quote:
HARRISON COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX) — Two Harrison County homeowners have temporarily stopped a foreign-owned company’s commercial use of a residential lot after bringing the issue to the county’s Board of Supervisors meeting Monday.

David Gray and Louis Massarini live on Schanbacher Road. It’s a quiet, residential area off John Clark Road. The homeowners say the neighborhood’s rural lifestyle was invaded by box trucks running back and forth to a lot recently sold to Steven Allemang.

The problem, they say, is the lot doesn’t have a home: it has a Quonset hut. The trucks weren’t hauling furniture for Allemang to move in, Gray explained; rather, the trucks were hauling IT equipment to be stored in the metal building.

“They’ve been bringing equipment out in box trucks, unloading that equipment, and putting it into that building,” Gray said.

quote:
Harrison County records show the property in question is not owned by Allemang, but rather his Arizona-registered company Dragon Sino Ltd.

Despite the registration in the United States of America, Dragon Sino is a Hong Kong-owned company that, according to its website, provides global IT hardware logistics.

When Gray and Massarini brought their complaints to Monday’s board meeting, the supervisors agreed with the homeowners.

“I would say that’s running a business on a residential piece of property,” said District Five Supervisor Nathan Barrett.

quote:
During the meeting, Allemang explained his intentions for the property.

It’s not a permanent warehouse, he said, but rather a temporary site to house IT equipment until he solidifies plans to build a facility in the City of Biloxi.

The board’s attorney, Tim Holleman, affirmed the supervisors’ position: Allemang will need to apply for a conditional use permit if he wants to use the residential land to store commercial equipment.

While this is a win for neighbors who brought up the issue, they believe there is more to come. They want to know why a Hong Kong-based company is buying land in Harrison County and why Dragon Sino isn’t registered in Mississippi. Those are the concerns that prompted Gray and Massarini to file complaints with the Mississippi Secretary of State and Attorney General’s Office.

Crazy stuff. Good for the community for noticing it and acting on it.