Ocean Springs We Shall Not Be Moved

10/21/2024

Please make a plan to attend the Comprehensive Plan meeting.

03/05/2024

Tonight at 6pm at City Hall

The Board of Aldermen are Voting to approve Urban Renewal Plan

MDEQ is holding a community meeting this Saturday at the Community Center at 1:00 to answer questions about the Ferson Optics Site. And the best way to remediate the Vinyl Chloride at the site.

The Mayor had promised that the URP vote would take place after the MDEQ meeting. The city is moving forward however despite the health risks and broken promises.

If you live in Ward 1,4,5,and 6 please call or email your Alderman and demand that they address the toxic chemicals leaching from super fund site, before they move forward with the URP.

The three Alderman Cox (At Large), Wade (Ward 3) and Authement (Ward 2) , whose wards are directly impacted by these toxins have all voted against the URP.

02/20/2024

URP Public Hearing

The Urban Renewal Plan Public Hearing is Thursday, February 22nd 5:30pm at the Ocean Springs Civic Center. Please make a plan to attend.

Issues of concern to address:
-Under the current state law once the URP passes the Redevelopment Authority appointed by the Board of Aldermen can redraw the URP map and add additional properties.
-The Board of Alderman appointed members of the Redevelopment Authority have not been made public, and we do not know what their position is in regards of redrawing a new map and adding additional properties.
-The current URP and map contain the Public Works and the Leica Optics properties. The Leica property is currently listed as an EPA superfund site. At this time Leica is financially responsible for all remediation and environmental cleanup.
-The current Leica property is leaching Vinyl Chloride a known carcinogen. The contamination has spread to the YMCA daycare property and towards the Juke Joint property. Also the creek that runs behind the property empties onto East Beach and the contaminated rain runoff then enters the Mississippi Sound. There is a community lead town hall to better explain the environmental impact Saturday March 9th at 1pm at the Ocean Springs Community Center next to WAMA.
-If the city acquires the Leica property through the URP process who is responsible for environmental remediation of the property? The city?

01/04/2024

Please join this community meeting for more information about the superfund site on Pine Dr. and the Urban Renewal Map.

01/01/2024

Happy New Year!

WE MUST SHOW UP TO THE BOA MEETING TUESDAY, JAN. 2 AT 6 PM AT CITY HALL!

The Urban Renewal Plan is back on the meeting agenda. Arrive early & get a seat!

See you tomorrow evening at City Hall.

BOA Meeting agenda 1/2/24: https://oceanspringsms.portal.civicclerk.com/event/12/files/377

CivicClerk events and agendas for citizens

12/06/2023

“It’s a great relief that the city has removed the cloud of blight from homes that mean so much to so many,” said Faye Payton, who is one of the owners of the home at 924 Cash Alley. “But no one should have to go through what happened to us. Our lawsuit always had two goals: protect our properties and change the law. Those are still our goals. We’ve protected our properties for now, but we want to protect them in the future and change the law.”

ARLINGTON, Va.—Last night, the Ocean Springs Board of Aldermen considered a new Urban Renewal Area and blight designations but failed to pass a slum and […]

12/06/2023

When we fight, we win!!!

Four Aldermen made the correct decision to stand with the People last night and vote down the Urban Renewal Plan. This would not have happened without the efforts of every person in Ocean Springs and beyond who took a stand against the URP. Solidarity is everything.

But the fight is not over. We never want this to happen to anyone else in Mississippi again. Stay tuned for a press release from the legal team.

Join us: bit.ly/joinweshallnotbemoved

12/06/2023

The newest version of Urban Renewal Plan was voted down last night. We appreciate the Aldermen for listening to their constituents and putting the will of the people first.

Alderman votes for the new URP map:

Burgess- Yes
Authement-No
Wade- No
Papania- Yes
Blackman- No
Impey- Yes
Cox-No

11/28/2023

Mayor Holloway and the City have offered up a new Urban Renewal Plan that is just the same as the old one— they just drew different lines! The borders of the Area 4 map may have changed, but the injustice remains!

Homes, businesses and other properties in the impacted historic area are still labeled ‘blight and slum’ or ‘under-developed’ so that the City’s crony real estate developer friends can take our land to develop for their financial gain!

We STILL shall not be moved!

📍Join us: bit.ly/joinweshallnotbemoved
📍Website: www.osweshallnotbemoved.org
📍Donate: paypal.me/weshallnotbemoved

11/09/2023

Community Update
Nov. 9, 2023

Here are the updates coming out of Tuesday’s BOA meeting:

Mayor Holloway and the BOA proposed a new Urban Renewal Plan Area 4 map that removes some, but not all, of the properties included in the previous Area 4 map (see screenshot below of the newly proposed map). The City did not provide copies of the new map for the public in the meeting agenda packet; the new map was shown only on the TV screens in the boardroom. The Mayor stated that the City will display the new map at City Hall for 2 weeks for public viewing, then the BOA will vote on moving forward with the URP with the new Area 4 map on November 21.

We were told yesterday by the City that they will not upload the new map to its website for viewing and will not have copies of the new map available for the public to take home with them. The only option for viewing the newly proposed map is to go to City Hall and view the map on display in the lobby.

We asked Mayor Holloway if the “blight and slum” designations will be removed on the properties previously included in Area 4 but no longer included in the new map, and he said yes, but the BOA did not vote on any official removal of the blight and slum designations. So, all the blight and slum designations remain.

THE NEW AREA 4 MAP DOES NOT CHANGE OUR POSITION. IT DOES NOTHING TO OFFICIALLY REMOVE THE BLIGHT AND SLUM DESIGNATIONS ON OUR PROPERTIES. We oppose the blight and slum designations because this is the foundation enabling use of eminent domain to steal properties, and we still oppose the Urban Renewal Plan– FULL STOP!