City Council preview; fresh aerial photos; weekend preview

Property issues dominate the agenda for next week’s Biloxi City Council meeting.

Councilmembers, who gather at 1:30 Tuesday at City Hall, face an agenda of 32 measures, including approvals for final plats for neighborhood subdivisions, curb cut variances and an appeal of a decision regarding beachfront property.

Hayes Bolton, whose front beach property has been a code-enforcement issue for years, is scheduled to appear before the council to appeal an Architectural and Historic Review Commission decision denying approval of a fence he proposed to erect on his property.

The meeting also will feature the first reading of an ordinance that would remove 60 storm-destroyed structures from the city’s list of Biloxi Landmarks and add another 27 properties to the list. Before Hurricane Katrina, Biloxi had 175 landmark-designated properties.

“It was tough to vote to take properties off the list,” Biloxi Historical Administrator Bill Raymond said of the action by the city’s Architectural and Historic Review Commission. “In fact, three of the commission members — Lucy Denton, Tonya Gollott Swoope and Bruce Stewart — actually had properties that were removed because they were destroyed.”

The proposed ordinance would also designate four landmark sites — 360 Beach Blvd , former site of Tullis-Toledano Manor; 1042 Beach Blvd., former site of the Dantzler House; 710 Beach Blvd., former site of the Brielmaier House and Foretich House on the Town Green; and 610 Water St., former site of the Church of the Redeemer and Church of Redeemer Bell Tower.

Said Raymond: “Properties like Tullis, Redeemer, the Town Green and Dantzler, we felt, were too significant properties in our history to just remove their status. That’s why they became landmark ‘sites.’”

To see the complete agenda and available resolutions, click here.

New aerial photographs now online

More than 140 aerial photographs of areas throughout the city are now on the city’s web site. The aerial tour begins on the north side of the Biloxi peninsula, makes its way along Back Bay to Point Cadet and tours the front beach before venturing northward to Eagle Point and Woolmarket.

To see the photographs, which were shot this morning, click here.

To see the city’s overall image gallery – hundreds of photos and hours of video – click here.


Weekend preview: BLT and more

Biloxi Little Theatre raises the curtain toinight on a two-weekend run of “A Raisin in the Sun” at its 220 Lee Street playhouse. Evening performances are at 8 and the Sunday, Feb 10, matinee will be at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $12, or $10 for seniors, fulltime students and active-duty military. For more info on the production, click here.

Meantime, to see the overall entertainment listings from the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau,
click here.