EAV, I hear you that Town Brookhaven might be the best we can hope for, but I would hope something more like Glenwood Park is possible - higher density, hidden parking, good scale and public spaces. I think my skepticism comes from every other development ever done in Starkville - outside of what Dan Camp has done, of course. I mean, there is a history of crap that you can't ignore. I agree, in a rational world you are right - they'd just about have to try to screw this up - but my fear is...they will. People in the know need to keep up the pressure to ensure this work is done intelligently.
Edgewood Station is indeed not bad. There is a lot to like there, but they blew it on the interior. They should have worked to find more parking in the deck and underground, and used the center portion as an anchor with maybe some public space or some time of plaza/square. The interior lot is a nightmare, and it almost ruins the town center feel they have created with the other "streets". Interweaving he big box with a more human scale mixed use feel was successful, but they dropped the ball on that main interior portion.
And big-picture thinking needs to be in play here. The Russell Street connection to downtown along with the adjacency to the Cotton District is huge. That needs to be focused on density, mixes of uses and connectivity with the existing nodes. On top of that, there is an AMAZING amount of raw space available in the downtown core waiting for money and good ideas. Downtown needs to expand south from Mainstreet, and move from JUST a main street strip to a true core. Changing the law from disallowing bars from within a certain small amount of linear feet from a church would greatly help that, I think.
