city hopes to have final approval of the subdivision of the city-owned property south of Division Street so developers and existing business owners could begin submitting redevelopment proposals.
“This will be a beautiful project,” Holloway said, “and it covers all of the bases: it moves traffic, it creates green space, and it creates an attractive commercial corridor that will foster growth of new and existing businesses.”
Among the issues that still need to be addressed are setback, landscaping and signage standards, which will be guide the redevelopment process.
The Caillavet Street project, part of the city’s $35 million east Biloxi traffic improvement project, includes redeveloping about 90 parcels of property on the east side of Caillavet from the CSX Railway to Bayview Avenue. The city has acquired most of the property needed south of Division Street, but a court may have to determine fair market property values for some property owners north of Division.
Holloway also proposed at the special meeting Tuesday morning that the city consider beginning construction on the land that has been acquired south of Division, while property issues are decided on the north end of the project.
