A bigger backyard home on Curtis Circle wins aldermen’s approval

Jean Collins’s proposed backyard home at 104 Curtis Circle won approval from Starkville, Mississippi’s Board of Aldermen on Oct. 20. Its approximately 812-square-foot footprint is 212 square feet above the city’s usual ceiling for an accessory dwelling.⁠[1][2][3][4]

The vote resolves the approval question left open in our earlier report on planners’ support for the project. The Planning and Zoning Commission had unanimously recommended approval on Oct. 13.⁠[2][3][4]

City rules ordinarily limit an accessory dwelling’s footprint to half the main home’s footprint or 600 square feet, whichever is less. Staff presented a property-specific maximum of 820 square feet—not a citywide increase in the cap. The board’s spoken motion was simply “Move approval,” without separately restating that size condition.⁠[2][3]

Collins appeared before the board and explained what she wanted from the project: “It’s me alone, and I just want to, you know, be safe.” No one came forward to speak for or against the request during the subsequent public hearing.⁠[5][6][7]

The proposed exception changes the size standard, not the other development rules. Those include a maximum of two bedrooms, no more than two adult residents and only one accessory dwelling per lot.⁠[2]

Planning staff found the home compatible with the surrounding neighborhood. Its report calls for utility connections, drainage and emergency access to be verified during permitting, with any necessary site-plan revisions addressed beforehand. It also flags an existing shed overlapping part of the proposed dwelling’s footprint without explaining what would happen to the shed.⁠[2]