New Columbus neighborhood will impact Soccer Complex
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Columbus and Lowndes County Leaders met on Monday to discuss plans for Downtown’s newest neighborhood.
Parkview, formerly, known as Burns Bottoms, is located near the Roger Short Soccer Complex.
The Partners in Progress Working Group met to develop a game plan for the influx of people who may be moving in the area.
“We always talk about the Complex being used a lot, but how many people are really using it? So, what kind of investment can we make to accommodate another 500 people, that are going to be living next door if we already have 1,000 people on Tuesday night,” said the Partners in Progress Chair Tom Velek.
Around 50 single family homes will be built in Parkview.
College and high school soccer teams are some of the top users on the Complex.
“The key thing is we want to be proactive. We know there are going to be issues with parking, with buses, with field quality, with field use. We want to be proactive,” said Velek.
One way they’re doing that is by thinking about the bus routes for future games.
A number of roads will be closed with the development of Parkview, including a section of 7th Avenue North.
“7th is going away completely. It is going to become a part of the development. It is going to be essentially a park, so that road that comes in along Little Dooey will no longer be an access point at all,” said Velek.
“Vehicular traffic will be forced to go down to 5th and then come in off of (Highway) 45 down to 5th then come down to 3rd to get to the Soccer Complex,” Lowndes County Engineer Zach Foster.
The leaders also presented a Fall Field Use Report at the meeting.
More than 500 people use the Complex in the fall, including some out of town- opponents.
They’re also considering expanding the Complex to help maintain the fields and increase parking.
Leaders said Lowndes County owns 21 acres of the Complex that is not developed.
“We’ll have to do some environmental mitigation if you will before we do any kind of major expansions. But we’re looking at is how we can utilize that existing space that the county currently owns to better facilitate the Soccer Complex,” said Foster.
As of Tuesday, all fields of the Soccer Complex are closed for winter maintenance for a couple of weeks.
Friendly City Development plans to break ground on Parkview in Spring 2026.
