VIDALIA — Nearly every Vidalia Board of Aldermen meeting contains an agenda item that might as well be labeled “growth.”

In the last year, the city has granted 24 occupational licenses for new businesses and eight building permits for new business construction within the city. The city also granted construction permits for 10 new residences.

That amount of development for the town of approximately 4,250 residents is what Mayor Hyram Copeland called “an all-time high.”

“We have the most construction going on in Vidalia I have ever seen, both in businesses and houses,” Copeland said.

In fact, it was that growth that attracted Ryan Paul to Vidalia.

The owner of the commercial complex across from Wal-Mart on Carter Street, Paul said he was trying to choose between Ruston and Vidalia to build the complex.

“We went with Vidalia because we saw where the commercial property industry needed space for new tenants,” Paul said.

He said through reading local newspapers and talking with Copeland, he realized just how quickly Vidalia is growing.

“The economic potential in Vidalia has been on a boom,” he said.

He said out of the four commercial spaces he had up for rent, three of them have already been snatched up and turned into a home care agency, a gym and he converted one of the spaces into a business of his own, Afterglow Tanning Salon.

“We’re just down to one,” he said. “We had them rented out before construction began.”

Likewise, Dr. Ibrahim Seki opened a private family practice on Carter Street two and a half months ago based on supply and demand.

“This is a growing town and it needs more family practices,” he said.

Most, but not all, of the new businesses are local, but when Wal-Mart opened two years ago local leaders predicted it would generate other national businesses, and Copeland said other chains are eyeing the city with a mind to open there.

That, however, leaves a hanging question — where?

Much of the commercially zoned areas of the city have already been developed, and other currently empty lots are in the process of being sold for that same purpose.

In fact, the city seems to have developed right to its borders, just beyond Logan Sewell Road to its west and buffering the Mississippi River on the Vidalia Riverfront on the east.

Part of the reason the town has developed along the lines it has is because of a master plan the city adopted a few years ago that encouraged businesses to develop along Carter Street, which is a shared route with U.S. 84, which in turn connects U.S. 61 to U.S. 65.

“It’s only natural to want to develop on Carter Street because of the high amount of traffic,” Copeland said.

With the four-laning of U.S. 84 completed, traffic along Carter Street is projected to increase to 42,000 vehicles a day, Copeland said.

That traffic was part of why Seki located where he did.

“I get so many people from Monterey,” Seki said.

He said he also gets patients from Jonesville and Ferriday.

“Vidalia is the hub of this area,” Seki said.

And though the Riverfront has seen significant development in the last few years — Slough Daddy’s moved into an existing building, but the Comfort Inn and Suites, the Riverpark Medical Center and the Vidalia Convention Center were all new construction — there is still some room on the riverfront for more beyond the current Promise Hospital construction and the proposed Holiday Inn site, Copeland said.

“There is still approximately 10 acres for development left on the riverfront,” he said.

Natchez Mayor Jake Middleton said less restrictive development regulations in Vidalia, like their mixed use Riverfront, allows Vidalia to grow more freely than Natchez.

“Historically they don’t have as many guidelines,” he said of Vidalia.

Middleton said Natchez’s stringent development codes, particularly downtown, can contribute to slower development in the area.

Most of Vidalia’s growth hasn’t been in its small downtown district, though. It has been along the riverfront or down Carter Street.

The last time the city annexed any commercial property was approximately five years ago. But some areas within the city may have to be rezoned to accommodate new businesses, Copeland said.

“There is some land on Logan Sewell Road and behind Popeye’s (on Murray Drive) that doesn’t have a lot of residential development on it,” he said.

As for Copeland, the land squeeze in the city hasn’t left him feeling squeezed.

“It’s a good problem we have,” he said.

President of the Adams County Board of Supervisors Henry Watts said he believes Copeland’s “open door policy,” for business development in Vidalia has worked to the city’s advantage.

“He’s always open to ideas and welcomed business,” Watts said of Copeland. “That kind of can-do attitude is contagious.”

In fact, Watts said Natchez could learn a lesson from Vidalia.

Watts said Natchez is widely known as a good place to have a party and a difficult place to do business.

“That’s frustrating,” he said.

Watts, like Middleton, said development restrictions in the downtown area can make bringing new business to the area unnecessarily difficult.

Watts said if local leaders made a greater effort to have an open-minded attitude about business development in the city, the city would benefit.

“They can turn it around,” he said.