Oxford’s population is predicted to more than double in size by the year 2040, according to the Vision 2037 Comprehensive City Plan.
Vision 2037 is a comprehensive city plan addressing several aspects of managing Oxford, including land use, development form and character, transportation, housing, economic development, infrastructure and other similar issues.
Oxford has been under the guidance of similar city development plans since 1962, with the most recent plan having been adopted in 2004. Some of what is included in the Vision 2037 plan was borrowed from the 2020 plan, which was adopted in 1999. The long-term development plan of the city is soon to be adopted and will last 20 to 25 years. The completion of the plan will be celebrated in 2037, Oxford’s bicentennial.
Sheridan Maiden, major of administrative services at Oxford Police Department, has experienced the growth of the community over the past eight years in his position with OPD.
The Square is one of the areas that might be affected by growth of the University and town. (File Photo)
“The population as well as the crowds that we’re starting to generate from the University-sponsored events have indicated that we need to increase the size of our force,” Maiden said.
Maiden said the Board of Aldermen has facilitated an increase in OPD staff because of the population increase. OPD currently has more than 70 full-time officers and staff.
Maiden said every OPD officer works on game days due to the crowds. Any officer who is not assigned to a shift is assigned to game day details, and is then placed in strategic areas to assist with the day-to-day operations.
Total undergraduate enrollment at the University of Mississippi’s Oxford campus was 16,517 for the 2014-2015 academic year, an increase of over 22 percent since 2010.
Whitman Smith, who has served as director of admissions at Ole Miss for 14 years, said the admissions office has put some measures in place that allow them more control as to how the university grows.
“I think we are actually growing at a great pace,” Smith said. “We can house our freshman, parking is improving, more venues to eat are coming along and people can still get into the classes they need when they need them.”
Smith said he believes Vision 2037 will impact the University and its members tremendously.
“Any time there is an opportunity for community members to share their thoughts and ideas about the community, everyone benefits,” Smith said.
The population increase in Oxford also draws businesses to the community and requires existing ones to adapt.
Shireen Mullink, owner of Live Well Therapeutic Massage, moved from Bunker Hill, Illinois to Oxford with her husband and three sons in May 2012. Multilink has been practicing massage therapy for five years since studying at The Healing Arts Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
Live Well opened its doors on Dec. 1, 2014. Mullink has since moved her business to a new location for more space and privacy in order to accommodate to new services. Mullink ran the business by herself for seven months before she decided to hire additional help.
“By my two-month mark, I got so incredibly busy with clients,” Mullink said. “It was hard to keep up.”
Mullink has since hired an additional massage therapist, yoga therapist, and virtual life coach. Mullink herself sees 20-30 clients per week.
“Oxford is going to grow,” Mullink said. “It is going to boom. There are going to be a lot of people and we as businesses are going to have to accommodate to that.”
Emma Jennings, junior English and history major, said Oxford transforms over summer break and between semesters.
“In the summer, Oxford’s population almost shrinks in half because of all the students that only live here throughout the year,” Jennings said. “There is never any traffic, and the Square isn’t jam packed every night.”
Jennings called Oxford a perfect college town, but said growing crowds make it hard to imagine settling and raising a family here.
“I feel like Oxford won’t be able to keep the small-town feel if more people are constantly moving here,” Jennings said.
