Gulfport secures wetlands for major road that residents have opposed for years
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- The city of Gulfport has secured prime wetlands for a major road through court action.
- A judge ruled the city could take the property for the appraised price of $157,169.
- Opponents say the road will cause flooding and degrade the Turkey Creek watershed.
The city of Gulfport has gone to court and secured wetlands acreage in North Gulfport for a major thoroughfare that will open up property in the city’s busiest commercial hub, but also has limited potential to ease traffic congestion, a state study has shown.
Harrison County Court Judge Robin Midcalf ruled the property will be deeded to the city for the appraised value of $157,169 for the Interconnecting Gulfport project. The city is taking the property from the Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain, which acquired it through a grant meant to conserve wetlands.
The city plans to extend Airport Road west of U.S. 49, with an overpass built over Interstate 10, connecting commercial areas north and south of the interstate, including Gulfport Premium Outlets. The road also would create potential for development in a wetlands area that residents have fought for decades to preserve.
The city says the project will relieve traffic congestion around Interstate 10 and U.S. 49. But a study completed in 2017 for the Mississippi Department of Transportation scored other alternatives far higher and questioned the project’s impact on wetlands.
Residents of surrounding neighborhoods, including Turkey Creek and Forest Heights, say the road will lead to flooding and degrade water quality in the Turkey Creek watershed. Turkey Creek’s wetlands are categorized by the Environmental Protection Agency as Aquatic Resources of National Importance.
“Developing commercial property in these critical wetlands will actually make traffic worse on Highway 49, because it will bring more cars,” says a news release from the Education, Economics, Environmental Climate and Health Organization, or EEECHO, which has long opposed the project. “This project will benefit developers, not the people of Gulfport. They believe, and the city has previously said, that the project would promote commercial growth.”
EEECHO is planning a community bus trip on May 12 to Jackson, where the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality Permit Board will consider issuing water quality certification and a large construction stormwater permit for the project. MDEQ has already warned EEECHO leaders that no public hearing is required, but the board could decide to take public comments.
The project has been on the books for years, with public comments solicited in 2024. In 2022, the Federal Highway Administration concluded the project would have no significant environmental impact. The city plans to build a retention pond on the property it is taking from the Land Trust to capture stormwater.
The Land Trust has filed a motion that asks Judge Midcalf to reconsider allowing the city to take the property.
The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, which was originally awarded the federal grant for the property and deeded it to the nonprofit Land Trust for preservation, has filed a motion to intervene in the court case. MDMR wants to ensure that the purchase complies with grant requirements and federal law, says the motion, filed by a special assistant attorney general who represents the agency.
The city estimated the cost of the project at $48.5 million in 2022. City officials were in a meeting and unavailable to provide a current cost estimate Thursday morning.
The city planned in 2022 to use a total of 176 or 188 forested acres for the project, which would include properties in addition to the Land Trust acreage, city records show. The city’s latest records talk about the project easing traffic congestion, omitting previous mentions of the project’s development potential.
Louisiana’s Ward family has tried for many years to develop land south of I-10 near Gulfport Premium Outlets.
“It was federal grant money that put this land in conservation that they are now trying to destroy,” said Katherine Egland of Gulfport, EEECHO co-founder and a member of the NAACP’s National Board of Directors. “It’s mind-boggling. All roads lead to the Ward Development.”
