City planning

Aside from getting a city planner in place, Brown said he wants to quickly address issues with the city’s code that have been hindering progress, frustrating residents and officials and staving off businesses.

The code as it is today does not fit the City of Natchez, Brown said. The code may suit bigger cities like Houston or Jackson, he said, but not Natchez, which has unique needs from a code.

Brown said, fortunately, the code allows a little wiggle room to change it to suit different code enforcement environments, such as industry, historic preservation or community development.

“What we’ve got to do is take the backbone of the code and take the provisions of the code and adapt them to our local needs and problems, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Brown said.

Another code change Brown said is important is sending appeals of decisions of the Natchez Preservation and Planning commissions to local court instead of to the Natchez Board of Aldermen.

“The aldermen are very, very happy to change the code and put the appeals process back where it belongs,” Brown said.

Community development

One of the things that is significantly different than when Brown was first mayor, he said, is that the city’s minority community members have really stepped up quickly to vocalize they want change in their neighborhoods.

Brown said when he first took office in 1992, there was a great amount of skepticism about the projects his administration tried to initiate in minority communities. Brown said one of the projects cleaned out dump sites in bayous, which he said gave some inspiration and even a new set of demands to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods.

That inspiration led to the revitalization of Minor Street, which Brown said is now a perfect picture for what can be done with neighborhood revitalization and federal funding.

“When you’re talking about setting an example for a whole ward and improving the quality of life of those residents, the cost is negligible,” he said.

Brown said he has talked a great deal about revitalizing Martin Luther King Jr. Street, which he said is one of the city’s highest trafficked areas.

“Almost every community in the country has an MLK street, and I want ours to be the prettiest in America,” he said. “MLK is a blighted street right now, but I want it to become a parkway and a poster child for what can be done to revitalize neighborhoods and residential businesses.”

Brown said he believes sales tax and ad valorem taxes coming from new home construction can more than pay for the cost of developing Martin Luther King Jr. Street.

Another aspect of community development Brown said he would like to quickly address is Brumfield Apartments and the old General Hospital.

“I am very partial to Brumfield and very partial to the General Hospital,” Brown said.

Brown said he has two separate deals in progress to restore Brumfield and the former hospital and put residents back in them using new tax credits, which he said he believes will allow the city to take the historic buildings and put them to a “new market” use.

“I had hopes we could have something to announce as soon as I got sworn in,” Brown said. “We don’t, but we’re working on it.”