City of Jackson eases up on small business code compliance

• Code compliance in older buildings drives up set-up costs for small businesses.
• City of Jackson says it wants to be friendly to businesses willing to set up in existing commercial districts.
• The City’s new “Fix 36” gives businesses up to 36 months to bring their spaces into full compliance.
• Video shows vacant buildings in commercial districts, City spokesperson Aaron Dimick explaining the new program, and business owner Justin Tobin’s take on it.

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)

I see it in my own neighborhood. Jackson has its share of vacant older buildings. But a new program aims to make it easier for businesses to set up shop in those older buildings. The goal: to revitalize shopping areas like this one here in Jackson’s MLK corridor.

They’re calling it “Fix 36”.

“What it does is it give small businesses who are going to be opening up in a new space 36 months to correct various code compliance issues,” says City Spokesperson Aaron Dimick.

These can range from things like parking lots and drainage to roof repairs, lighting, disability access, and others — issues that, Dimick says, drive up set-up costs.

“We’ve known that that has been an issue for a while, and we want to be friendly to small businesses,” he says. “And we want people to open up businesses in our neighborhood commercial corridors.”

I stopped by Murphy’s Bistro, where owner Justin Tobin knows what it’s like to open a business in an older building…and bring it into code compliance.

“It was a challenge,” he says. “It was way more than anticipated… a lot of hoops to jump through.”

He says a program like Fix 36 would definitely have helped.

“I think that having the option to have the leniency and the leeway to, you know, take our time and be able to stretch the funds out over a time period could have been beneficial to get up and going,” he says. “It sounds like it’s a good program that could help some potential business owners in the downtown kind of get their stuff up to code without feeling the, I guess, the pressure to do it in such a timely manner.”

In other words, a head start for small businesses, says Dimick, that reduces up-front costs.

Dimick notes: “If a business owner wants to operate, they can fully operate, they can hire people, they can start making money, they can start serving the community while working towards code compliance.”

The City is hoping Fix 36 will help businesses that want to open up in neighborhoods like this one.

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