Oxford’s Board of Aldermen approved a request for city utilities for The Julep, Phase 1, a significant residential development planned just beyond the city limits on Old Taylor Road. 

The request, filed by Southern Land Holdings, follows a recommendation for approval from the Oxford Planning Commission last week; however, the city’s engineering department is still reviewing the development’s stormwater retention plan.

The Board of Aldermen considered the request on Tuesday at City Hall during a regular meeting.

The proposed development, a sprawling 855-acre Planned Unit Development stretching from Old Taylor to Pea Ridge Road, was first granted approval by Lafayette County in 2019. The request before the Board pertains to the first phase, covering 62.72 acres. 

Although The Julep falls outside of Oxford’s corporate boundaries, it sits within a mile of the city’s southern edge. As a result, the developer is seeking city water and sewer services, a request that requires compliance with Oxford’s site plan regulations. 

The project will include new water and sewer infrastructure, featuring two sewer pumping stations, all of which would be maintained by the city. However, final approval is contingent on state-level clearance from the Mississippi Department of Health and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

While Oxford would handle water and sewer services, roadways within the development will be constructed to city standards but owned and maintained by Lafayette County.

During the Planning Commission meeting last week, Janice Antonow, representing Ridgeland Heights and Windsor Falls subdivisions, raised concerns about the upcoming development’s impact on stormwater management and erosion control.

No one spoke at the Board of Aldermen meeting on Tuesday.

“We have been dealing with problems associated with this basin for about three years now,” Antonow said. 

According to Antonow, a pond that is near the proposed development used to have “some of the best fishing in the county,” and a lake nearby used to be clear and blue.

“Now it’s brown with very few fish and the ones that are there are inedible,” she said. 

She told the Commission that the Mississippi Department of Environmental Qualify is investigating the source of the contamination.

“They have taken water samples and we expect results in two or three weeks,” she said.

Antonow said she and her fellow neighbors don’t object to The Julep, as more housing is needed in the area, but hope the city continues to monitor the basin and stormwater and erosion control and additional phases are planned at The Julep.